Orange Bin

This is the process of dyeing a shirt with just a plastic bin, and liquid dye.

Corky is using a measuring spoon to put powder dye into a bin for tie-dye.

Base color

Decide on your first color, which needs to be light and bright. I decided to use 1 Tsp soft orange powdered dye. Mix in about a cup or two of warm water until the dye dissolves.

Corky is putting a white shirt into a bin of orange dye

Scrunch

Place the shirt into the bin of dye and swish it around until it’s fully saturated in color. Then scrunch it loosely. This will make it so that there’s no white left on the shirt.

corky mixes a jar of red dye and holds it up to inspect

Lazy mixing

It's annoying to mix liquid dye and then funnel it into squirt bottles, which is why I usually just ice dye. But for this, you can just mix a second color in a wide mouth jar and stir it. No need for a squirt bottle transfer. 1/2tsp of fuchsia for the dark bottom color.

Pour

Dump in the second color at one end. It will naturally flow toward the other end, in a way that looks nice. 8oz of water seems to be a good amount of liquid to use for the second color. Too much water might dilute the color or overtake the whole design.

A hand with a pink glove is shifting the dyed shirt around in the bin.

Squish it

Use a gloved hand to squish, wiggle and generally mess with the shirt. It's fun. It mixes the color a little so the gradient is smooth. There will still be subtle details even if you mess with it.

Corky is wearing the final shirt looking down at the results

Rinse & reveal

Since the water was warm, I didn't wait the whole 24 hours for the color to batch. I guessed that it would be ok after 12 hours since the heat sped up the reaction of the dye bonding. Reds/oranges react faster than other colors, too. This shirt is very bright and makes me happy to look at.

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Analogous

design

Colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. Usually blend well together.

Soda ash

supply

A powdered form of sodium carbonate that raises the pH level of fabric, allowing fiber reactive dyes to chemically bond with cotton and other cellulose fibers.

Saturation

design

This word is used in two ways. Refers to how deep the dye penetrates into the fabric. Or how bright the color sets.

Scrunch

fold

A casual tie-dye folding technique where the fabric is crumpled randomly to produce a marbled, organic pattern. Often used with ice or liquid dye for texture.