Name: Justine
Message: Please advise the technique used to create toddler t shirt drip dying shirt 1994. I think it is Peter in the pic but you made it for Will. i have been looking everywhere for this technique!!

It's really very easy. I put Procion MX dye into plastic squirt bottles, laid my shirt out flat (it was still wet from being presoaked with soda ash), and squirted dye on. The dye was mixed according to the recipe on "Hand Dyeing - How to Do It: basic recipe for Procion MX dyes on cellulose or silk".

I applied the dye in rainbow order, starting with a big diagonal band of turquoise (Turquoise MX-G) from upper left to lower right (as you face the shirt). I placed yellow  (Yellow MX-8G) on one side of this and a purple made by mixing fuchsia (red MX-8B) and turquoise on the other. Next to the purple I placed straight fuchsia, and also next to the yellow. Just remember the rainbow order, fuchsia - purple - blue - turquoise - green - yellow - orange - fuchsia. On this shirt, the green developed automatically from the overlap of yellow with turquoise.

I like to work on a surface of 1/4" wire grid, a material that is sold with the name of 'hardware cloth' in the US; I'm not sure what it is called in your area, but it is just like a window screen with the wires spaced much further apart. Window screen, with its smaller holes, is not as satisfactory because some dye tends to sit on top of the screen in a puddle, so your design gets muddied. You can lay the shirt out directly on the grass, but although the dye is not harmful to the grass, the soda ash is, so this can be hard on the lawn. I think that the folks in the wonderful True Tie Dye video use some sort of rack (I need to go watch that DVD again, for occasions like this one). Some people use layers of absorbent newspaper. The problem with laying the shirt flat on a solid work surface is that the dye can puddle underneath, resulting in muddy colors where all three primary colors have merged. Another option is to hang the wet, soda-ash-soaked shirt up on a line or from a hanger, outside (using plastic clothespins only since wood clips will transfer dye onto other clothing), and drip the dye down the length of the garment.

If you like to see some little swirls of purple against the turquoise, or little swirls of orange against the yellow, then it is good to use fuchsia red MX-8B (reactive red 11) as your red. If you want smooth, even color gradations, it is better to use red MX-5B (reactive red 2) as your red. These are the color names for some popular Procion MX type dyes; you can also use Drimarene K dyes for this sort of dyeing and for tie-dyeing, as well, but I have not yet investigated their individual properties.

If you do not already have a source for fiber reactive dyes, since you are located in Australia, I recommend that you order them by mail from Batik Oetoro, Kraftkolour, or Silksational. Contact information for these and other companies around the world are listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page. Scroll down on that page to the section on Australia.

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