By Nicole Gencarelli
Shibori is a traditional form of Japanese hand dying fabric, which creates circle-like patterns similar to the effects of the American “tie-dye”. I learned Shibori techniques in my fiber’s classes at my University, though recently the art of Shibori has become popular in mainstream fashion designs. In order to celebrate our last few weeks of summer, I though I would share with you all an simple version of Shibori tie dying, maybe to brighten up an old tee shirt (Like I did!) or make a bag or scarf with this unique pattern!
Materials Needed: Fabric to dye, ~20 rubber bands, fabric dye, plastic gloves, water, container.
First, find whatever shirt, fabric bag, headband, scarf, etc you would like to dye! Make sure it is clean and is a easy to dye fabric, like cotton. Synthetic fiber based fabrics will be more difficult to dye.
To start, take a large section of your shirt and bunch it up like a tube shape. Think of an imaginary circle around the area you want to start with, and pull the center of that circle forward. Use rubber bands to start “wrapping” the fabric. Traditionally, you would sew a circle and then wrap thread or yarn around areas, but to keep it simple we will use rubber bands! Try and use different sizes/thickness if you can, it will make the finial patterns more varied :)
Keep doing that until your shirt looks kinda like this. Make sure the rubber bands are tight! The point is that the dye will not get in the areas covered by the rubber bands and areas of the fabric secured tightly in between.
Now you are ready to dye! Select your dye color, most every craft store will sell this brand of dye, which is super easy to use. Be aware that if your shirt is not pure white the color will be more dull. I went with a violet color for mine because I wanted to tone down the construction cone orange color of the shirt, which is not a good color on me. Follow the instructions on the dye packet, most will need hot water, some salt, and a plastic bucket of some sort to submerge the fabric. Also, you don't need to just have one color, if you want to get super creative, you can do more than one dye session, just let the fabric completely dry in between!
Side Note: PLEASE WEAR GLOVES WHEN HANDLING DYE. It seems like just pretty colors, but these are chemicals, so just be cautious and protect your skin (and you also probably don't want teal or purple hands for the next two weeks!).
Combine the water, salt and dye and submerge your fabric in the dye. Try to stir everything around for a few mins before letting it soak for a while. My dye packet said 45 min total time.
After your shirt is done dying, rise it out in an area that is okay to be covered it dye (like outside in the yard, or in a washroom sink) and then let dry completely. Then once it's dry, remove the rubber bands and check out the cool design you just made! Happy dying! :)
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| Nicole is a recent graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. You can follow her on Tumblr and her website. |
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