Sunflower Tie-Dyes with Mr. Tie-Dye!

Let's get started!

Pre-wash your blank item, shirt, fabric, etc. with Dharma Professional Textile Detergent.

Mix your dyes:

Wear your dust mask and gloves! Measure urea and warm water into a container, an old pitcher works well. Use the chart below to figure out how much dye you need, which will depend on how many shirts you want to make up. You could have a whole field of sunflower shirts!

You will need to pick two yellows for the sunflower petals, a brown for the center and some greens for the background. Other colors will work for the background too but we leave that up to you.

Soda Soak your item(s)- Mix 1 cup of soda ash to per gallon of water. Add item(s) and let them soak for 10-15 minutes. Squeeze out as much of the extra soak as possible so things are just damp with it. If things are too wet it is harder to control the color spread later.

How to do the folds:

Option One uses rubber bands/sinew/string

Option Two uses hemostats/forceps

Apply your dyes!

Wrap the dyed item(s) up in plastic to keep them damp and put them in a warm spot to sit for 12-24 hours for the best color results.

Pre-fill your washing machine with hot water and 1/4 cup Professional Textile Detergent. Rinse the tie-dyes thoroughly with cold water, as you untie/clamp things rinse and keep rinsing until water runs fairly clear. Throw in the machine as soon as it is rinsed, running it through a full cycle. Don't wash more than the equivalent of about 8 adult size t-shirts at a time or the water gets too muddy. You can use Milsoft professional fabric softener in the final rinse to make your tie-dyes super soft!