Tie Dying Tank Tops Tutorial

Tie dying is one of my favorite crafts. Why you may ask? Because there is no possible way to mess it up. And for someone like me who is a perfectionist, there is nothing more frustrating than doing a craft or spending a lot of time on a project and it turning out poorly. But tie dying is super fun, easy, and cheap way to get the creative juices flowing.

So I decided to tie dye a tank top since summer is soon approaching and I would rather have a cute looking tank top than a men's Hanes shirt. I got the tank top from Target for about $10 and the tie dye kit from Hobby Lobby for $20.

Now! Onto the actual crafting!
Begin by covering the floor(or work surface) with unfolded trash bags, and then mix the dyes in the bottles as directed by the kit.

Then lay the shirt or tank top out flat, and pinch the center and begin twisting into a spiral form.

Once you have twisted the tank top fold the corners around until it becomes mostly circular(it doesn't have to be perfect) and then rubber band the shirt secure enough that it wont fall apart in the middle of dying it.
The kit comes with plastic gloves to protect your hands from being stained, but I tend to use rubber cleaning gloves. Select the colors you wish to use!(Keep in mind that the colors will bleed and blend together so if you use blue and yellow there is a strong chance that there will be green on the shirt)

Begin adding color to the outside layers of the section you wish to use that color on, then I normally put the tip of the bottle down into the shirt to ensure that the color is being distributed evenly and that there will be no white on the shirt.

When you've dyed the desired section add another color and repeat the same process on a new section. I like to peel back the folds in the shirt to make sure the whole shirt is being colored. Something that adds a cool affect is using a different color in the shirt to color the folds in. (To make sure there is little to no white in the shirt go around and open up all the folds while dying and make sure they have been heavily coated in dye)

Add other colors if desires, but as I said before, remember that the colors will bleed and mix. Here I am adding yellow to a section next to the first blue section and it became mostly green.

Once you fully dyed the shirt place it in a zip lock bag(any plastic shopping bag or trash bag will do) and rubber band so that the shirt is fully covered and can stay damp. Let sit for 6-8 hours.

After waiting for 6-8 hours take the shirt out of the bag, remove the rubber bands, and place under running cold water until the water runs clear. Don't be alarmed by how much dye is rinsing out, and make sure to clean it all out of the bathtub or sink that you use or it will stain. Once the water runs clear wash in warm water by itself with detergent and tumble dry on low.

And here is the finished product! Tie dying is fun and creative, but it can be messy so make sure you clean up any spills so it doesn't stain. While tie dying you can color sections at a time or just be messy with it and either way it'll come out looking just fine! There is no wrong or right way to do it and it will forever be one of my favorite crafts! Hope this helped! Have fun tie dying :)