Lookin' for fun and feelin' groovy

Last week, Jake needed a tie-dyed shirt, on very short notice, for a school assignment. We ran over to the craft store, bought a couple cheap t-shirts and a tie-dye kit, and got busy.

The results were fine for what he needed, but we weren't completely satisfied. Mistake #1: I'd picked shirts that were 50% cotton and 50% polyester (They were really inexpensive!). Of course, the poly fibers do not take the dye, so the colors ended up muted. Mistake #2: We did not have the luxury of time, and had to finish the shirts before the recommended time was up, which also caused the colors to be a bit dull. Mistake #3: We did not use enough dye. The kit claimed it could make up to 8 shirts (which I now know CANNOT possibly be true), so we thought we were ok. But we never got the dye deep into the folds of the shirts, and we ended up with much more white space than we wanted (which you cannot tell until you are unroll them). I also didn't feel that the colors mixed as well as I'd like, I thought I would get distinct green, orange and purple when mixing the blue, red and yellow (in the correct pairs, of course), but...not so much.

So today we decided to make some more, because it's fun, and because we thought we could do better. We bought 100% cotton t shirts this time, and bought three kits for four shirts. This time, we bought two types of kits: two kits with standard red, yellow and blue; and the third kit of indigo, purple, and green. We're much happier with the results, this time.

They just came out of the dryer:

Jake's shirt #1
He did this in the classic 'sunburst' pattern. Only problem is that the green is pretty light and sort of blending with the yellow, so you're not really seeing two distinct color rings there.

Jake's shirt #2
This was done in a spiral and looks great!

My shirt #1
I decided to experiment with a double spiral, and I really like the results!

My shirt #2
This one's a woman's cut t-shirt, done in a spiral. (This actually won't fit me right now, but I can't wait until I can wear it.) I'm really happy with the colors and pattern on this one. :D

I love how easy it is to use the kits, but the cost is a killer. I need to find a more inexpensive way to do this, but still as convenient as the kits.