Trying tie dye patterns

Trying tie dye patterns to create funky rainbow clothing

This week I have been trying tie dye patterns with bright coloured rainbow dies to make amazing dyed clothing.

Tie dye is so much fun to do, especially in the summer with the sun shining. We used these different these tie dye patterns to make colourful clothes for upcoming summer festivals.

What you need

To try out these tie dye patterns, you will need:

Some white clothes to dye, preferably cotton
String or elastic bands to tie
Coloured dyes
Plastic bottles for applying the dyes

For the dyes, we used this Handprinted Procion Dye Kit, which is UK based. But you can find very similar tie dye kits on Amazon.fr, containing everything you need. Dylon hand dyes also work well.

How to Tie dye

To tie dye, you need to first create a pattern, by folding, rolling or scrunching up the fabric. I will describe some different patterns in more detail below.

You then need to secure the fabric with string or an elastic band to keep it in place while you dye it. We used both string and elastic bands. Elastic bands are easier to use, but it is easier to secure the fabric tightly using string.

Soak the fabric in soda ash to help fix the dye

Then you need to dye the fabric, following the instructions of the dye you are using. We first soaked the fabric in Soda Ash, which helps fix the dyes, for about 15 minutes. We then mixed the coloured dyes in the plastic bottles, which make applying the dye to the fabric really easy. We has 3 primary colours which we mixed to create all the colours of the rainbow.

Once the dye was applied, we left the fabric wrapped in clingfilm for 24 hours. We then rinsed everything well under cold water, before washing in the machine with non biological washing powder.

Tie dye patterns

1. Spiral pattern

Pinch your fabric with your fingers and twist. Keep twisting to bunch up the fabric in a spiral pattern. Once all the fabric is twisted up into a circle, tie across the circle in several directions to secure. This creates a spiral pattern radiating from the point where you first pinched the fabric. The t-shirt we made using this technique has a lot of white left on it, which gives a more subtle effect than some of the other patterns.

2. Circular pattern

Pinch a spot of the fabric and lift it up. The rest of the fabric will fall down vertically to form a long thin line of fabric. Secure the fabric tightly in several places along this vertical line. This pattern will create a series of circles radiating out from this original point. This pattern gives a much more vibrant and colourful finish.

3. Linear pattern

To create a lined pattern on your fabric, fold the fabric up in a concertina, or pleated pattern. Once all of the fabric is folded, you will have a long, thin line of fabric. Folding this in two will give you a more manageable sized piece of tied fabric, and will ensure your final pattern is symmetrical. Secure with string or elastic bands at regular intervals.

4. Square or triangular pattern

Tie dye pattern created by folding into squares

Try folding the fabric into squares or triangles to create other interesting patterns. We found that the final result didn’t entirely resemble the square and triangle shapes we folded. Perhaps we didn’t fold accurately enough or tie tight enough, but in these folds still created some interesting patterns.

Tie dye pattern created by folding into triangles

5. Mixture of different patterns

Don’t be afraid to try different patterns out, or to mix and match different ideas on the same fabric. To make these whack trousers we used several different folds and tied them in many different places to get a full on rainbow tie dye effect!

Have you tried tie dye before? Do you know of any other patterns or techniques that work well?

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Trying tie dye patterns to create funky rainbow clothing

How to Tie dye