Two weeks ago, I was poking around on Tumblr when I came across Noah Emrich’s photo of himself in a shirt he had cut the collar off and hand dyed. I enjoy the time and energy that people put into clothing as wearable art and realized that dying a shirt would be a fun activity.
Later that day I was on campus running errands, so I hopped over to H&M to pick up an inexpensive, white, 100% cotton button up to test out dying on. I bought two bottles of inexpensive syrah from the grocery store near my house, choosing a fuller and more textured wine that would have a lot to offer the cotton, and headed home to soak my shirt.
The shirt in a bowl, held down by a plate and a 10lb weight.
I left the shirt soaking for three hours, then took it outside and hung it to dry in the sun. Seattle was having an especially delightful 75 degree day, so an hour or so in the sun did the trick.
Drying.
After the shirt dryed, I did a quick cold wash in the bathtub with a cup of white vinegar to let the shirt bleed a bit, but very little came out. I was really happy with the final product and am looking forward to trying this with other clothes in the future.
The shirt bleeding out in the tub.
The final product!
After I finished this, a few friends commented on it, and one pointed me to a great list of other dye materials.
