Ice Dye Shadows

Want to get a shadowy striped or reverse tie-dye look without the smelly color removing agents? This dye blend will give you dark accents without the need for applying separate dye on the folds, or air freshener or neutralizing steps you need with bleach. It will give depth and character to your dyes with quick and easy application.

Shopping list:

• Fiber Reactive Dye (We used: #175 Neutral Gray, #193 Thundercloud, Plus any base colors you want)
• Dyer's Salt
• Soda Ash
• Dharma Dyers Detergent
• Ice!
• T-shirt Gildan Adult T 6.1 oz

Let's get started!

Making the Shadows Mix

In a clean old dye jar or mason jar mix:

• 1 Tablespoon #175 Neutral Gray
• 1 Tablespoon #193 Thundercloud
• 2 Tablespoons Dyer's Salt (or Non-Iodized table salt if that is what you have)

With the lid on, shake well to mix, if making a larger batch one of those spring protein shake mixer balls can help. Wear a dust mask when dealing with dry dye powders!

Scrunched (upper photo) and Pleated (lower photo) on Cotton Print Cloth you can easily see how it pools into the folds- Dyed DOI in the muck

Check out what a difference this mix makes when mixed with single primary colors:

DOI in the muck on pleated Cotton Print Cloth

With #6 Deep Orange

With #3 Golden Yellow

With #12 Light Red

With #117 Grape

With #26 Sky Blue

With #23 Cerulean Blue

With #25 Turquoise

Let's Give it a Try on a Shirt!

This mix gives the best results when done in the muck because the black is going to travel to the bottom of the material and so using it on a rack results in a lot of it just leaking out of the material before it can bond to the fabric.

We prepared some shirts based on the spider spiral technique. The deeper your pleats the more separation your final colors will have.

In a shaker mix:

• 2 Tbsp of your main color - we used #67 Marigold
• 1.5 Tbsp of the Shadows Mix

Stir together until there are no large clumps for the most even distribution.

Cover the shirt in a good layer of ice and make sure all the fabric is covered.

Next, sprinkle the Shadows Mix over the ice.

Watch the ice melt, or you know, do a few other things on your chores list while you wait. Once the ice is melted, cover fabric with plastic. The dark muck might look scary but TRUST THE MUCK and DON'T TOUCH IT!

Let things batch for 24 hours. Putting ice dyes in a warm spot to batch will help with getting the richest color results.

Once your items are done batching, rinse them under cool running water to remove as much soda ash as you can. Follow up with warm water until the water runs mostly clear. Finally, wash in HOT water with Dharma Dyers Detergent (optionally, you can add some Dharma Textile Softener to the final rise cycle). Dry as normal for your garment.

Want to vary the shadows, use less of the blend for different looks-