Name: Connie

Country: United States

Message: I'm very serious about starting my tie-dye business. You are so knowledgeable in every area. I want to start to purchase quanties of t-shirts and other materials. Perhaps, you can recommend a quality t-shirt I can purchase knowing it would be something you would buy. 

The number-one piece of advice on buying t-shirts for tie-dyeing is something you may already know: don't buy fiber blends, and don't buy stain-resistant shirts. Shirts that are made of 50% cotton/50% polyester will never produce colors as bright, intense, and true as those you can get on 100% cotton (or on 100% rayon or 100% hemp, for that matter). You want a shirt that is 100% natural plant fiber. (Rayon and silk also dye well with the same dyes and recipe as for cotton.) However, even a cotton t-shirt is no good for dyeing if it has been treated with a stain-resistant finish. These are often available at stores like Walmart and Target. Any finish that resists stains will also, sadly, resist dye, resulting in poor color yield and unwanted blotchiness.

There are a number of good cotton t-shirts you can buy, without stain resistance. You will find that cotton shirts are vastly less expensive than similar-quality shorts made of alternative fibers, such as bamboo (which is a form of rayon) or hemp. My personal choice is to buy a shirt sewn with cotton thread, because the shirt looks better without the contrasting stitching you end up when you dye shirts that have been sewn with the usual polyester thread. I'm afraid that I usually don't buy organic t-shirts, although I very much respect the environmental advantages of farming cotton without pesticides, because of the high prices, though it's certainly something you should consider; tie-dyed t-shirts made from organic cotton and dyed with "low impact" reactive dyes can often command premium prices.

Buying t-shirts in local chain stores, such as Target or Walmart, is something that you usually want to avoid, because the shirts are never sewn with cotton thread, only undyeable polyester thread, and they're often lighter in weight than you want, plus of course there's the stain-resistance issue to watch out for. However, sometimes you need another shirt to dye today, and don't have time to wait for mail-order, in which case it's worth buying a 100% cotton, non-stain-resistant t-shirt locally.

As long as you are buying shirts in smaller quantities, say a dozen or two per size, the prices per shirt provided by good retailers such as Dharma Trading Company are worthwhile. They are a better value than you can find in a local store, and they do have quantity pricing. After you are at the level of buying 72 shirts of each size and style, for basic t-shirts, you will then be able to save still more money by buying by the case directly from clothing wholesalers. You will need a wholesaler's number. 

Compare the different t-shirts available at Dharma: here's a link to their t-shirts page . The Gildan PFD Adult Tee is my own favorite because of the combination of cotton thread, good quality, and reasonable price. A case of these shirts from Dharma costs as little as $2.22 per item, assuming that you buy an entire case of 72 per size, and depending on how big the size is. I've been told that a case of 72 Gildan 6.1 ounce t-shirts costs less when purchased from wholesalers such as Broder. You can also find identical shirts retailing at prices far high than Dharma's.

Anvil sells an relatively inexpensive organic cotton t-shirt that's only about twice the cost of non-organic shirts, sewn with cotton thread, and bleached with peroxide, which is better for the environment than chlorine-based bleaches, but gives much better results in dyeing than unbleached fabrics. It's worth considering. Dharma does carry it, for as little as $3.99; their bulk pricing allows for buying an assortment of sizes or even of different styles, unlike the large wholesalers. 

The cotton stitching makes for better results in dyeing. When searching for new sources for t-shorts, include the phrase "cotton thread" so you can avoid shirts sewn with polyester thread. If you don't mind polyester thread, which stays white when you dye the shirt, there are other shirts available, sometimes more cheaply. Some dyers prefer the Hanes Beefy Tees or Fruit of the Loom Lofteez, but both are sewn with polyester thread. Hanes Beefy Tees are made from ring-spun yarns, which are finer than the yarns in the Gildan shirts.

I recommend that you buy a small number of samples of whatever shirts or other garments you are considering, and dye them up as tests. Your own preference is what matters. Never invest in large amounts of any garment that you have not tested for yourself on a small scale first.

Let me close by mentioning that, if you're not already doing so, you should use only fiber reactive dyes for tie-dyeing, never all-purpose dyes. Serious dyers almost always mail-order their dyes from a specialist supplier such as Grateful Dyes, PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company. See my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

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