Ombre T-Shirts - Yes, Please.

I'm not gonna lie. I've been excited to try this for a while (bless you, Pinterest).  Ombre dying is EVERYWHERE.  I love this look, but my early forays into tie-dying in, like, fifth grade never really went that well.  My t-shirts usually looked like a clown threw up on them, and were definitely not fashion-worthy...possibly not even dirty-rags-to-wash-your-car worthy.  Although, has tie-dye ever been fashion worthy?  I feel like that might be up for debate.

This ombre stuff, though, this I figured I could do.  It's a simple dip-dye, and looks so nice if you do it right.  HOWEVER (and I can't help laughing at myself as I type this) - you might want to take a few things into consideration before you start.  Like, not dying your shirt outside on a windy day.  Or perhaps not dying it outside at all. Or perhaps not trying to do a dying tutorial by yourself, outside, on a windy day.  Whatever.  Bottom line:  I'm sorry for the poor picture quality and the lack of pictures.  Lesson learned - I need a studio and an assistant.

So, here's what you'll need:

1. A clean, plain white t-shirt (I used the same shirt that I did my pit stain experiment on).
2. A container in which to dye your shirt. I used (and don't get grossed out on me now) a cat litter pan that didn't work for our cat.  Don't worry, I thoroughly disinfected it...several times.  I just didn't want it to go to waste!  However, if cat litter pans aren't your thing, you can use a sink, plastic bucket, a kiddie pool, whatever.  Just as long as it's not too big (or small) and you can add about 3-4 inches of water.
3. Dye.  I used, as you can see, Rit in Pearl Grey.  I also purchased it in Petal Pink.  There are other clothing dyes out there, but Rit is probably the best known.  Let me know if you find a better dye!
4. Salt, vinegar, or other ingredients that the directions of your dye might require.  Mine required salt.
5. Hot water.
6. A utensil to stir up your dye.  I used my least-favorite wooden spoon from our kitchen.  It leaves splinters in the food you're trying to cook.  Enough is enough.
7. A place to rinse and dry your shirt.  

For some reason, I decided to do everything the least efficient way possible.  There was a lot of running back and forth rinsing, praying that dye didn't drip on the carpet, etc.  So, make sure that everything you need is as close as possible.  Okay, so once you've gathered up everything you need, here's what you do:

1. Read your dye directions.  I fudged mine a little bit, but read them anyway before you read my directions.
2. Pour about 3-4 inches of hot water into the bottom of your tub.  
3. Stir in dye and salt (I used the whole package of dye and about 1/2 a cup of salt - again, your dye should have directions for this).




To the left you see the wet shirt, crumpled up in a ball while I took the picture.  To the right you see a solution that looks the the Draught of Living Death from Harry Potter.  Scary.

4. Rinse your shirt in hot water, squeezing excess water out and unwrinkling it the best you can.  
5. Okay, here comes the tricky part (and the part that I couldn't document, because my husband                           decided that hiring an assistant wasn't in our budget).  Dip your shirt up as high as you want the dye to go.  I decided to dip mine right up to the armpits. Swish it around a little bit to avoid a solid dye line from forming.  Don't leave it in for too long!  Dip it in, and pull it out almost immediately.    
6. For your next dip, dip your shirt until you're about 2/3 of the way up from your original dye line.  Leave it in for about 10 seconds, swishing it around again to avoid solid lines.
7. For the last dip, dip in your shirt until you're about a 1/3 of the way up from your original dye line.  Leave this one in for about 20-30 seconds, still swishing.
8. Rinse your shirt in hot water, gradually lowering the temperature of the water until you're rinsing it in cool water, and the water is running more or less clearly.  Tip:  I haven't tried this yet, but I've read that if you don't want to lose some of the boldness of the color, don't rinse right away.  Gently squeeze out your excess liquid from top to bottom, and let your shirt dry first before you rinse it out.
9. After your initial rinse, gently wash your shirt with mild detergent in warm water.  Squeeze out excess liquid and hang up to dry.

It was freakin' hot and windy the day I did this, so my shirt dried in record time.  And here is the final result:

Through the rinsing, some of the color faded; also, the color appears darker when it's wet.  So, if you're freaking out thinking that your color is too dark, remember that it will lighten.  Conversely, if you're going for a bolder color, make sure to adjust your dip times for color loss.  I'm wishing that the color in my shirt was a bit darker, though I do like the subtlety of the grey.  I'm excited to try the pink!  The pink and the grey together might have been cool too.  Someone try it!  

So, go my little minions!  Create! And let me know how it turns out!