Last night, I had myself a tie-dye party. It’s fun how you can tie and twist those shirts in the most random ways, and still get awesome results. Here are some basic instructions for what I did here. Of course there are a million ways to tie dye but I went for a tonal look, not hippie colorful.

Ingredients: 100% cotton shirts, rit dye (or other brand,) a bucket for every color you want, tons of boiling water, a stick for stirring, string, scissors, any other things you want to experiment with (I tried tying with some medical gauze tape, with pretty good results.)

1. Put on as much water to boil as you can. It’s one package of Rit to a gallon of water.
2. Wet the shirt and ring it out. A wet shirt takes dye better.
3. Tie, twist and try whatever else to achieve unique results. (I first dyed some shirts yellow but it’s not necessary. You can even just work with one color.) It’s best to have at least 3 shirts or even more so you can experiment.
4. Mix dye and water in bucket, stir
5. Throw shirts in, stir.
6. Let them sit for 20 minutes (don’t clean yet. the big mess is still to come.)
7. Find a clean(ish) way to dispose of dye water ( i chose toilet.) Rinse your shirts in cold water, remove all the string, (this is the fun part!) and ring them out.
8. Wash shirts in cold (by hand or washer.) Dry on hot to set in dye.
9. Clean your bathroom. With bleach. This is the worst part. My toilet, sink and bathtub were all blue. But luckily, clothing dye does not permanently stain sinks and such. Just be careful, dye does get everywhere. Towels will stain, and so will the shirt you’re wearing.