community of dyers

You can get dye to penetrate more layers if the fabric is thin, less if it's thick. Fine woven rayon is easier to penetrate than a heavy Beefy-T. A sweatshirt can be very difficult. Dye will penetrate a little more if there's a bit of calsolene oil or detergent in your dyes, a little less without. Maybe a little more if the water is warmer, less if it's cold. More with unthickened dye, less with lots of alginate. The biggest difference is just from the amount of dye your pour into the piece, and how carefully you poke the nozzle of your bottle down into the folds, and how thoroughly you check to see if you've put in enough dye, before you stop.

It's important for many designs to fold your fabric in pleats, instead of wrapping it around and around, in order to minimize how many layers of fabric need to be penetrated. For example:

If you're careful with your pleating, then you can be sure to stick the nozzle of your bottle (or other applicator) well down into the folds, so that you're sure that the dye gets all the way into the design. Wearing gloves, stick your fingers inside the folds to see if there is still a lot of white, then add more dye if needed.

The inner layers are almost always lighter than the outer ones. This is particularly a problem if you fold a t-shirt so that the two halves of the same side are separated by a layer of fabric when you dye them. If you fold a t-shirt along a vertical line with the front facing out and the back getting folded inside, then the front side of the right half of the shirt doesn't lie right against the front half of the left side, and there ends up being more difference between the front right and the front left. One way to minimize this problem is to turn the shirt inside out, then push one half of the shirt inside the other half, one sleeve nesting inside the other one. Or you can just be sure to fold the two front halves against each other, turning the shirt inside-out first.

-Paula