About tie-dyeing
What is tie-dyeing? Tie-dye is very simple way to get great brightly colored clothing which is made from ordinary or used cloth. Usually you can tie-dye cloth made from cotton or other celullose fabric. This techniques is very common in many cultures in Asia and Africa. Tye-dyeing was very popular in the years 1960 - 1970 in the West, as part of hippy style
Process of tie-dyeing
Tie-dye is really very easy and basic of this decorative process consist of two parts: first you have to tie up the cloth (fabric) and after you apply the color. Dye only reach this part of area to which it is applied. Other parts, as the bounderies and non dyed areas, become blurred, as the dye begin to soak into the non dyed areas. This way you get great great decorative effect. As the name suggest, the material is tied usually with rubber bands or string. During process of dyeing a chemical reaction takes place which permanently bonds color to the material. After this tie-dye is safe to wash. This is know as a resist techniques because during dyeing inner parts of folds resist dyeing. Patterns are also created by applying different color dyes to different parts of fabric and this way each color is mixed with another and you will get great multicolor fabric. Next you can submerge your folded and tied fabric in a bath of soda ash solution for 5 to 30 minutes. Soda ash has a high pH and prepares the cellulose fibers on the fabric for permanent chemical bonding with the acidic fiber reactive dye used in tie-dyeing. Alternetively the soda ash may be directly added to the dye solution nad it is better as soaking the fabric in a solution of soda ash. The dye in this technique must be used within two hours as the soda ash will react with the dye. After 12 to 48 hours(depending desired brightness of product, temperature and dye), the can be unwrapped and after that rinsed. After rinsing the fabric under running water, tie-dye should be washed in qashing mashine.Any neutral detergent may be used.
Dyes
For your work you can use many different kind of dyes, but now many dyers dye with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes. This types of dyes works at warm room temperatures and the dye permanently bind with cellulose fabric (linen, hemp, rayon, cotton) when the pH is raised. For raising the pH is generally used soda ash (sodium carbonate), which garants that fabric do not fade with washing, but colors can fade over time in cause of sunlight.
