Tie-dye with string

1   Wash and dry your cotton fabric item to remove any potential residue from the manufacturing process, thus making it more receptive to colour. Use the concertina technique by folding, the tea towel with small concertina folds either vertically, horizontally or diagonally. Wrap a non-elastic string around the folds. Tighten as you go along and finish with a knot.

2   Use the bulls eye technique by pulling up a small tuft of fabric in the middle of the tea towel and tying a tight knot around the tuft with a piece of string. Now wrap the string around the tea towel, making a sausage as shown in the photo. The longer the sausage, the larger the circle pattern. Tighten as you go along and finish with a knot.

3   Cover the table with plastic and use disposable plastic gloves when tie-dyeing. Make a dye bath for 350 g cotton fabric by dissolving 0.5 kg fine kitchen salt in 1 l boiling water in a tub.

4   Pour another 4 l of water into the tub so that the final temperature is between 30°C and 60°C. The warmer the water, the darker and more intense the colour. The colder the water, the lighter the colour. Add 50 ml fabric dye to the tub and 100 g fixing agent. Stir until the fixing agent is dissolved.

5   Place the tea towel in the dye bath and leave for 5-20 min. The longer you leave it in the tub, the darker the colour. The shorter, the lighter the colour.

6   Remove the tea towel from the tub and remove the string with a pair of scissors. Rinse several times in cold water until the water is clean. Then wash the tea towel with washing detergent in the washing machine at 40°C.