Tie dyeing your shirts and other clothing items is a craft that never gets old. Not only does it give you something to do in your down time, but it rejuvenates old clothes and it is fun to do. It is extremely hard to not get carried away with all the fabrics you can get your hands on.

Here are some tips to having fun with tie dyeing

• Start by deciding whether you want to try the traditional way, which is soaking all fabrics in a soda ash and water mixture for 20 minutes or getting dyes that don’t require you to soak the fabric.

• After you’ve soaked your fabric (or not), take rubber bands and tie them around your fabric. Wrapping the rubber bands around your cloth is what makes the design.

• Set the tied clothing on top of paper towels with a plastic bag underneath. This prevents the dye from spreading or staining unwanted items. It will also be useful for storing the items overnight.
• Put on your gloves, take your dyes, and saturate your fabric. If you mix the dyes and water, you will come up with different colors. Play around with this a bit to see what you come up with. If you are dyeing a black garment, use a one to one ratio of bleach and water.
• Be sure to dye both sides.

• When you are satisfied, place your dyed clothing in the plastic bag it was sitting on top of and tie the bag to prevent leaks.
• Leave the clothing to sit for 24 hours. This will allow it to soak up all of the dye.
• Cut all of the rubber bands off and wash your items separate from other clothing.
• Now you can enjoy your creation.

The best thing about tie dying is how simple and easy it is to do and how enjoyable it is. Go to your local craft store and check out all of their different tie dye options. This is the perfect craft to do on any day of the week whether you are alone or with friends and family. Grab some old clothes and have some fun!