Name: Kim
Message: Hi I have never done tie-dye, and I would like to make some shirts for all of my family to wear on our trip to Disney World, in October. I need a little help,they are going to be halloween themed, but I am not sure how to make the mickey head, could you please lend me some advice/help thanks so much.

You need to be aware that, if you create anything with a Disney trademark on it, such as a Mickey Mouse head, you are required to pay money to the Disney company for the right to use their trademark in this way. Wearing your homemade Mickey Mouse shirts only at home, you would probably never come to the attention of the Disney corporation, but wearing them to the park is probably asking for trouble. Why not just make a set of brilliantly tie-dyed shirts without the trademarked Mickey Mouse head shape? It makes it so much easier to find the other members of your group, in a crowd, if you are wearing matching colorful shirts, especially if no one else has shirts of the same design.

Any advice on how to tie shirts for a specific design requires that you have a fair amount of experience already in tie-dyeing. A novice can always produce a bright, beautiful tie-dye the first time, *if* quality fiber-reactive dyes are used (not all-purpose dye), and the manufacturer's instructions are followed, but the specific design produced is generally not predictable until you have gained some experiece. I would advise you to pick a simple design for your family's shirts. Randomly applying rubber bands to make circles, then squirting on different colors of fiber reactive dye, works very well.

Given the above warnings, the simplest way to produce a design composed of circles is with the use of small rubber bands. Grab a point toward the center of the flat t-shirt (I prefer to tie shirts before pre-soaking them in the soda ash), and attach a rubber band, then attach two more rubber bands to form smaller circles that overlap on the upper side of the first rubber band. Getting this right would take a bit of trial and error.

Once you have mastered tying the shirts, you may dye either by dropping the shirts into a large pot of simmering all-purpose dye, and cooking them for half an hour (be sure not to reuse the large cooking pot for food afterwards, as all-purpose dye is certainly not safe for food use), or you can take the easier, and ultimately more economical route, by purchasing a tie-dye kit that contains fiber reactive dyes. Since fiber reactive dyes can be applied at room temperature, you can skip the bother of boiling the shirts (and ruining your best cooking pot!), and you will also find the results to be much brighter, prettier, and longer-lasting. Tie dye kits can be ordered from most of the companies listed on my Sources for Supplies page.