Tie dye in miniature

I'm hosting a "Summer of Love, Remembering Woodstock (1969) ATC swap and it is nearly due. Thursday I decided to tie dye some fabric for the backgrounds. My hands don't work all that well for pinch grip, so I had a bit of trouble trying to twist the 2.5" X 3.5" pieces of cloth into a swirl to create the traditional tie dye effect. To make matters worse, I had no small rubber bands and the big ones I had (courtesy of the post office) would not hold the material tight enough. I decided to use clothes pins to hold the "wrap" in place. However, that meant I couldn't microwave the fabric using the low immersion technique I used before. What to do, what to do? I slept on it.

I went to the basement with my pristine clothes pins and placed them in a tin can. I finally knew how to heat set the dye without using the microwave. I would simply "bake" them in the toaster oven. At this point, I had NO idea if this plan would work, or if I would be starting over the next day in a new and different direction.

I got out my dyes and decided to use only the liquid ones for this project. Seemed like sensible thing to do. The straws are in place of pippets which I don't have.

I began with green.

Holding my finger over one end of the straw, I was able to suck some green dye into it. By slowly releasing my finger, I was able to sort of control where the dye would go.

Next came red. To keep from contaminating any of the dyes, I used one straw per color.

The next color I applied was blue.

By this time I was getting a mess on my table and the fabric was dripping into the can and all over the protective paper on my work surface. My final color was peach, and I knew at this point I had to stop.

I set the can and clothes pins on the tray very much like how they are set in the photo. I set the toaster oven for 300 degrees F. and proceeded to clean up the studio, putting a few things away I had previously taken to the basement. I allowed the pieces to "bake" for about 15 minutes, then checked them. They were still wet and not very hot, so I allowed them another 15 minutes.

Anticipation set in when I opened the toaster oven door. Would the technique work? I nearly burned my hand getting the tray out of the oven. After the pieces had cooled a bit, I began removing the clothes pins.

I was thrilled. OK, it may not be real tie dye, but I really, really like the results I got.

They all turned out great except for one that fell from the tin and got too close to the heating element. It burned holes into the fabric. I will find a use for it, but not on this swap.

I'm totally psyched about this project because I was not at all sure I had the ability to pull it off. I'm thrilled and now I hate to cover the fabric at all. Click to enlarge the photos.