Why Do You Dye Your Shirts Dry?
If you’ve watched very many of my videos you have probably noticed that I apply the dye to most of my shirts after the shirt is dry. Most beginner tie dye instructions will suggest that you dye the shirt while it is still damp. Therefore, one of the most common questions I get asked is, “Why do you dye your shirts dry?”.
This is kind of a two-fold answer. The first reason is that the shirt just sat there for too long after I tied it and it ended up being totally dry before I got around to applying the dye. My Panda Spin Dryer really does a great job wringing out the shirts before I tie them and so they are truly just barely damp when I start tying them. Since I usually tie a lot of shirts at the same time, by the time I am finished tying the last shirt of the day - the first shirt I tied is almost dry.
The second reason is that I tend to get better dye saturation in the middle of thicker folds (like mandalas and geodes) when the shirt is completely dry. The fibers on a shirt that is really damp are already saturated and full of soda ash solution. Kind of like a sponge that is full of water. A sponge that is full of water won’t readily soak up more liquid. That is the same problem with a shirt that is too damp. The fibers won’t readily soak up the dye.
You can get the dye into the fibers by continuing to apply dye until the fibers finally give in and absorb it, but sometimes it is difficult to tell if you’ve fully saturated them with dye or not if the fold is too thick. On geodes it isn’t possible to pull apart a couple folds and check the middle to see if it is getting saturated.
On thinner folds (like a spiral), I can apply the dye and keep checking the folds by gently pulling a couple of them apart to make sure the dye is fully saturating the entire shirt. Especially the middle part of the shirt.
When the shirt is dry - it is like a dry sponge. It readily soaks up the dye and wicks it into the middle of the shirt.
The dry shirt will also slightly change in appearance when it starts to get saturated. When I start applying liquid dye the shirt will wick up the dye and have kind of a fuzzy look. As the shirt gets more saturated, the fuzzy look will begin to disappear. I should also be able to gently squeeze an area of the shirt and have the dye squish or bubble up a little bit.
If you are applying dye to the top of a shirt and the dye starts to show through on the back side of the shirt, that’s also a good indication that the middle is getting well saturated.
I’ve noticed that it sometimes takes more liquid dye when the shirt is dry versus when the shirt is damp. The design is usually a little more distinct too. Shirts that are dyed damp tend to blend a little more. I made a YouTube video comparing the difference between doing low water immersion on a dry versus a damp shirt. I used the same amount of liquid dye on each shirt. The damp shirt is fully colored, but the dry shirt still has quite a bit of white area left.
Therefore, If you are ending up with large white streaks in your mandalas or too much white left in your geode shirts - you might try letting them dry completely before applying the dye.
Sometimes when dyeing shirts dry, the shirt will repel the dye. This doesn’t happen often to me, but it has happened a few times. I’ve found that most of the time when I have difficulty with the dye not soaking into a shirt that is dry, it usually has something to do with my soda ash solution. It usually wasn’t mixed properly, and all the shirts that I’ve soaked in the solution will have the same issue. There is no need to re-soak the shirts. Instead, place a small amount of soda ash solution inside of a spray bottle and gently mist both sides of the tied shirt. Normally that will break the surface tension and allow the dye to soak in properly.
I’ve mainly been referring to liquid dyeing, but the same thing goes for ice dyeing. It is equally difficult to tell if the middle of a thick fold is saturated when it has been ice dyed. I ice dye my thicker folds completely dry as well.
So, it is totally acceptable to dye shirts damp or dry. Experiment with both and find out what works best for you and the way you tie dye. However, I highly suggest dyeing thicker folds when they are completely dry to get good color saturation.