Comparing Low Water Immersion On A Dry Vs. A Damp Shirt [Tie Dye Design Technique]

[@Turandot29]

You are such a good teacher, Angie. Thank you for patiently sharing your experience.

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you are finding the videos helpful. 😀

[@jenniferdillow3934]

I like the white in the one shirt. Looks great. Actually they both look very nice!

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you!!

[@willit007]

Fantastic technique

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you so much! 🙂

[@michelerepko5504]

So glad you talk in Lehman terms so I understand about the soda ash

[@FunEndeavors]

I'm glad it was helpful - thank you for watching!

[@Omgirrl.224]

Thank you for sharing this experiment!! It's nice to see what I can expect when trying the low immersion dyeing!!

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@lys943]

I love the colors you used! I have all these colors on the way. I can't wait to use them. I think I like the damp shirt here mainly due to white left in the dry shirt. They both turned out great though!

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you! I agree - the damp one is my favorite too.

[@devpac7861]

Man I love this! Can u make more experiment videos?

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you! Absolutely - I love experimenting and seeing how they turn out. I have a few more experiment videos on my KZbin channel.

[@margotsanderford7050]

Thank you for your videos! They are wonderful!!!😄

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you - I'm glad you like them!

[@TheWVbear]

Thank you for trying this so we can see the results and I like the way yours turned out 🙂 I have only done this dry, and I used 2 tsp of soda ash per cup, 1 tsp of sea salt per cup, put the dry ingredients in a heat proof container. Then I boiled some water on the stove and immediately poured into container with dry ingredients, stirred quick and piping hot, it got poured over the shirt.

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you! I thought this would be a good technique to try both dry and damp. How did your shirt turn out?

[@TheWVbear]

@@FunEndeavors Well, I only used one color but it turned out pretty nice 🙂 I got a mix of fades and powdery fluffy color and where the highest concentrations of dye where dark and sharp. I even got some color splits. It is shirt 18 on fb 🙂 I plan on doing a 3 color one here in a few days, I will let you know how it goes 🙂

[@FunEndeavors]

@@TheWVbear yours turned out really well - I like it!

[@TheWVbear]

@@FunEndeavors Thanks 😊

[@iamoriginalsource1408]

Loved your experiment. And loved the results. Question I can't find the answer to: why turn the shirt inside out?

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you so much! It helps to avoid speckling if some of the dye doesn't fully dissolve.

[@marisvoboda9493]

Love Paula’s site and low immersion dying. Thank you for this post!!

[@FunEndeavors]

Me too! Her site is so helpful.

[@77viccky]

Hi, congratulations! Please, how much time in soda ash? Tks

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you! I left the shirt sitting in the soda ash for 2.5 hours.

[@77viccky]

@@FunEndeavors Thanks a lot!

[@FunEndeavors]

@@77viccky You're welcome!

[@iknowheis]

It looks like the damp shirt has more color differentiation… I can see more plum, and more of the hot hibiscus. I don’t know if that real dark color is brown, but there’s more of it on the dry shirt.

[@FunEndeavors]

No, the brown on the dry shirt was where the orange mixed with the other two colors. Orange is one of those colors that forms brown when it mixes with purple.

[@melissacrocker6875]

That was cool to watch!!!

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you!

[@brandonlucero6512]

I am liking this video for the instructions, and if the shirt comes out as planned, then i am subscribing! Also do I do a high or no heat for drying?

[@FunEndeavors]

I usually dry my shirts in the dryer like normal. So, high heat will be fine.

[@iknowheis]

For the soda ash solution, was it room temperature water?

[@FunEndeavors]

I usually use hot water for soda ash solution.

[@iknowheis]

@@FunEndeavors I’m following your suggestion and reading Paula Burch’s site. She says something that makes me wonder. I’m seeing hot water immersion, low water immersion, ice dye, etc. She basically says batching is unnecessary. Batching for 24 to 48 hours. What do you think. I have no experience so I have to ask you what you think or what is your experience. Here is the quote…. Reaction Time. You must then leave the soda ash to react with the fabric and dye for a miniumum of one hour. Some prefer to "batch" the reaction for 24 to 48 hours. I have never found this added time to be necessary, though I will leave the reaction overnight when that is more convenient for me. I believe that "batching" is an attempt to make up for low temperatures in the reaction, caused by low room temperature. If your room is cold, it may be more useful to warm the reaction (*after* adding the soda ash, not before, as dye will quickly react directly with hot water, leaving none to react with the fabric) than to leave it for long periods of time. Experiment with this for yourself.

[@FunEndeavors]

@@iknowheis So, tie dye using fiber reactive dye needs 2 things to cause the dye to properly bond with the fabric: soda ash to raise the pH and heat. In hot water irrigation, the water is heated hot enough so that it will bond the dye to the fabric without having to wait and batch the shirt. The reaction happens quickly because the temperature is so high. Otherwise for regular liquid or ice dyeing, the reaction happens more slowly over time ideally in a space that is above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. If for some reason the area where you are batching your shirts is below 70 degrees, you will need to allow them to batch a longer period of time to get nice vibrant colors. The same goes for low water immersion - the soda ash solution that you pour over the shirt is very warm and so it doesn't take as long for the reaction to occur. The soda ash solution usually isn't quite as hot as it is in hot water irrigation - therefore, I usually allow it to batch a little longer than I would a hot water irrigation shirt. In the summer when I place a regular liquid or ice dye outside in a container where the temperature is over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, I really don't need to allow it to batch a full 24 hours either since it gets so hot. It won't hurt to allow it to process a little longer though.

[@iknowheis]

@@FunEndeavors I live in the desert. Hot temps are not hard to come by. It’s not hot yet, but will be a blast furnace soon! Thanks for the input!

[@FunEndeavors]

@@iknowheis Then you live in the perfect area for tie dyeing!

[@veracamilo9832]

Parabéns Maravilhosas! ❤️❤️❤️❤️👏👏👏👏👏

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you!

[@stephamrowski]

Where do you get your squares from for your sample colors? I've seen a few on amazon, but I'd like to get ones I know other dyers use and like!

[@FunEndeavors]

I purchase 100% cotton white fabric from Hobby Lobby or another fabric store. When fabric was hard to find a couple of years ago, I used white bandanas that I cut up. The bandanas were a little thin for me though, I prefer the fabric to be a little thicker than they were. Whatever you purchase, make sure you wash it in hot water and textile detergent like you would prewash a shirt before you dye them.

[@stephamrowski]

@@FunEndeavors oh nice! That sounds like a great idea, I'll try that this weekend. I did order a pack off Amazon a long while ago, and they were super thin I was disappointed.. I wanted to ask before I chanced it again on another brand on there, thank you so much !!

[@FunEndeavors]

@@stephamrowski You're going to love your color swatches. I literally use mine every time I tie dye. I had a request to show photos of mine so I spent a day photographing them and making blog posts to share. I noticed though that I was missing swatches for some of my colors, so it looks like I'm going to be making some soon too.

[@bonniesobel1]

Hey Angie! Will this method work on sweatshirts?

[@FunEndeavors]

I haven't tried it on a sweatshirt, but I think it would work. You would probably need a lot more dye than I used though.

[@bonniesobel1]

Thanks! I'll let ya know how it goes!

[@FunEndeavors]

@@bonniesobel1 great - I'd love to know how it turns out!

[@alisalarue4506]

Why do you turn the shirts inside out?

[@FunEndeavors]

Sometimes the powdered dye doesn't totally dissolve properly and it can leave speckles on the shirt. If the shirt is inside out, the speckling will hopefully just stay on the inside of the shirt and won't come through to the front side.

[@alisalarue4506]

@@FunEndeavors Thank you for the tip. I have had speckling on shirts I have done.

[@FunEndeavors]

@@alisalarue4506 it doesn't eliminate all speckling, but it helps.

[@magicre3]

Great video, Angie! I've been experimenting with this technique too. I like the results of both the dry and damp. So fun to try different things and always be surprised at how they turn out! I noticed that you said you wrung this shirt out by hand. Any particular reason?I wanted to ask you about your Panda spin dryer. What is it's capacity? I'm seriously considering it but wonder if it's worth the price. How much soda ash do you save each time? Thank you so much for your videos and for taking the time to read and respond to my questions!!

[@FunEndeavors]

Thank you so much! I didn't use my Panda Spin dryer for this one. Since I had to take the shirt to my work sink and run it under the water to get it wet, I went ahead and wrung it out by hand since it wasn't sopping wet. I love my Panda Spin Dryer though. It is by far one of my favorite tie dye tools. I'm not entirely sure how many shirts I can fit in there at a time. I've put about 8-10 in it with no problem. It's awesome for hoodies and sweatshirts. If you've ever tried to wring one of those out by hand you know how hard they are to work with. I think I've put 2 or 3 hoodies in it at a time and it worked great too. It wrings them out really fast (a full cycle is 5 minutes), so if you had a lot of shirts to do it wouldn't take a long time if you had to run it more than once to fit them all. There is a spout at the bottom on the front where the soda ash drains out. I bought a couple small plastic pitchers at the Dollar Store that I use under the spout to catch the soda ash and pour it back into my soaking bucket so there isn't much soda ash waste - really only what soda ash stays in the shirts. I actually watch the spout and when most of the soda ash has been wrung out, but the stream is still a trickle - I stop the spin dryer. If I let it go the entire cycle (which is 5 minutes), the shirts will almost be too dry to get them all tied before they are completely dry. I also love since it doesn't weigh a lot, I can move it easily to use inside or outside.

[@magicre3]

@@FunEndeavors Angie I thank you so much for thos detailed description and explanation. It's exactly what the needed to know.Sounds like it is well worth the investment. Large and bulky blanks are so difficult to wring out and I really don't like to waste water or SA. I'm sold! Thank you again, Angie, for your sharing and very helpful videos!

[@TheWVbear]

@@FunEndeavors Here's a tip for you that I do....I cram all my shirts into a 2.5 gallon Ziploc/or hefty bag and pull them out one at a time and reseal as I tie each shirt. I keeps them damp LoL 🙂

[@FunEndeavors]

@@TheWVbear that's a good idea - thanks!

[@FunEndeavors]

@@magicre3 You are welcome - I hope you love yours as much as I do mine!

[@GmaPat]

Is your water hot?

[@FunEndeavors]

Yes, it is hot water that I dissolved the soda ash into and then poured over the top of the shirt.

[@lucindawelenc2191]

Interesting. Wonder why PB says to add the soda ash solution after? I've done a LOT of LWI (quilt fabric, not shirts) and my instructions said you can either do the presoak or add it later, but the presoak lets you recover as much solution as possible beforehand instead of throwing it away afterward. So I presoak.

[@FunEndeavors]

I'm not entirely sure either. For the rest of the tie dye techniques, I soak beforehand too.