The obvious connotations associated with Tie Dye still exist in this glossy era of 2009 - hippies in the sixties smoking pot, indulging in endless acoustic guitar covers of Nam anthems, and swanning about in daisy fields flashing hairy pits and scruffy sandals.   But put down your prejudiced gauntlet, as Tie Dye is scientifically proven to be amazing.  We enlisted a ‘How To’ expert to explain how to do the circle and spiral dyes.

WORDS: SHAUNA TRANTER

CIRCLE METHOD

You need:

- Fabric dye such as Dylon, for this demo we used three colours
- Plastic application bottles
- A white 100% cotton t-shirt
- Rubber bands
- Rubber gloves
- Plastic bag
- Washing detergent
- Plastic bowl or bucket

1. You need to start by mixing the dye. Pour it carefully into the plastic bottles and apply warm water until diluted, then shake it really hard and fast. Do this with all the colours, for our example we used three.

2.Get the t-shirt you want to dye and dampen it with water to prepare it for the next stage.

3. The rubber bands will come really handy for this part - you need to pinch the centre of the t-shirt, lift it and then tie it up quite tightly. You need to continue this until you get something that looks like a sausage.