What brand is it? and what store(s) can I get it from? How many t-shirts can I dye with it? Also, around how much will the kit cost?

Whatever you do, don't use all-purpose dyes for tie-dyeing cotton. Rit dye is a hot water dye, best used by boiling the fabric in the dye for half an hour or longer. If you try to do a multicolor tie-dye with all-purpose dye, the colors will run together, fade quickly, and bleed forever in the laundry. It is very important to use a good tie-dye kit, not Rit dye. Your results will be much brighter and prettier, and will last for years instead of a few weeks.

The best tie-dye kits contain fiber reactive dyes. These are cool water dyes, which are set with washing soda (also known as soda ash). You cannot find these dyes in a pharmacy or grocery store, but any decent crafts store will sell them, and so will most fabric stores. Sometimes even Walmart will sell a good tie-dye kit.

Good brands of tie-dye kits include Jacquard, Dylon, Tulip, and Rainbow Rock. In the US, Jacquard is the best kit you can buy in a crafts store, but the others can give good results, too. Jacquard sells a "Funky Groovy Tie-Dye Kit" which will dye five t-shirts, or a larger Tie-Dye Kit which will dye fifteen shirts. If you mail order them from MisterArt, they charge $7.82 for the smaller kit and $12.99 for the larger one.

One of the best places to buy tie-dyeing supplies in the US is Dharma Trading Company (by mail order unless you live near San Rafael, California). They sell the best type of dyes (Procion MX dyes) and an incredible array of white cotton clothing that is perfect for dyeing. Dyes purchased in two-ounce jars (you need turquoise, fuchsia, and lemon yellow, or chose your favorite colors from over a hundred different color choices) are much cheaper than those bought in tie-dye kits, though those are still a much better buy than Rit dye, which will dye only half a pound of fabric per $3 box. The kits also contain urea, soda ash, and plastic gloves. Be sure when you buy shirts to dye that you get only 100% cotton or dyeable rayon, and don't get the stain-resistant type of shirt, because they resist dye, too.

For more information, see:
• How to Tie Dye - Complete Instructions
• Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World
• How can I fix the shirts I just tie-dyed with Rit dye so that they'll quit bleeding in the wash and stay bright?

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[This material was first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on June 7, 2008.]