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I'm going to teach you how to do a bulls-eye pattern, which is a favorite amongst kids
and adults as well, and you can use them for all different purposed. In this one I just
use one color, but I'm going to show you two ways. One, making the bulls-eye with just
one color like this and the other making each one of the circles of the bulls-eye a different
color. So I'm starting by explaining how you make the bulls-eye. It's so easy.
You have your fabric pre-wet and you pinch on what you want to be the center of the bulls-eye.
You tie a section of it and you've pretty much made the first ring of your bulls-eye.
If you want it to be closer the center you just need to put your rubber band closer to
the center of the pinch, but I don't want it like that. So I'm going to build my second
ring of the bulls-eye by pinching the section immediately below, so I'm keeping my rings
at about an inch, an inch and a half distant.
Again, you want your rubber bands to be really tight, so the dye can't pass through it. So
I've made two rings on my bulls-eye already. I'm going to make a third one and you can
add as many rings as you want. At some point, if your rubber bands are too close together,
there won't be a clear separation between the two resists, so you want to always try
to keep them at least a quarter inch apart.
But besides that, you can have as many as you want. I'm going to add my final one, and
at this point it's easier for me to tie it from the other end. Always remembering to
get it very tight. This is it. This is my bulls-eye before I dye it. So if I want it
to be just one color, like the example I showed, I would just dunk it in a dye bath and leave
it there for one hour. Then rinse it and it will be white on the color that I chose. So
I'm going to dunk this one here.
And I'm going to prepare, quickly a second one, which I'll explain how to do the different
colors. So again, pinching in the center, adding my first ring, and maybe on this one
I'll keep it simple and I'll make it just three rings. I'm adding my first ring, second
ring. This is a great project to do with kids or even with your friends, and you can do
it on t-shirts or any other garments.
But you could also just do a bulls-eye on fabric and then transform it into a game,
like a toss game or something like that, because then you have your target pretty much made.
Last ring, okay. So I have four different sections which will be for different rings
on my bulls-eye. And I can make them all different colors. So I'll start by soaking my fabric
in the dye activator solution, which has the dye activator or washing soda dissolved in
it. So you want to soak it for about five minutes. After five minutes you just take
it out, and you want to wring it out to take out the excess, and then put it out on the
table.
I'm going to choose some colors, maybe some reds, some yellow, some blue and maybe the
last one, some purple. So my first ring I will want to be red, so I'm just going to
apply the red straight into it. And then the second one I like blue and finally, the yellow.
The colors will sort of blend into each other in the parts that the resist wasn't really
that good. And also they can make these darker lines that you see in here, kind of this radiant
type effect and it will be really neat. After you apply your color you just need to wrap
it in a plastic bag. Let it cure 4 to 24 hours and then this is how you make a bulls-eye
with tie dye.