Funky Fan Folded Offset

Do you ever wonder what would happen if you just did a crazy fold and then dyed it in an offset? Well, me too and I decided to find out. If you’ve watched some of my YouTube videos, you know that I like experimenting with various methods, folds and techniques and seeing what happens. Sometimes they are spectacular and other times - well, they end up a great work shirt.

I’ve been wondering what would happen if I fan folded a shirt and then fan folded it again - just going the other way. I’ve already fan folded a shirt and then spiraled it - so, to me this seemed the next logical fold to try. If you haven’t seen it yet - here is the video:

I began as I usually do - with a washed, soaked, and damp shirt. I then fan folded the shirt vertically in fairly wide fan folds. Once that was completed, I began at the bottom of the shirt and fan folded it going horizontally. Since the fabric was really thick, I didn’t get very many horizontal fan folds. I put a rubber band around the folds to hold them in place until I could get the whole thing tied with kite string. I put the shirt aside for a couple of days to let it totally dry out. Since it was really thick, I didn’t want to dye it damp and risk having large areas of white left in the middle of the folds.

I decided to mix up some green colors for this shirt. I chose Green from Custom Colours, New Emerald Green from Dharma and Evergreen from Prochemical and Dye. The Green and New Emerald are fairly close in color, but I thought there would be enough contrast and the Evergreen I figured would be a good dark contrast color on the shirt. I applied the dye in an offset. Which in this case means that I applied the colors to the front side, and then shifted the colors down 1 spot when I began applying the dye to the back side.

After the usual processing time, rinse, and wash - I was pleasantly surprised with how the shirt turned out. I’ll admit - I was a bit concerned there for awhile. I was seriously doubting my decision to try an offset because the fold was so thick, but I’m glad that I did - I really think it works. I love all of the unusual shapes that came out on this shirt. I’m not sure how - but I ended up with a row of mushrooms or toadstools too.