Making a Spiral Patterned Tie-Dye T-shirt

The spiral is the most common tie-dye design, partly because it’s easy to make. Its biggest advantages are that you can use many colors and it’s not very difficult to fold and apply the dye.

What You’ll Need to Make Your Shirt:

• dyes
• white cotton t-shirts
• extra chemicals, such as urea or soda ash: see dye instructions
• rubber bands
• drying rack
• latex or plastic gloves
• smocks
• plastic squirt bottles

How to Make a Spiral Tie-dye

1. Mix up the dyes, following the instructions on the dyes you have chosen. Many dyes, such as the popular procion dyes, are generally used in conjunction with other chemicals such as soda ash. Mix the correct quantity of dyes in the colors of your choice for the number of shirts you intend to make.
2. Once the dyes and shirts are prepared, you are ready to begin. To make a spiral design, your shirt should be damp. Spread it out on a large, smooth surface, such as a table. Pinch the shirt where you want the center of the spiral to be.
3. Twist the shirt in a circle in either direction. Keep twirling until the whole shirt is wrapped up. It should look a little bit like a hurricane on a weather map. You may have to tuck the ends in to make it circular.
4. Put two, three or four rubber bands on the shirt. They should hold it together and cross in the middle. The bands should divide the circular shirt into triangles, like pieces of a pie or pizza (see photo).
5. Using squirt bottles of dye, color each “piece of pie” a different color. Use the same colors on the top and bottom in the same place (see photos).
6. Set the shirt somewhere where it can sit and dry for 24-48 hours. Once the time is up, rinse well and dry.

Tips and Suggestions to Make Your Tie-Dye Shirt Look Better:

• When applying the colors, be sensitive to how colors blend with one another. Put the colors in rainbow order if you can. For example, red next to orange or purple, green next to blue or yellow. Avoid combinations like purple-yellow or blue-orange. The reason is that when making the shirts, the dyes tend to seep into one another. If the colors are close to one another in the color spectrum, this looks good. If the colors are not close to one another in the spectrum, they’ll make an ugly brown when they mix.
• T-shirts should be all cotton, not polyester or 50/50. Only cotton will take and hold the dyes. 50/50 shirts come out looking pale and faded.
• Be careful not to get any dye on your clothes when making tie-dye t-shirts: it will stain!
• Tie-dyeing is a fun activity to do with kids.
• Variation: to get a shirt with straight colored lines coming out from the center (see photo #5), fold and band the shirt as if making a spiral. Instead of dyeing "pie pieces," however, color the top of the folded shirt one color and the bottom another color.

A spiral tie-dye

Properly folded and banded

Use squirt bottle to color triangles

Be sure to get both sides!

A colorful variation

Print Article

Email Article

View All Articles

How to subscribe to feeds