Explode like the fireworks this 4th of July in your own Red, White and Blue T-shirt! For use with seasonal July 4th Tie-Dye Kit - #4JTDK, or products can be bought separately. Dyes in kit are Fiber Reactive Dyes #10- Fire Red and #22-Cobalt Blue, enough to tie-dye 8 adult t-shirts or at least 16 small kids shirts. Can also be used on any of our other 100% cotton or rayon dyeables!

---

Prepare your dye ahead of time, also your soda ash fixative soak.

Pour some water into the squeeze bottles with the dye powder with a funnel until bottle is about 1/4 full. Put on the spout with the red cap on. Hold the cap firmly on with gloved hand and shake bottle to dissolve dye. Once it is well mixed, finish filling the bottle with the rest of the water. o If the bottles leak a bit you can wrap the threads with teflon Plumber's Tape for a better seal.

   

Wear your dust mask and dissolve 1 cup (8 oz.) of the Soda Ash Fixative per gallon of warm water into a bucket big enough to soak the tied shirts.

Decide how you want to fold your shirt.
We will show you a version with simple accordion pleats but you can tie the shirt any way you want

Place your pre-washed, damp (not dripping wet), t-shirt flat on a smoothed plastic drop cloth.

Starting on the left side seam make 1" folds, gathering up the bottom of the shirt. See photo below.

Decide how many rubber bands you want to tie it with. Rubber bands leave a crinkly white area when you are done, more rubber bands mean more white. Tie the rubber bands starting from the bottom of the shirt, spacing them out evenly as you go up the shirt. Stop banding somewhere under the sleeves. Wrap them as tight as you can and still pull the shirt through. This area will all be red and white in the final shirt.

   

Next, lay the shirt back out and open the top out on the table so it is flat. Starting from the last rubber band, scrunch the top part of the shirt up into a ball. The more even your gathers the more even the scrunch patterning will be in the end.

Take a few rubber bands and tie them going in different directions to hold the scrunching together as snugly as possible.

Soak the tied garments about 5-15 minutes (until saturated) in the bucket of dissolved Soda Ash Fixative. You can reuse the solution until gone. Squeeze out excess with heavy rubber gloves so garment is just damp, not dripping

   

Lay your shirt out on the table again. Starting with the red dye, squirt the dye on to the lower folded part of the shirt, be generous.

   

Then squirt on the blue to the upper crumpled part of the shirt. Note: it helps to elevate the shirt off the table if possible, old cookie racks work well or a seedling tray. Or you can work on old newsprint to soak up the excess dye.

Be sure to really get into the fold of the pleats and scrunched section, if you don't there will be more white then you want. It helps to open them up gently with your gloved fingers and check that the dye is getting all the way in.

Put fabric (still tied) in a plastic bag (the idea is to keep it wet and chemically active - any method of keeping it wet is O.K.) and let sit for at least 8 hours but preferably 24 hours to "cure". Shorter times work better in summer, and longer times are needed when it is cold.

Small kitchen plastic garbage bags work well because you don't want the shirt to curl up on itself; for small shirts, 1 gallon ziplock bags work great. Keep some air in the bag so that dye doesn't wick in folds of the plastic and travel to other parts of the shirt.

After the curing period, remove from bag and while still tied, rinse off the excess dye under cold running water.

Next rinse in warmer water while you untie and after garments are untied, until water runs fairly clear. Have your washing machine pre-filled with hot water with the Professional Textile detergent and throw in the clothing as soon as it is rinsed, running it through a full cycle. If you don't have a washer on hand just use a bucket for now and wash it as soon as you can in a machine.

Wear your American tie dye with pride.

Here are a few examples of other folds done with the 4th of July Kit: