Create one-of-a-kind T-shirts with this simple dyeing technique.
Tools and Materials
Iron
Clamps
3 gallon bucket or receptacle for dyeing
Polyacrylic sealer
Brush
2 identical wood shapes
1/2-inch-thick scrap wood pieces, about 4 to 5 inches square
T-shirts
8-ounce bottle Rit dye
Rhinestones
Fabric or craft glue
Machine washer and drier
Dying T-shirts How-To
1. Brush polyacrylic sealer on the wood shapes to seal; allow to dry.
2. Iron the shirt on which you will be printing.
3. Fold the T-shirt in half vertically.
4. Place a wood shape on top of a piece of scrap wood, and place both under the folded T-shirt, a few inches up from the bottom hem.
5. On top of the T-shirt, align a second, identical wood shape to the one under the T-shirt. Place another piece of scrap wood over the top wood shape.
6. Making sure there are no pinches or wrinkles in the fabric, place two clamps around the entire "sandwich" to hold it tightly in place.
7. Mix one 8-ounce bottle of dye with 3 gallons of water in a large bucket or receptacle.
8. Place clamped T-shirt in dye; submerge completely. Let soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
9. Remove T-shirt from dye and rinse thoroughly, until rinse water runs clean.
10. Remove clamps, wood pieces, and wood shapes.
11. Run T-shirt through a machine wash and dry cycle with moderate heat. (Do not wash with other clothes.)
12. To highlight the resist-printed designs, add embellishments -- such as rhinestones -- using fabric or craft glue.
Resources
Clamps can be found at Home Depot; T-shirts are available at American Apparel; wood shapes are available at lindahlwoodcrafts.com; and rhinestones can be found at mjtrim.com.
Resist-Dyeing T-shirts
The Martha Stewart Show, January 2008
How do you get the images to be so crisp on the shirt... mine ended up blurry...
Instead of using Rit dye, try iDye from Dharma Trading Company. It's a better dye, Easy, too.
You can get a similar effect by using a bleach pen on a colored t-shirt
You can make a single image on a t shirt or onesie by placing one of the wood pieces on the front of the fabric and a wood scrape on top of it. Then place the identical wood piece on the wrong side of the fabric (the side that would come in contact with the skin) and place a wood scrape behind it. Clamp the pieces together and follow the rest of the directions. Good luck!
how do you make the one image like on the onesie?
Wood Pieces are available at our E-Bay Stores "Lindahl Woodcrafts". Click on the link mentioned in the resources, or do a stores search on E-Bay by typing
"Lindahl Woodcrafts" in the stores search function.
Where do you find the wood shapes??
The wood shapes are available at lindahlwoodcrafts.com
There is no reference for the wooden shapes. Martha mentions one on the show.