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I remember in elementary school making tie-dye t-shirts for almost every school function and how fun it was to see what shapes and colors we could make with just rubber bands and buckets of dye. I thought dyeing clothes was just for fun, until I realized that I could make my jeans last longer or make them a custom shade of dark wash instead of buying new ones. Now, I also routinely dye all my black clothes back to as dark of a black as they’ll go so I don’t have 50 shades of black in my closet.
I start by gathering supplies to make sure I have everything I need, and by re-reading the directions. I have use this dye at least a dozen times but I like to re-read the directions just to make sure I have remembered correctly. Then, I make sure the shirt I want to dye fits in the pot with plenty of room to move around in. If it doesn’t fit in the pot, I have to use another container or method.
This sweatshirt doesn’t fit well enough:
But this shirt does have enough room:
For the sake of this post, I’m showing the process of dyeing this shirt from faded blue to army green.
I used the dye pictured below. I like the liquid version of the dye because it’s just so easy. You just pour it in, there is very little mixing.
Before committing to this process, make sure to double check the tag for fabric type. If the fabric is synthetic in any way, you’ll have to use the RIT Dye More bottles instead of the regular dye. This shirt is linen and cotton so it’s good to go.
According to directions, I fill the pot with HOT water. Technically, I could have just done this in the sink, but it’s a white sink and I don’t want to risk staining by having the dye sit there for a half hour. Cleaning a stainless steel pot is much easier than cleaning a white porcelain sink.
Then I add a cup of salt, a teaspoon of dish soap and the bottle of dye.
Then I put on gloves and get the shirt wet and put it in the pot. If you don’t want to wear gloves, just know that you will probably have discolored hands and nails for a while.
This is what it looked like after only a couple minutes of dyeing:
And this is what it looked like at the end:
Once the time is up, you rinse until it runs clear.
I still chose to rinse in the sink because I don’t really have a different sink to rinse it in, and if I clean it up right away with barkeeper’s friend there aren’t any stains to the porcelain.
Here is the final look!
