Dyed T-shirts and Matching Socks

T-Shirt pleated and clothespinned soda ash soaked - poured on Cobalt blue dye - and bamboo socks

I posted earlier about ordering more stuff to dye for Monte's geologist partner Stan - who always asks for more T-shirts and bamboo socks. He lives in AZ, so when he visits, I like to gift him with more. I get my dyeables and dyes from Dharma Trading Company. And as I said in the earlier post, I overdye lots of second-hand clothes.

In the other post I gave Jane Dunnewold's soda ash solution proportions. Since that mixture was almost gone I added more to my 5-gallon bucket I keep in my greenhouse. I realized I usually do another 'recipe' - 1 cup soda ash (and 1/2 cup salt - kinda optional, but I now add it) per 1 gallon of hot water to dissolve. This time I mixed up 3 gallons, so it'll last me awhile. I pre-wash stuff, leaving them damp, before putting in this bucket. I only dyed 2 shirts and matching socks. I left another T-shirt and socks for Monte and sweat pants and socks for me and a long T-shirt for a nightgown, to dye later. I sometimes leave stuff in this for a long time, eventually finding I've got another shirt, or something, I could dye up for me or someone!

Wring out the solution and scrunch, fold, pleat whatever. Place in plastic cups or bins or leave on a tray. Squeeze from squirt bottles or pour dye over. You'd be surprised how much white or undercolor remains when you think you've soaked the material. I love the serendipity of it, tho I do have an idea of what I'm creating since I've done it so much. These clothes were done super fast.

Pleated and clothespinned

The cobalt blue shirt above was pleated and clothespinned and scrunched into a bin, as well as the socks. I mixed up 1 qt of the dye (1 Tb of dye in very warm water to dissolve) and poured it over. Rinsed the container with a bit more water and poured over as well.

Bronze dyed spiraled t-shirt and bamboo socks

This Bronze dyed shirt and socks I just spiraled and put in a bin and poured dye over.

Spiralled t-shirt and socks in bin to pour in dye

The least amount of time to let set is 3 hours. I usually just let it set overnight, in a warm place. Then rinse in warm water and wash several times in washer before drying.

I shouldn't end this without a picture of Stan wearing one of my t-shirts from years ago. A separate design of a serpentinite rock I'd printed is long faded.

Stan

Dyed Clothes

Linen blouse over t-shirt and 2 knit scarves

I like to dye stuff. I've been dying stuff since I took textile art classes as a teenager. I've been a second-hand-store fanatic since high school, thus second-hand clothes. My kids clothes were often over-dyed second-hand clothes. One lady told me my young kiddos were dressed European-style. I'm guessing it was all the bright deep colors I dyed rather than the pastels that dominated the styles long ago.

So when I hunt for treasures, I'm not so interested in the colors. I look for style and then fabric composition - polyesters/ acrylics won't dye. I also get dyeable clothing and material from Dharma Trading Company (lots of great tutorials). In fact I've got an order ready to complete since Monte's geology partner is coming next week and is hoping for more dyed t-shirts and socks.

A favorite book

I start by having everything prewashed and damp. Then soak in a soda ash/ salt mixture in a 5 gallon bucket I keep at the ready in my greenhouse by the sink.  The solution proportions are: 1 gallon hot water to dissolve 1/2 cup of salt and 1/3 cup of soda ash. This can keep indefinitely. Let the damp stuff soak for at least 15 minutes. Dye molecules attach to this quickly - called "striking". I almost always dye now using what Jane calls "Low-water method" rather than a huge amount of dye water. Depending upon what I'm dying quantity amount I either make up 8-16 oz squirt bottles, but more typically a qt container of dye, using only 1 tsp-1 Tb of dye.

Squeeze/ wring out the soaked articles and then scrunch, fold, pleat or make rings. I rarely rubber-band or tye (excepting when over-dyeing a 2nd or 3rd time).

Stainless Steel table, in my greenhouse - Dawson found for me at a Yard Sale

Scrunching socks

Then put scrunched socks in plastic bin

Pleating linen blouse

Pleating center and scrunching 2 ends of blouse

Choosing dye colors

Socks, T-shirts, Linen blouse ready to dye

Dye mixed up in quart containers

Pouring on dye

Poured dye to puddle

Stacking so not a lot of air exposure to sit overnight (or 3 hours at least)

Rinsed and washed, soda ash soaked and ready for 2nd dye of dark blues

Same dyes - Linen took the dyes darker

T-shirt for Monte and matching socks

Dyed T's and socks

Stan with t-shirt and socks I dyed

Monte's partner in geology called wanting more socks. He loves my hand-dyed bamboo socks and wears them all the time. He will go down in geology history for many things, including his typical attire: Wild T-shirts with lizards, iguanas, dinosaurs, etc plus my hand-dyed ones. I did a serpentinite print from a photo on the front of a shirt and sponged on dye around it (on this shirt the print faded as he's washed it a ton, the next one I did differently). And when not in the field, he still wears shorts, even in winter and then sandals. So my socks are well exposed for all to see.

So this week when pulling out socks for both him and Monte (all my family asks for more socks), I saw that I had a t-shirt his size and decided to do one for my Grandson. Monte had also labeled a pair of his pants to be dyed black and a pull over shirt brown.

Accordian pleated and lots of clothespins

Here's Stan's shirt. I folded it accordian style from an off center at the breast then clothespinned every inch. I scrunched it into a plastic basin, along with socks and the toddler T. The dye I poured over was a mixture of 1/2 black, 1/4 cobalt blue, and 1/4 deep yellow.

Toddler T and socks

I'm sure he'll love the T and will tell me some rock tale the shirt tells.

I made curtains for my grandson's bedroom. I knew I wanted to dye the material. After looking through all my textile books for an idea, I settled on over-dyeing them for richness and depth - the book Tray Dyeing provided the inspiration. The material is an unbleached muslin. The lining includes a blackout material, then there's a sheer behind them.

Dyeing in a tray with bottom pleated and upper scrunched, then dye poured in.

Overdyed with fuschia and chartreuse

Overdyed with black

Since I did these last summer, I'm not remembering ... I vaguely think they ended up too black, so I'd have retied and bleached them. I know I did this on aprons I dyed a couple Christmas's ago. Rather than immersion dyeing of the final black, I should do the low-water way, like the tray dyeing ... Still learning.

I do have more plans ... Making separate animals that can somehow be attached to the curtains - maybe just pinning, so removable over time. Like now the room will be shared with a little sister, our first grand-daughter. Initially, I'm thinking elephants, lions and monkeys. Maybe some birds and even flowers.

Dyed Christmas Gifts

Everyone is starting to expect gifts of dyed shirts with matching bamboo socks all the time. I did it again this Christmas. Last Christmas, besides the shirts and socks, everyone got a tie dyed apron. This year besides the shirts and socks, all the couples got a Bidet! For the Grandsons I dyed shirts, and warm rompers, matching bamboo socks, and then some hats. I was going to dye ties for the guys, as the girls got machine felted polar fleece purses - but I didn't get to them. I'm feeling a little daunted with silk ties, but will do them eventually.

The munchkin hats are adorable!

Hand-dyed had from Dharma Trading Company

Needle-Felted Christmas Wreath, etc.

WOW!!! I've not posted in a long time. But I've been busy and taken pictures of lots of doings, so I'm going to back-date posts from here for catching up with projects closer to their date. For awhile there was lots of garden/yard clean-up as Fall carried on with a longer growing season before frosting out. And I've now got tomatoes, lettuce varieties, radishes, beets, carrots, green onions, herbs and snow peas growing in the greenhouse that's connected to the house.

We have XM Serious Radio in our house (alone - we don't have Dish or Direct TV - only Satellite radio) and I'm currently listening to Christmas Classics as I'm typing this post on my Macintosh computer, eating a Macintosh apple.

The MOPS group of which I've been a Mentor Mom for ten years had it's Christmas Brunch fundraiser yesterday. I dyed some long-sleeve T-shirts with matching bamboo socks for it. I also made a Needle-felted wreath - all a part of an auction. Now I need to make a felt wreath for ME!

The wreath is about 12" made over a styrofoam wreath form. I've found needle felting over foam does not work on the smooth foam. I learned that last Easter when I did some egg shapes. I made some ornaments I'm back posting about, and going to make more.

At my weaving guild once a year is a large sale and I pick up varieties of wools. What I used for covering the styrofoam was some junky dyed green wool - still with lanolin that's gone sticky and I'm betting dyed with Koolaid - well I'm finally putting it to use. Then I wrapped it with some yarn. I separately needled the leaves and then needled them onto the wreath. I wet felted the berries quickly with bar soap and my hands standing at the sink, squeezed them out in a towel, and almost immediately glue-gunned them onto the wreath, straight pinning thru some. (Running out of time ... last minute stuff.)

Bleach Painting T-shirts

Painting with bleach on T-shirts - Dawson, Splarah, Sarah, and Travis

My sons just posted pics on Facebook of an activity they did yesterday. I suppose we'd have been invited too if Monte wasn't needing to work. But I'm always glad to see family togetherness. I shared the painting with bleach technique with them awhile back. I've overdyed (bleached), like tie-dying, an already painted Tee to great affect too and stamped with bleach. I sometimes use my dye thickener, sodium alginate (sp?) added to bleach. Do this in a well-ventilated space - like outside! Rinse well and wash. If left too long bleach will eat at the fibers.

Dye Painting and Overdyeing

I'm exploring dye techniques. After doing lots of varieties of tie-dye, and fabric dye samples, I'm moving into overdye, and painting techniques. The first pic is a tie-dyed T-nightgown I gave to Sarah. Everyone in the family has been getting T-shirts and oft times, matching socks. I'm a sock person, liking them with my sandals.

I had some T's I dyed that I wasn't in love with their colors, so I started overdyeing, and I'm really liking the added depth. I did a mixture of hand-painting the dye with a brush, and then I love the sponge texture - I've used my one sponge for everything, including my home's entryway walls. The next pic is a T-shirt for Heather. It's original colors were moreso gray and gray-blues, maybe a touch of light pink and gold - I don't remember. But I spattered dye and sponged.

The next pic is of overdyeing a light blue with yellow T. Most of the extra color is with the sponge and a bit of hand-painted large ovals, like daisy petals. But then I spiraled the shirt, bound loosly with lots of rubberbands, and immersed in a bucket of black dye, leaving in for several hours. I'd made up the black dye bath a few days before. I'm always amazed at how dyes don't mix that much (unless I agitate them a lot right away). It's a chemical reaction called "striking" that happens- like in the first 15 minutes. At first I expected to rinse them and expect all dark, like they look when wet.

Most of my dyes are in 8oz squeeze bottles I store for several weeks. I'll make them up fresh when whatever I'm doing has to have very exacting colors. I don't add soda ash to my dyes because otherwise they need to be used up that day. I keep a soda ash solution in a bucket for however long it takes till it's all used up- maybe months. I soak everything I dye in the soda ash solution for about 20 minutes and wring - leaving wet for most dyeing, or hanging to dry and dry-dye later - like for batik, stenciling, stamping, and screenprinting ...

A shirt I did for Monte similar to this is blacker cuz of immersing when the dye was fresh made - he wanted a pair of brown pants to be black. All the later additions to this dyebath are more a blue-black. All blacks are made up of other colors, and those colors disperse in varying ways - like drop a blob on paper towel, and when dry, you'll see outer rings of blue or fuchsia or blue-green. As too with most colors - very few are pure colors. The operative word here is FEW - like in - 3 primary colors making up all colors.

On this note of over-dyeing clothes - I've done it for years. I've been hooked on second-hand clothes shopping since I was a teen. A lot of the baby clothes I dyed - rather than pastels - deep blues, maroons, and greens... And I've dyed bathrobes I like over and over, changing colors, till they fall apart. Monte has started looking thru all his clothes and giving me shirts to overdye. In the past he's had me dye suits for a color change too. Dawson just gave me a pattern to try and dye-paint on a shirt for him. And he gave me a black shirt he wants me to practice on - a discharging technique.

My next pic is of total hand-painting, with some spatters and sponging - a dress and matching socks. What I learned ... I LOVE the technique, tho time-consuming. Thus, I'll be moving into making my own stamps for repeat printing. And I'm going to start thickening the dye, so less running in most cases.

I'm in need of more yogurt, so while writing this post, I'm making more. I'll post yogurt making soon at my Karey's Kitchen blog. The kitchen table is full of geology related pictures I printed along with several serpentinite photos - some of them already printed on inkjet paper and ironed on fabric. This month's color challenge is "analogous" and most serpentinites are greens (tho when in Boston we saw lots of pinks-to-reds. You'd think them marble. When watching movies, Monte's always pointing out serpentinite - it's everywhere! And since, as he's talking his science lingo, he's using talk of DNA and blueprint ... I'm trying to create an Art Quilt for him. When done I'll post a pic.)

Wonder Full Creativity!

Tie-Dye

Knowing we were going to be gathering for 4th of July AND I needed to use up all my old dye, I tie-dyed a bunch of stuff: T-shirts, camisoles, and bamboo socks, and too, some summer onesies I'd got for the Grandbabies. So yesterday everyone got at least one shirt with matching socks.

Also, it's fun to see people using things I've made and given them. Last Christmas I tie-dyed aprons for gift-giving. Travis wears his apron all the time when cooking - especially grilling, as he did 25+pounds of ribs this 4th of July, using my mom's dad's bar-b-q sauce recipe.