Name: Lillie
Message: I want to tie dye a heart pattern. I noticed the instructions given under "learn folding techniques for tie dye" for diamonds, ovals and squares. I understand how to form pleats along the line but where do we place the rubber bandsin reference to the line? Are they placed along the line?

Yes, they are placed along the line.

The best instructions available for this sort of thing, short of actually taking a workshop directly from a famous tie-dyer, can be viewed on a DVD that actually shows you how to tie-dye a heart shape. It is much easier to understand a video than a series of drawings. The two videos I know that do an excellent job of explaining this are Michael Fowler's The Art of Tie-Dye and True Tie Dye's Advanced Tie Dye Techniques - Making Shapes and Mandalas.

Here also are the very useful instructions that were posted by Michael Fowler on his old Tie-dyed.com web site. (The photographs and text quoted below are copyrighted by Fiber-arts.com.)

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Michael Fowler's "Tie Dye Heart Pattern" instructions:
"1. Lay your prewashed blank apparel or fabric flat on a table.



"2. Wet the fabric until it is uniformly damp (spray bottle), but not dripping. Then, fold the fabric in half- down the middle of the fabric (as shown above). This step is similar to a heart cutout on paper.


"3. Create a heart template on cardboard/posterboard or draw a freehand half-heart. Use a fabric marker or heat-transfer pencil to temporarily markup the fabric.

"4. Accordion fold the fabric along the drawn heart-shape line, forcing it into a straight line.


"Note: Often hearts are made by stitching the shape and resist dyeing, the heart shape is created by the undyed, resisted areas. These illustrations detail how to fold a heart and the technique will also transfer to many other popular shapes.


"5. Once the arc of the curve is forced into a straight line, the fold becomes a straight accordion fold.




"6. Your accordion folded line should now reflect a small straight line (shown directly above).



"7. View the small portion above. Dye placed in the small area will create the dyed shape of the heart.



"8. Use cotton string to tie along the drawn line. To create a color ring (band) around the heart, tie an additional parallel band. (optional)

"To dye the heart, place a dye color in the smaller area next to the tied cotton string (or rubberband) and use your hands to squeeze/blend a solid color w/ little or no white areas. The heart looks great with or without a color band (parallel line of color placed on the outside of the heart line) to define the shape.

"The outside fabric color (bleed area) also defines the heart shape and you will also get a resist from the tied string that creates an outline of the heart. For further details on applying dye colors, view Michael Fowler's Art of Tie-Dye DVD. "

[end of quote from Michael Fowler's "Tie Dye Heart Pattern" instructions]
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