How to Tie-Dye a T-shirt with a Spiral or Swirl

A white or very light-colored shirt made of 100% cotton

Latex gloves

Dyes -- I prefer fiber reactive dyes, but you could also use Rit dye or a similar product. You could also purchase a tie dye kit.

Squirt Bottles

A bucket

A Drop Cloth to protect your work area

Rubber Bands

If You Are Using Fiber Reactive Dyes, You Will Also Need the Following Supplies:

Dust mask or respirator to wear while mixing dye powders

Soda ash. (Mix up soda ash solution according to the instructions included with your dyes, and soak your shirt in the solution ahead of time, before following the rest of the instructions in this guide.)

Synthropol detergent for washing your dyed shirt

How To Create and Tie Dye the Spiral:

Before you start, put on old clothes that can get stained. If you have long hair, tie it back out of the way. Spread your drop cloth over your work area to protect it. Put on your gloves.

Place the shirt on a flat surface, and lay it as flat as possible. Determine the point from which you want the spiral to originate; usually it will be in the center of the shirt or at a point slightly higher than center, but the choice is yours.

After you've decided the point of origin, pinch the fabric at that point between your thumb and forefingers and slowly twist the fabric in the clockwise direction until all of it has been turned. Manipulate the twisted fabric into a tight bundle, maintaining a neat spiral as much as possible. Then secure the bundle with rubber bands; use the rubber bands to form 6 or more pie-shaped wedges.

I've uploaded a photo slideshow with more photos. You can click here to see a photo of how the shirt looks at this point in the tie-dye process.

Using colors of dye mixed up in your squirt bottles, squirt dyes onto the shirt, making sure to saturate the shirt with dye; if you don't want white areas to appear in your design, you should make sure to get down deep into the folds of the shirt. You will probably have to move the rubber bands around a bit as you work.

The second photo in the slideshow will give you an idea of how the shirt looks at this point.

The first photo posted in this article shows how that tie-dyed shirt turned out. It was dyed using purple, pink and blue fiber reactive dyes that were mixed using the colors in the Jacquard Tie Dye Kit. Notice how the finished shirt looks lighter than it did while being dyed? That is typical; the colors usually look lighter when they are dry. Please keep that in mind while you are working, and adjust colors accordingly!

Multicolored swirls are eye-catching and bold. If you prefer a more subdued tie-dye, you can create a swirl using only one color of dye. The second photo in this article shows a blue T-shirt that was created using only one color of dye.

After Dyeing:

After your shirt has been dyed, you will want to be very careful when you move it, because it will be saturated with dyes. You don't want the colors to contaminate each other. From this point on you will want to refer to the manufacturer's instructions in order to know how long to let the dyes penetrate, and how to properly care for it.

If you are using fiber reactive dyes, you will want to carefully place the shirt inside a plastic bag and set it aside out of the way for approx. 24 hours. Then you can unwrap it, remove the rubber bands, rinse it and wash it with synthropol. Experienced dyers often wash & rinse 3 times in order to make sure the excess dye is fully removed. You can then dry it.

I hope you will enjoy your new tie-dyed shirt!