Time frame

[lilah]

Hello all,

I'm curious how long it takes (generally) to create high-quality tie-dyed shirts. I'd love a ballpark average of time spent per shirt.

I just spent the weekend producing T-shirts & sleepshirts for/with my extended family (25 shirts) and with the set-up, etc, it took two full days. We spent a lot of time making interesting designs for many of them (not just basic spirals), but I'm exhausted!!! The shirts turned out gorgeous, which was a nice reward for the hard work, but I'm wondering if there is some way to economize time or if the amount of time it took was fairly standard.

Undoubtedly the estimates will vary greatly but I'd still like to know. 

Cheers!

Lilah   

[tiedyejudy]

First off, I usually don't do just one shirt at a time.  Let's say I'm going to do a bunch of swirls.  My maximum at one time is about 9.  I start off by tyeing them all and soda soaking them.  I'm assuming I have already prepared the soda ash solution.  Time to tie would be about 10 minutes, soaking time 15, 1-2 minutes to squeeze out the excess soda ash solution.  Then I set them on a wire rack to air-dry for at least a day.  So let's say I have used about 18 minutes so far.  Next is mixing the dyes.  For a 6-color swirl, I would estimate at least 30 minutes mixing time.  Fast forward to dyeing day.  I have actually timed myself for the dyeing step... it averages about 3 minutes per side for each shirt, so that's about 54 minutes for 9.  So I put that at 107 minutes total for 9 shirts or about 12 minutes per shirt total.  That's why I don't usually do more than 9 at a time.  Now if you want to talk Low Water Immersion, that's a different story, much less time consuming.  There is no pre-soaking, and to apply the dyes you just pour over the garment in a bucket or container where you have jammed it in tightly; mix the proper amount of soda ash solution (ala Paula Burch's method), pour over at the proper time, and the rest of the time is waiting for the dye and soda ash to do it's thing!  My back doesn't hurt after doing the LWI method... it does if I do direct application on too many garments at one session.

Judy

[lilah]

Hi Judy,

Yes, I can see how doing many of a kind would make things easier.  I did three or four all of one design at one time this weekend and it moves things along more quickly - I guess you find a "groove". I told my family that next time we do tie-dye everyone will have to choose from one or two designs! 

I have not tried LWI yet. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime this week. I have some dye left over from Friday that I'm trying to use up before it goes off, so I have a few more direct apps to finish. My back definitely hurts!

Thanks Judy!

Lilah

[ktaltre]

When I took M. Fowler's class, he said he could tie a shirt in 1 minute - any shirt/any tie. And he did. And his shirts were high quality.
Of course he had been doing this for years and years. Eventually he gave himself tendinitis - he said he couldn't work for months.
After I took the class, I gave myself tendinitis - I tied so much.
I think it takes me between 5 to 20 minutes per shirt (just the tie), depending on the fold and whether I use string or sinew.
I limit myself to four to six shirts per tie session. It's easier for me to dye 4 to 6 shirts a session too.
I like to tie one day and dye the next.
I'll never be a production tie-er, but I can produce a lot shirts when I'm on a roll.
k. taltre

[tiedyejudy]

I have not tried LWI yet. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime this week. I have some dye left over from Friday that I'm trying to use up before it goes off

I have lots of dye left over from previous projects, and used some for LWI dyeing this weekend.  Here are 2 pieces that I particularly like:


I'm not sure how old the dyes were that I used, but with LWI, even if they come out faded or pale, you can always overdye.  In these cases, I love the 'marbleized' look I got from the first dye bath, so didn't do any overdyeing.  And my back doesn't hurt...

Judy

[lilah]

Hi K. ,

I cannot imagine a shirt per minute! I just received my copy of M. Fowler's dvd from Amazon last week and it has made tying much easier but I will never be that fast! I agree with you that tying one day then dyeing the next works well (for me). And I don't think I'll be doing 25 shirts again anytime soon. 5 or 6 is now my limit.

Judy,
I used some left over dye for my first LWI this week. Not the best results, but not a nightmare, either! I don't have a pic of that shirt yet. And no back pain!!! I'll need to perfect my technique, but I'm excited about experimenting with a new style. I really like that brown tank.

I've tried repeatedly to post a photo of most of the family (10 people missing) in their shirts the day after the Great Dye of '08. I tried inserting an image and attaching the jpeg (correctly sized). Help?

Lilah