Natural Beauty: DIY Wine Tie-Dye

One of my softest tees also happened to be off-white, and at some point, it gained a most unfortunate stain.  If the shirt had been any other color, the stain would have gone unnoticed. 
 
I decided to take action and dye the shirt... but I wanted to do it with materials that I already had, and in a more natural way.  It seems only appropriate that I decided to tie-dye my tee-shirt with a bottle of Merlot.


***Enjoy the alpaca sweater images***
 
 
 
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

• a white shirt (or off-white, or cream, or not a shirt... the options are limitless)
• about a cup and a half of wine, or more if you're thirsty! (red wines will work best for dying; I used a Merlot)
• a glass to hold the wine
• rubber bands
• a zip-lock bag big enough to hold the clothing
• a bowl to contain your mess!
• a baster (not necessary, but helpful)

 


1. Like any tie-dye project, I began by choosing a style of fold: I did an accordion fold and tied off small bunches with rubber bands, but of course, any style would work.
 

 
 
If you've ever tie-dyed before, that part is easy.  If you haven't, it's simple: fold the shirt back and forth on top of itself, and then tightly rubber band sections, like shown in the pictures.  Especially for this project, since I only used one color, one might argue that what I did above wasn't even quite necessary, but the finished product does show some subtle lines and gradient, so I would recommend including that step.
 
2. Next, I used a big bowl to contain my mess, because red wine stains (that's the whole idea, anyway!).  I used a baster to suck up the wine and insert it further into the creases of the shirt.  Careful with the baster - hold it sideways when transferring from glass to bowl to avoid spills! 

Personally, I wanted the wine to soak into every part of the shirt; I didn't want white to remain.  After basting, I poured a bit of excess across the whole thing, just to give it a bit more to soak up.  I probably used about a cup and a half of wine total.

***NOTE: It is almost essential to sip as you dye your shirt.  Red wine is good for you!***
 

 

 

 

3. Once I was satisfied with the amount of dye in the tee-shirt (that is, I couldn't see any speck of white, even between folds), I sopped up the remaining wine in the bowl and put the shirt into a zip-lock bag. 

 

4. Typically, I think that you are supposed to wait 12-24 hours; the longer you wait, the darker the product will be.  I left my shirt soak for about 20 hours, removed it from the bag (with a big whiff of Merlot), and rinsed it with cold water until the runoff water was clear - that way, you remove the excess dye from the shirt before wash or wear.

 

 

The finished product!  I'll upload a picture of me wearing it... when it's not wet anymore!

 

 

Be careful your first time washing it!!  Consider hand-washing for the first time, or else the wine might spread to the rest of the load in the washer.

 

My next idea for house-hold, natural dye:  a black or green tea! 

 

Be natural.