community of dyers

Your fabric has to be completely dry before you apply any resist to it that I can think of. I'm not sure how bad it would be to try to apply this glue as a resist to slightly damp fabric. It might weaken its seal to the fabric; if it did, it wouldn't perform as well, as a resist. I know that batik wax must never be applied to even slightly damp fabric, so I suspect there would be a problem with this resist, as well.

Then, after you put the glue on, you have to make sure it's absolutely dry before you apply dye to the fabric. You can use a hair-dryer, if necessary, to dry the glue. Otherwise it will take until the next day to dry, at least in my humid climate.

If the glue touches any other part of the fabric when it's wet, it WILL transfer, and then cause a partial resist effect if any dye has yet to reach it.

Don't ever apply any water-soluble resist to fabric and then do a soda ash presoak. The resist might come off altogether before the dye even hits it. I did that once with DEKA resist, fifteen years ago, for a baby blanket for my now-fourteen-year-old son, and it was so disheartening! I'd advise you to mix the soda ash with the dye and then squirt it on, then leave the shirt spread out flat while the dye reacts, so none of the resist transfers where you don't want it. Where do you live—is it cold enough now that you have to microwave it? You might prefer to apply heat in another way.

I must give you a warning about Elmer's Washable Blue School Gel, which is that the manufacturer could change the formula at any time, without telling us, and the changes might alter its ability to act as a resist. This is true of any proprietary product, but especially so when the primary purpose for which the stuff is manufactured is so different from the use we're putting it to. It would be good to get a recent update from anyone who's purchased and used the glue as a resist in the last year or so, and it would be good to do a test before using it in any large project. I have no reason to think that the formula has changed, but it could happen.

-Paula