Prepping A Shirt For Tie Dyeing

Prepping your shirt properly for tie dyeing is an important step. Unfortunately, it is one that a lot of people choose to skip.

When I get a new shipment of T-shirts (or any other item that I plan to tie dye), I prep them by pre-washing each shirt in my washing machine using either Dharma’s textile detergent https://www.dharmatrading.com/chemicals/dharma-professional-textile-detergent.html or Synthrapol https://www.dharmatrading.com/chemicals/synthrapol-detergent.html?lnav=chemicals.html in a hot water cycle. I then dry the shirts in the dryer without using any form of fabric softener, and fold them to store them until I am ready to tie dye the shirts.

I’ve noticed that Dharma has replaced Synthrapol with Kieralon which is the same thing as the low foam Synthrapol. If you have a High Efficiency washing machine you definitely want low foam. Dharma also sells pumps to use with their 1 gallon containers to make dispensing a little easier.

If you don’t have a textile detergent, using regular laundry detergent will work. A lot of normal laundry detergents contain additives like brighteners, but they will be fine to use for the pre-wash if that is all you have available. It is just important that the item be washed using hot water and some form of detergent to remove the chemicals that might be on the fabric.

When shirts are manufactured they are sometimes treated with various sizing agents or chemicals to prevent mildew from forming on the clothing. These chemicals can interfere with the dyeing process. The pre-wash using a textile detergent will usually remove the chemicals and allow the shirt to dye more evenly.

When I am ready to dye the shirt, I place the shirt in my soda ash solution container and make sure that it is fully submerged in the solution. I usually allow it to stay in the soda ash solution for about 20 - 30 minutes to make sure that all the fibers of the shirt get fully saturated.

If you have an item that has metal on it such as overalls, baby onesies, etc… I usually try not to leave them in the soda ash solution longer than about 30 minutes. Soda ash can be damaging to metal and I try to not leave metal in the soda ash solution any longer than I need to. Otherwise, it won’t hurt to leave a shirt or other item in the soda ash solution for longer than 30 minutes. I personally have left items in soda ash for a week or two and they were just fine.

Then I wring the shirt out in my Panda Spin Dryer until it is just barely damp. I like the shirt to be damp enough to tie easily, but not too damp where soda ash solution squeezes from the fibers during the tying process.

Properly prepping the shirts takes a little longer, but the results are worth it!

Panda Spin Dryer