What is Tie-Dye?
Tie-dye is a process of resist dyeing textiles or clothing which is made from knit or woven fabric, usually cotton; typically using bright colors. Tie-dyeing is a technique used to create unique patterns on fabric by dyeing it while it’s folded, twisted, or bound in various ways. It is a modern version of traditional dyeing methods used in many cultures throughout the world. “Tie-dye” can also describe the resulting pattern or an item which features this pattern.
Tie-dye has a long history and has been used in various cultures around the world. Tie dye is a technique that has become familiar to many Americans because of brightly colored t-shirts popular in the 1960s and 1970s. The technique of tying off sections of cloth or garments before treating it with dye has been around for centuries. Japan and India are among the many parts of the world with long traditions of tie dye. While most of the examples of mechanical resist techniques in the collection are variations of tying and binding with thread, other methods such as clamping and pole wrapping can also be used.
Tie-dye technique is used extensively in India, where it is known as ‘bandhani’ from which we get the word ‘bandanna’ – a silk neck cloth that was originally tie dyed. Various methods are used to mark out a pattern on the fabric before tying.
A tie-dying method called ‘lehariya’ is used in India for turban cloths. Fine cloth such as muslin is folded concertina fashion and tied tightly at intervals. It is dipped quickly in dye of a pale color. Some areas are then unrolled and the process is repeated with progressively darker dyes, to build up a range of colors in stripes.
Why Tie?
The whole point of tie dyeing is to prevent the dye from reaching the fabric evenly. Any place that the dye can’t reach will stay white, or a lighter color, of course. The gradations of color from intense to light can be beautiful. You can accomplish this by folding the fabric, tieing it with string, using rubber bands, etc.
Another reason to tie is that it makes each garment of piece of cloth a small, neat bundle–much easier to handle if you have a lot to do. If you don’t tie, but just apply the dye directly, you need more space and can do fewer garments or pieces of fabric at a time.
How to Tie Dye on Fabric? Fold a piece of clothing in vertical pleats, and you’ll end up with horizontal stripes. Horizontal pleats result in vertical stripes (more slimming, you know). Diagonal pleats make a nice effect. Stitch a loose basting stitch in any shape you like, and then pull the threads tight for another form of tie-dyeing that can have really cool results. For concentric circles, grab the cloth where you want the center to be, and pull, until you’ve more or less made a long tube of the garment, and then apply rubber bands at intervals along the fabric. I also like the “scrunch” pattern, made by crumpling the fabric very evenly, so that ultimately it makes a nice flat disk when held with rubber bands.
Fig: Tie-dye a t-shirt
Tie-dye procedure are given below as shortly:
Roll up t-shirt or cotton material in any type of design using rubber bands to hold it in place
Prepare dyes in buckets.
Dip the first rubber band section in one of your dye colors
Continue dying the shirt until you run out of white sections.
Place the t-shirt in a ziplock bag and let sit for 24 hours
Remove rubber bands and hang dry
Wash with cold saltwater and check out your new GROOVY creation!!
Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
