Tie-dying isn’t hard to do, especially when you use a Sharpie!

You’ll need:
A t-shirt to dye
At least one Sharpie marker
Rubber Bands
A pipette
8 to 16 oz of rubbing alcohol (also called isopropyl alcohol – this can be purchased in the first-aid section of any drug store)

We suggest watching this video to understand the process before you proceed:
Tie-dying with a Sharpie

(1) Wash and dry your t-shirt.  Don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets.

(2) Pick your pattern. You’ll find instructions for how to fold your fabric to make many of the traditional designs here.
Please note, the folding instructions say your shirt should be wet. Since we are using Sharpies, not liquid dye, your shirt actually needs to be DRY.

(3) Following the method you picked, fold your DRY shirt and secure it with the rubber bands, as needed.

(4) Before moving on to the next step, take a moment and protect your work surface. You don’t want the Sharpie to stain the furniture, floor, or other surfaces.  You can work outside in the grass or use a trash bag or other piece of plastic to protect the surface.

(5) Color the sections of your folded shirt with your Sharpie. Don’t forget to flip it over and color the back side too!  We recommend MORE color (less white areas) than in the image below.

(6) Let your colored t-shirt sit for at least 24 hours. The longer it sits (even a few days!), the better the sharpie stains the fabric.

(7) For this next step, you need to protect the surface under your shirt or work outside in the grass.  Anything under your shirt may be stained by the marker!
Using the pipette, add rubbing alcohol on the different sections of your tied-up shirt to make the marker color bleed.  Don’t forget to flip it over to do the back.

(8) Let your shirt dry completely.  This may take until tomorrow! Don’t forget, while your shirt is still wet, anything underneath will be stained by the marker.

(9) Once it is dry, take off the rubber bands and open up your shirt.

(10) Once you are certain your shirt is completely dry, you need to decide what to do next.  We experimented with several methods to “set” the ink, so it doesn’t wash out in the laundry, but we didn’t find one that worked well. Here’s what we tried:

We didn’t do anything to Sample #1.  It is our experimental control.
Sample # 2 was ironed with a hot iron for 5 minutes.
Sample #3 was put in a hot dryer for 15 minutes.
Sample #4 was soaked in white vinegar for 30 minutes. It was allowed to dry and then was ironed.
Sample #5 was soaked in white vinegar for 30 minutes. It was allowed to dry and then was put in a hot dryer.
Sample #6 was soaked in salt water for 30 minutes. It was allowed to dry and then was ironed.
Sample #7 was soaked in salt water for 30 minutes. It was allowed to dry and then was put in a hot dryer.
Afterwards, all seven samples were hand washed in the sink and hung up to dry.

As a last step, we washed all seven samples in the washing machine.  As you can see, all of the samples look a lot like Sample #1.  We have to conclude that these “setting the ink” methods don’t seem to work.