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Upcycle your tees with Hobbycraft!
*This post contains gifted items*
Fast fashion is clothing which is produced on a massive scale in factories, quickly and cheaply to keep up with the latest trends on the high street. It is also one of those things which should definitely be left in the past which is why we’ve been seeing a move towards slow fashion. With so many clothes put in our bins, given to charity shops or even just thrown straight into landfill, we are swimming in clothes and certainly don’t need to make anymore.
Some of you may remember I recently wrote a post about shopping in charity shops and the myths most of us are told about them, which are totally untrue. I’d totally recommend going to shop in charity shops as some real bargains are to be had. Although this is a fantastic way to gain new clothes, what about your ‘old’ clothes that are well-loved but are still a perfectly good item. I’m talking white t-shirts or shirts losing their colour and those shirts with unintentional stains. These can be upcycled easily and leave you feeling great in your ‘new’ clothes, simply by using tie dye. So stick around if you’re interested in finding out how to give your clothes a makeover on a budget.
The art of tie-dye
As someone who loves to be creative the idea of being able to tie-dye those shirts which were once white and now resemble a weird yellow-esq white. If you don’t have any white shirts and would like to try tie-dye, visit your local charity shop as there is usually a section of white shirts and they tend to be better quality than buy a ton of cheap white shirts online. Once you’ve got your shirts ready, you need dye, I have kindly been gifted these bottles of Tulips clothing dye from Hobbycraft. They come in a set of 3 or 5 and cost between £15-19, dependent what colours you like would depend on which dye set to use. I went for the blues and then a few brighter colours. I have to say grey is one of the best colours I’ve worked with, it looks so cool on the shirts.
With tie-dye, it really is trial and error with what works and what colours go together well. Being a person who loves all things colour, the idea of chucking on a ton of colour to a blank canvas screams awesome to me. So when you’re going to start your project make sure you put some gloves on, as getting the dye on your hands is so difficult to remove. Likewise, with furniture… oops so put lots of newspaper down (or do what I do and go outside) once you’re all set up it’s time to fill the bottles with water up to their fill line, most of the bottles from Tulip already have the dye in, if that’s the case, add water and shake it well.
Styles of tie dye
There are so many different ways to create patterns via tie-dye, whether that is freehand, knotting your clothes or using elastic bands in certain ways all of these can create an awesome effect. I like to try a variety of different methods when it comes to actually dying clothes as you can see in my pictures I’ve attempted different methods and colours. Whether you choose to start with t-shirts wet or dry can also make a difference in the colour and the way it’s absorbed. I do tend to some dry and then some wet as I like the colours both make, plus if it’s a lighter colour allowing it to soak in some water with dye in does tend to make it take better. The majority of the tees in this post were done dry and have washed ok and not faded much at all.
When you’re ready to begin dyeing it’ll become clearer with what you’re looking to achieve and how the colours look together. Remember with this kit you can take some colour out of different bottles to make even more colours. Placing the dye over the shirt in different ways always gives it a different effect. When I started to do this I often used a paintbrush and now I just use my hands and a variety of knots. Once you’ve finished with a t-shirt, wrap them up in clingfilm for six hours or more and then hand rinse them until they run clear. Once they’re clear (it takes a while) let them dry off.
The final result?
The final result of these tees is better than what I imagined, using the grey really complimented the other colours such as pink and purple. I’m happy with the way in which my shirts came out and I’d love it if you decide to do any yourself to share them with me on my Twitter. When it comes to it tie-dye is all about expressing yourself and most of the time adding bright colours to your clothes too.
Thanks for reading and I hope you’ve enjoyed this post
