Name: angela
Message: When you say to soak the shirt in the soda ash before dying, do you mean before you tie it or just loosely and then tie it up wet?

The shirt must contain soda ash when you add the dye. It does not matter to the dyeing process whether you choose to soak the shirt before or after tying.

Since soda ash is irritating to the hands, one should always wear gloves while handling it, but gloves make it more difficult to tie the strings or rubber bands. For this reason, I prefer to tie a clean dry shirt, or a shirt moistened only with plain water, so that I don't have to wear gloves. Only after I am finished tying do I dump the shirt in the bucket of soda ash and water.

(By the way, people have been writing to me recently asking about soda ash when they are dyeing with all-purpose dye, such as Rit or Tintex dye, which does not work with soda ash. Always use fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, for tie-dyeing cotton at room temperature.)

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