How to Make the Perfect Tie Dye T-shirt in 4 Steps

Cookies and milk, peanut butter and jelly, summer camp and tie dye: these pairs are just meant to be. Tie dye is one of those stereotypical camp activities, but it’s easy to see why it’s become such a classic part of our arts and crafts programming. Bright, messy, wearable art; what’s not to love? With the 4th of July coming up tomorrow, boys have been getting their “American as apple pie” tie dye shirts ready. In 4 steps, they made these colorful shirts today!

1) Soak it

Soaking the cotton shirts in a soda ash solution is important to help the dye bond to the cotton fibers. Soda ash is the same as sodium carbonate, which is a mild alkali that promotes the chemical reaction between the cotton and the Procion dye (It won’t enhance “all purpose dyes” such as Rit, you have to use it with a fiber reactive procion dye).
Use a ½ cup – 1 cup of soda ash per gallon of water. Mix it all up and soak the cotton t-shirt in the solution, making sure to squeeze all the water out before you dye it.

Dipping the shirts in soda ash water before dying them

2) Tie it

You might think that color placement is how you get such fun custom designs on tie dye shirts, but it actually comes down to how you tie your shirt together before dying it. There are plenty of folding techniques out there, and Drew from maintenance (also a tie dye extraordinaire) was showing the boys some different options today. Devin chose to make the classic spiral, where you lay the shirt flat on a table and put a wooden dowel where you want the center of the spiral to be. Then simply spin the dowel and watch the shirt spiral up around it. Some boys folded in an accordion pattern, some pinched sections to make little starbursts, and others simply crumpled and folded the shirt up to make a more random design.
No matter which technique you choose, make sure to secure your fold with plenty of rubber bands.

Drew giving boys tips on tie dye methods

3) Dye it

Counselors premixed water and the powdered Procion dye into squeeze bottles for the boys. They added Urea to the mix as well so it helped dissolve the powder. In addition to helping the dye dissolve, Urea is also a “humectant,” so it keeps the fabric damp, allowing the shirts to cure with brighter colors. Using gloves, they then dripped dye into the different rubber-banded sections of their shirts, carefully dying both sides.

Drew used the opportunity to give boys a refresher on the color wheel, and talk to them about what colors they would get when they mixed dyes. He explained how to use primary colors in a way that they would bleed together and make secondary colors. This was also important with the 4th of July coming up, and many boys planning to make red, white, and blue tie dyes. “You have to be careful with the dye or else you might end up with red, blue, and purple shirts instead,” Drew explained. “I’m going to make mine rainbow!” Jim exclaimed. “Oh no,” another boy joked, “I’m too young to dye!”

4) Dry it

Now for the hard part. Once all the “pie slices” of the banded shirt have been sufficiently dyed, place the shirt in a ziploc bag and let it cure for at least 24 hours. I’m sure this will feel like the longest wait for excited boys, but the shirts will be well worth it tomorrow. After 24-36 hours, we’ll carefully unwrap and rinse the masterpieces, and then hang them to dry fully! Make sure to keep an eye out in the daily photos to see boys wearing their new tie dye shirts!

-Annie Pharr

The Liggitt Brothers backpacking on the Foothills 3-day

More Highlights From This Wednesday:

• Quinn D. and Graham D. achieved Ranger in archery

• Evening Program: Tribal games with Cherokee at the swim docks, Catawba at the Thunder Dungeon playing Dodgeball, and Tuscarora and Iroquois having tribal campfires.

• Tomorrow we’ll be celebrating 4th of July with plenty of festivities, food, and fireworks! Stay tuned!

Kiera teaching boys how to throw on the wheel in pottery

Learning friction fire drilling in Outdoor Skills Certified