Tiedying w/o a washing machine??

[NocturnalDaze]

I want to do some more tiedying but I don't have a washing machine so I have to lug all everything to moms for the final step...

My question is can I hand wash my stuff?

When the directions say to use a liquid soap do they mean hand soap, dish soap or laundry detergent?? Or is soap soap and it doesn't matter what kind I use???

TIA

[StarMama]

I'm not sure about the soap instruction, but I did a bunch of tie dying about a month ago, and just handwashing out *most* of the dye was a pain in the behind. The kit I got from dharma trading company also says to use synthaprol (sp) in the wash, which I'm not sure would be too safe on skin. If it was only a couple of pieces and you had a LOT of patience, I could see handwashing. But if you're doing a large batch, just from my experience, noooo way. It would take SO long, and your hands would be so sore by the time you were done...

but the good news, if you have to lug it somewhere, is that most kits tell you to let the dye sit for 24 hours anyways, so its not like you have to dye, then throw it in the wash immediately.

HTH!

[carrieanne]

I would say lug it to your mom's when it is still tied up. Then rinse it there then right in the washer. Even if you hand-wash with Synthrapol, it is not as effective as a washing machine for some reason (BTDT). The colors will run a bit on to any white on there when drying/sitting. so the white under the red will be pink and under the purple will be lt.blue/lavenderish, etc.

[stafl]

Some twenty years ago, when I was big into tie-dying, I used water soluble textile ink (like for silk-screening) instead of dye. It worked great, all you had to do was water it down to desired shade and consistency, soak your fabric, rinse, let it air dry overnight, untie, then get it real hot in the dryer. No special rinses or anything. I still have some very old shirts I made way back, and they have barely faded even through who knows how many washes. Plus the colors were way brighter than if you used some ordinary fabric dye, and didn't run into the white areas. If you let each color dry a little before using the next one, the colors didn't run into each other either.