Tie-Dye 101 {the classic spiral|}

Spiral:
Pinch tightly and begin a slow turn – you decide if it should be clock-wise or counter clock-wise.  Hold the fabric tightly as you swirl it.  Help the pleats along to keep them crisp.

Continue turning the shirt until the entire shirt is incorporated in the spiral. (the example below we are spiraling from the center)

Keep in place with 3-4 rubber bands like this:  When you flip your shirt over to the front, you will see how nice and tight the spiral is on the front.

Dying:
Decide how many colors you want in your shirt.  Choose sections like a pie and fill in with colors.  Play around with making small pie sections and large sections and using different colors.  Once you have died the front, turn it over and dye the back.  You can choose to follow the same color pattern, or off set the colors by 1 or do totally different colors.  Each will provide a different effect.

This shirt we did not color in pie sections, rather, we followed the swirl.  We call it “spiderweb”.  This will make the spiral pattern a little different.  We used teal and black dye.  Alternate the spiral with your colors.

Here it is finished

This spiral is dyed with the center one color and then colored rings going out…kind of like a bulls eye.

This is how it looks once it’s dyed:

This baby onsie was dyed in a pie pattern with fuchsia and purple dye.

This swirl is centered over the shoulder.  I used blue, orange, and fuchsia dye.