Tie Dye Indigo Kit

Dying with real indigo is a bit more work than cracking open a box of Rit, but the results are totally worth it. There really isn't another blue the comes close to the color of indigo! The kit comes with some interesting information about the history of indigo dying and different ways of using the dye, and a quick stop at Wikipedia will teach you a bit more if you're interested. I'd recommend making sure you stock up on gloves and buying some more rubber bands, as well as picking up a 5 gallon bucket with lid at your local hardware store. All of those things make the dying a bit less of a mess, but you'll probably end up with bluish hands at the end anyway. This is a great kit for starters, it comes with everything you need, it's very easy to use, and it will dye quite a lot of fabric. We even saved the dye and used it a week after, and while the results weren't as vibrant, they were lovely nonetheless.

It comes with pretty detailed instructions that were easy to follow. It was a lot of fun dyeing. The kit comes with plenty of binding supplies (rubber bands and one set of wooden blocks). They can all be reused multiple times if you're careful and take the time to unwrap the rubber bands instead of cutting them. I would recommend getting more binding supplies if you plan on doing large pieces of fabric or multiple pieces of fabric (so that you don't have to wait for the first piece to be unbound and the second piece to be bound, before dyeing the second piece). Make sure you use a bucket you don't care about. It will be stained blue and smell kind of like pee forever. Just get a $5 Home Depot bucket with a lid. I was able to use my dye even 2 weeks after I first mixed it, but it starts to lose its dyeing strength after the first week. It's a very good kit for both beginners and advanced users, because the results depend on the user's experience and not the materials. This was my first kit and I am planning on buying another one even though I'm no longer a noob.

This indigo dye kit is great! I've purchased 5 of these over the course of the last year for different projects and it's always yielded consistent results. It has everything you need except for a 5 gallon bucket, which I keep and just reuse for every new batch of indigo dye. I follow the directions for mixing and like to leave the bucket with the lid on outside for about an hour before I start dipping. I generally use this to create an indigo-dipped ombre effect on textiles and rope and find that 6 separate dips is the perfect amount to go from a medium blue to a rich, deep and dark indigo. Sometimes if I need to start lighter I'll pour some of the solution into a separate tupperware filled with water to get a diluted mix to start. It doesn't matter how long you dip the piece into the solution for, it's more about letting that one coat oxidize for at least 5-10 minutes between dips. Afterwards I'll rinse it with water to get some of the bloom residue off and we're good to go! A tip that I have for rope and other pieces that may have hard-to-reach crevices is to dip it in and while wearing a glove, squeeze the piece underwater as you bring it up. You should see it bubble on the surface which shows that you're getting the air out and forcing indigo dye into the rope.

This is a great kit, we dyed a bunch of items!! Really easy to use and super fun! We did buy some extra rubber bands because we knew we were doing a lot of tie dye.

I'm a total beginner when it comes to Shibori dying. I studied up on it through Pinterest posts and it was a huge success. I bought all cotton painters tarps from Amazon and soaked them in bleach for 8 hours then rinse and washed them. It made a lovely linen like material. Then I did my dying. When the tarps were all dyed and dried I made porch swing covers and pillows for the porch as well. This little kit has everything you might need to do basic dying but because I wanted to do two Shibori dye techniques I used rope (Arashi Shibori) and also a PVC pipe (for pole wrapping) and twine. The instructions are really well written and they even give you a short version and a detailed version along with the history of indigo blue dying. I used a 5 gallon bucket with a lid to do the dying. I was able to dye for 3 days but the best results were on the first day. I prepared my projects, soaked and squeezed them out first. I stirred the vat as directed and hand scooped the bloom foam stuff off to one side of the vat. I was able to dye several things at once being careful not to let them touch the bottom of the bucket where they might get undissolved dye on them. I just held them for 5 minutes while they were in the dye bath (you might get yourself a little chair to sit on for the long 5 minutes). Once they were dyed 3-4 times with a 20 minute oxygenating process between the dye baths I then let then took off the wrappings and spread them on the grass to dry. Once dried I put them in the washing machine and on the rinse cycle then ran them through a wash cycle. I did 3- 6 x 9 foot drop cloths, several t shirts, a white sheet and 2 dresses. I could have dyed a lot more. It really dyes a lot and the results are fantastic just be sure you only dye cotton fabrics. If it has polyester in it it won't take the dye. I just poured the unused dye on the grass and it didn't even show or hurt the grass at all. It was so much fun!!! Well worth the $$$

I'm knocking a star off because my kit did not produce a "bloom"— a foamy build up on the surface of the vat, which the instructions say to set aside during dying. I even let the vat sit for an hour and a half, and... no bloom. Natural indigo vats always produce blooms, so this was disappointing and killed the experience for me a little bit. I might have gotten an old kit — I noticed the indigo crystals had lumped together in a big chunk in the plastic container... That said, the indigo bath still worked so I went with it! I think I got good color with the kit, but since I'm a novice I'm not sure what truly "good" color is! I ran a depth of color experiment where I dipped swatches of canvas multiple times in the vat. I would allow the pieces to oxidize for 5 minutes between dips. I found the best color range for the following dips: 1 second, 1 dip (light baby blue) 10 seconds, 1 dip 30 seconds, 1 dip 1 minute, 2 dips 1 minute, 4 dips 1 minute, 6 dips (deep blackish navy blue) The times between did not show any difference in color depth than their surrounding swatches. It's very important to allow your pieces time outside of the vat to oxidize (at least 5 minutes between dips), or else you will not achieve good depth of color. I found I got faster oxidization by hanging my piece up over an open window — if you have a window over your kitchen sink, this is a perfect spot. The instructions say to allow 15 minutes to oxidize, but I think that's overkill — once the piece turns blue and there is no green left, it's done! It's important that you *hang* your pieces when they are oxidizing — if the piece is touching anything, the parts that touch anything will not oxidize. If you don't do this, it's no biggie – it just means you'll spend more time flipping your piece to get all the fabric that wasn't in contact with the air to oxidize... save time and just hang it up! Other details that helped me along: - I scoured my fabric with soda ash prior to dying. You can find instructions for how to scour online. This will allow you to achieve the best depth of color. - I wore high and thick plastic gloves... they were great because they allowed me to dip my arms deeper into the vat, which the cheap blue ones that came with the kit would not allow me to do. I could also take the gloves off and do other things while I was waiting for pieces to oxidize. - I bought a 5 gallon bucket with a lid from the hardware store, it was only $8. - I placed a long wooden stick (1"x1"x1") over my bucket so that when I lifted my pieces up, the drips would hit the wooden stick instead of dripping back into the vat. The drips would travel along the stick, and then drip down back into the bucket along the outer edge. This allowed me to minimize dripping / swishing / splashing. - When I stored my vat, I placed it next to my apartment's gas heater, set it to 70 degrees, and wrapper a big wool blanket around it to keep it warm. - I used a foldable drying rack to hang my pieces to dry, and spread out a big rag underneath the drying rack to catch the drips. - I carefully labeled and saved my swatches for later use — I intend to buy another kit in the future, this was so fun! I hope this information will help you with whatever you're making!

I was intimidated at first; the dye bath didn't have the yellow green color. I dipped my fabric anyway. Like magic, my yellow fabric turned dark blue right before my eyes. After about 20 or 30 minutes I rinsed and washed the fabric. It could have used a second dip in the dye but it was a beautiful blue (this was about 6-7 yards). Another type of fabric used resulted in a richer color and I will finish dying that one (about 6 yards). I also dyed an old sweatshirt, a bathroom rug and 8 washcloths. The blue color is so nice and rich compared to other blue dyes I have used in the past. (The smell is another story as it reminds me of the walrus habitat I visited at a zoo years ago but never forgot the smell, but don't let that stop you. It is well worth it.

I have bought many of these Indigo Kits over the years since they makes an easy and fun project for adults and children. The kit includes everything you need to dye up to 15 tee shirts or 5 yards of fabric (except for the tee-shirts and fabric). It makes 4 gallons which is a lot. When I have a small project and do not need 4 gallons, I simply weight the 3 ingredients provided and divide them by 1/5, 1/4, 1/2, etc., and reducing the water by the same amount, saving the remainder for another time. The indigo dye-bath only lasts for a few days at the most because it degrades when it comes in contact with oxygen. Also, if i want a really dark blue, mixing it using less water (1/2 the water makes a really dark blue). Conversely, you can also re-dip many times to obtain darker colors. The booklet of instructions are well written and easy to understand. They include many design ideas to get the creative ideas flowing.