Reverse Tie Dye Bags

Here's something crafty to justify the "bauble" section of my blog. This craft is super easy and effective, a little bit different and super fun to do. I first tried this out when I ran a weekend in the Piggery at Guys Farm for Senior Section to get my Senior Section Permit (all part of the QGA). I thought it was so good that the girls I am going to Berlin with this July (also ticking off a QGA section) set up a production line to make 100! We're selling these to raise funds for the Berlin trip. Buy one (or more) on ebay here.

Recipe

Coloured fabric items - bright colours work best

Elastic bands, string, pegs etc etc

Household bleach

Buckets

Rubber gloves and apron

LOTS of water

Method

Tie you fabric up in any way that you fancy. The different patterns come from different ways of tying the fabric and what you use to fasten it. You can make circles, fold the fabric to make stripes, scrunch it up for a random pattern, the options are endless. Just remember that the areas that are exposed will turn lighter and those that are tied up will stay dark. It's best not to be too fussed about exactly what you want it to turn out like because there is still quite a lot of randomness involved. However if you are feeling clever there are all sorts of complicated patterns in the books I got out of the library to try.

After it's all tied up soak your fabric in the bleach. This is a bit trial and error. The stronger the bleach (and the less you dilute it) means the shorter time it will take. Keep the stuff in until you can see it has changed and you are happy with the resulting colour. Remember if you leave it in too long the bleach will eat away at the fabric and reduce its strength. Also remember to wear you rubber gloves and apron for this part. I found it worked best when I occasionally "stirred" and moved the things around in the bleach and gave them a bit of a squeeze to make sure the bleach soaked in all the way.

When you like the colour left take your fabric out of the bleach and rinse, rinse, rinse. We rinsed thoroughly once while it was still tied up and then again when we untied. Finally, they went through a cold wash in the washing machine to get all of the last of bleach out.

Results

I was so pleased with the bags we produced both times. The bright colours (turquoise and pink) worked best and went nice pastel shades in the bleach. The darker bags (purple and navy) just went a kind of brown.

I noticed that the different colours also bleached at different rates. The pink went very quickly while the turquoise took a lot more time.

Although this method uses nasty bleach I think it is a lot easier than normal tie dye. You don't have to mess around with dyes and we used the super cheap basics bleach that was only 29p for for 2l. Also you can lots of different colours all at the same time because the colour comes from the fabric not the dye.

Be warned - tie dying leads to crinkly fabric and I spent a VERY long time ironing all 100 of our bags!

I hope the rest of world thinks they're great and we raise lots of money for our trip to Berlin (hint, hint).