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A hand with a pink glove is rolling the fabric of a white shirt on a white countertop

Fold

I folded the shirt up at an angle. On that fold line, started rolling the fabric really tight in the center, but I let it roll looser on each end.

All steps:

A hand holding a jar of fiber reactive dye in the color, black ice

Supplies

I decided to use just one color so I could create a swatch for the color “black ice” from Dharma. My shirt is 100% cotton in size medium.

The folded shirt is placed in a white metal basket

Setup

I used a wire basket and a cooling rack above the plastic bin so that the item would drip off excess ice and dye.

The hand is holding the tie-dyed shirt still folded to show how the dye ended up on the shirt before rinsing

Batching

It took about six hours for the ice to melt. I let it sit for about 18 more hours to fully set and this is what it looks like after the ice has melted.

Woman is holding a dripping white shirt above a bucket before tie-dying

Soda ash

This shirt was pre-soaked in soda, ash water in a repurposed bucket that used to be a kitty litter container. It was only hand wrung, so it was pretty wet before folding.

Two gloved hands are positioning ice on top of a tie-dye shirt

Application

I decided to apply the dye with ice, so I piled on a bunch of ice before adding dye. The green fleece around the shirt is just meant to hold up the ice around the shirt so it gets plenty of liquid.

The tie-dye shirt is being sprayed and rinsed in a utility sink

Rinse

I threw the shirt into my utility sink and sprayed it with cold water until it ran mostly clear. Then I rinsed it with hot water and then sent it through the washing machine with some normal detergent.

A hand with a pink glove is rolling the fabric of a white shirt on a white countertop

Fold

I folded the shirt up at an angle. On that fold line, started rolling the fabric really tight in the center, but I let it roll looser on each end.

A shirt is set up with ice and dye in a metal basket set at an incline

Incline

These days it’s common for people to do an incline set up when they’re using some variation of the rolled technique. I used some mega blocks to hold the basket up at about a 30° incline.

A close-up photo of the sleeve of the washed and dried final shirt

Result

The final shirt turned out pretty cool. I like the way the fold turned out, as well as this die color. Next time, I would like to add some black somewhere on the shirt just for a little extra contrast.

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