For the first two colours there was a cost of about $18 Australian.

On a disability pension the cost of the dye takes a lot of fun out of the process and has meant a wait of two weeks between each colour.

Wear rubber gloves. (My gloves had a hole in one finger and my finger was bright blue for five days) Weigh the fabric. 250g or 8oz of dry fabric is right for one tin of dye. I didn't weigh my fabric but three t-shirts felt less than 250g. It worked.

 Wash the fabric and leave damp. Once again I didn't. I washed the shirts and then had to wait a week before I could afford the first tin of dye. I took a spray bottle full of water and attempted to dampen the t-shirts. The spray bottle had been used for a Eucalyptus Oil mixture and no longer worked. I used the t-shirts dry.

To a flat bowl add enough cold water to cover the fabric and allow easy movement. I only had a standard household bucket. The agitation wasn't as easy as it could have been.

Pierce tin. Dissolve contents thoroughly in 500ml (1pint) hottest tap water. There is no hot water in the laundry so I boiled some water in a electric jug. The only 500ml container I had was a plastic milk bottle. I added the boiling water to that. The milk bottle shrivelled and started leaking all over my gloved hands. I had already started adding dye powder to it so I flung it from hand to hand until all the dye was in there and then jammed the whole thing into the bucket of cold water. Somehow there was no dye spilt . That worked !

 Stage 2 and the rest of The Process coming soon........