Tutorial Tuesday - dying fabrics

I have been dying fabrics around here like crazy!  Kaylan and I did it earlier, which you can see here, and I still needed to dye a few more things. 

First I gathered all of my supplies. 

 Shirts and things to dye purple with the Rit powder dye.

 And shirts to dye "green" with the washing machine dye. 

You start by getting all of your fabric wet in hot water.  Then fill a sink with hot water, mix in salt (directions are on the package), and then place each piece of fabric in the dye.  You're supposed to stir this constantly  for 15-30 minutes.  You then have to wash and dry your fabrics.

 The washing machine dye is much easier.  You get your fabrics wet with hot water.  Then you fill your washing machine with hot water (only enough to cover all of your fabrics.)  You then have a packet to mix in with your water, and then add the fabrics.  I let mine sit in the washer for 15 minute, and then I start the wash cycle so it will mix all of it all by itself.  Then you just run the rest of the cycle and then re-wash your shirts with detergent to make sure they won't leak colors.  I then just run a bleach cycle in my washer to make sure all the color is gone. 

This is what I came up with when I was done.  The purple ones were tie-dye looking, which is not the look I was going for.  And the washer ones came out being nice and evenly colored but a neon yellow-green color, also not the look I was going for. 

 So I headed back to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up some more dye.  I decided to do just washing machine dye, since it turned out a lot better.  They make a "color remover" packet.  I picked one up, but ended up not using it and just dying right over the colors I already had. 

 After I went through the washing machine process a couple more times, this is what I came out with.  Nice purple and green fabric, just what I was hoping for!!