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Design And Dye Your Own Tangram Sweater [How-to]

DIY pattern-making for beginners.

Remember Tangrams? Those colorful, geometric wooden shapes you used to play with as a kid (that some iPad app has probably now replaced)? Well, we do, and so do our friends from Lumi—the LA-based design company whose “sun-printing” process we blogged about yesterday.

We found a bunch of tutorials on their site, but our favorite has to be the DIY Tangram Sweater for its ability to inspire a variety of tribal-chic patterns.

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Besides a set of Tangrams and a plain sweater or sweatshirt, you’ll need a a few bottles of Inkodye, a sponge brush, a piece of cardboard, a small mixing bowl, masking tape (optional), and a transportable wooden board or similar surface.

Insert the piece of cardboard inside the sweater to prevent ink bleeding.

Mark off your area with masking tape (making sure to press down firmly so the dye doesn’t bleed under the tape), or forgo if you don’t care about straight lines.

Pour and mix your own color concoction. Here they blended red and blue to make purple.

Paint a nice, even coat of Inkodye onto your sweater. Don’t over-saturate, but make sure you cover the entire area.

Place your Tangrams in the pattern of your choosing. TIP: Do a Google Image search to see all possible shapes and configurations.

Take the board with your sweater outside into the sun and watch the Inkodye color come to life. Make sure to rotate the board a few times during exposure to avoid shadows and soft lines, but be careful not to move your Tangram pieces during rotation.

After 10-12 minutes take your sweater back inside and remove the blocks. Then throw your sweater into the washing machine with soap and hot water to remove any underdeveloped dye.

Dry the garment, then rock your design like this guy.