DIY: Reverse Tie Dye with Bleach
As if I didn’t love living in them before, the past two months of quarantine have really taken my relationship with sweats to the next level. Inspired by the endless #QOOTD posts on my feed and my ongoing love for all things athleisure, I decided it was time to try my hand at reverse tie dyeing, or bleach dying some clothes (a la Urban Outfitters or Cotton Citizen).
What you’ll need to reverse tie dye:
Items of clothing (I picked up these sweatshirts and pants off Amazon)
Bleach
Water
Optional: gloves (highly recommend!)
Getting started
1. Rinse clothes in sink or tub and wring out so they are damp.
2. Make 50/50 solution of bleach and water (1 part bleach, 1 part water). I mixed 2 cups of bleach and 2 cups of water together in this empty Clorox spray bottle, but you can also just pour the solution over your clothes instead of spraying.
3. Determine the pattern you want to make and rubber band the clothing. This website has lots of fun tie dye designs. My favorites:
Fold the clothing accordion style and rubber band along its full length for stripes.
Swirl from the center of the shirt/sweatshirt for a spiral pattern and rubber band across the spiral. Think pizza or pie slices.
The tighter you apply the rubber bands, the more “veining” you’ll have in your finished product.
4. Spray clothes with bleach solution until they are soaked thoroughly. I strongly recommend wearing gloves for this part to prevent your hands from drying out/getting covered in bleach.
5. Let the bleached clothing sit for 10 minutes. Check back to see if the color has lightened enough for your liking. If its still a bit dark, you can apply more solution and check back again in 5-10 minutes. If the color looks good, move on to the next step.
6. Cut or remove the rubber bands, thoroughly rinse bleach out from the clothing and throw all your dyed items into the wash. Run a full cycle to wash the clothing. I also added these color catcher washer sheets which picked up any left over dyes that bled out in the wash. From there, finish your load of laundry (throw in the dryer or hang dry) and enjoy!
If you make some bleached tie dye pieces, let me know — I want to see your creations! And even if you decide not to, you can still shop for a set of your own below:
