TIE DYE DESIGNS

About Tie Dye

Tie-dye is a popular fabric dyeing technique known for its bright, saturated colors and
bold patterns. It’s one of those nostalgic, feel-good crafts that never seem to go out of
style.

Tie-dye easy to do, too! To tie dye a shirt, fold up the fabric and secure it with string or
rubber bands. Then, apply color by dipping the shirts in buckets of dye, or squirting
liquid dye from squeeze bottles.

Easy Tie-Dye Folding Techniques

In this lesson, you will learn on how to tie some of the most popular tie-dye patterns,
such as the scrunch or crumple technique, the rainbow swirl pattern, shibori-inspired
designs, and more. Here is a list of the tie-dye patterns we’ll cover.

How to Tie Dye for Beginners

Before we get started, let’s quickly review the basics of tie-dye.

1. Set up your work area and prepare your supplies.

2. Mix your dyes. Pre-soak your garment in soda ash solution, if necessary.
3. Fold and tie your garment. (Read more on that below!)
4. Apply the dye.
5. Let the dye develop.
6. Rinse, wash, and dry. Now your garment is ready to wear!
Best Tie Dye Supplies

Good quality supplies can mean the difference between a bright, colorful design and a
pale, lackluster design that washes the first time you put it in the laundry.

Dye

The best type of dye to use for tie-dye projects is fiber reactive dye. This type of dye,
often called Procion MX dye, is much brighter, longer-lasting, and easier to use than
other all-purpose dyes. It is formulated to work with natural fibers like cotton and linen.

Things to Dye

You can dye all sorts of fabric items, like cotton shirts, sweatshirts, socks, even shoes!
Just make sure the items you buy are made with 100% natural fiber (like cotton or
linen) for the best result.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

Tie-Dye Patterns and Folding Techniques

There are lots of different tie-dye patterns and folding techniques that you can use to
create unique designs. Here are a few of the various designs you can create with tie-dye.

1.Rainbow spiral or swirl tie dye shir

To make a rainbow spiral or swirl tie dye shirt:

1. Start by pinching a small section in the center of the shirt. Hold on to that
small section while you twist the shirt clockwise.
2. Keep twisting, keeping your fingers close to the surface of the table so the
spiral stays flat
3. As you twist, the shirt will fold in on itself like a flat cinnamon roll.
4. Secure the shirt with 3 or 4 rubber bands, crisscrossing them over the center
of the disc. The tighter you bind the shirt, the more white areas there will be.
5. Apply a different color of dye in each “wedge” created by the crisscrossing
rubber bands. Apply the dye in rainbow order to get a rainbow spiral design.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

2. Scrunch or Crumple Tie Dye

To make a crumple tie dye aka “scrunch” or “nebula” design:

1. First, lay the shirt flat. Then, scrunch smaller sections of the fabric together
randomly.
2. Keep scrunching and folding, gathering all of the fabric into a relatively flat,
tight disk.
3. Wrap several rubber bands around the disk. The tighter you scrunch it, the
more white areas there will be in the final shirt.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

3. Bullseye Tie Dye Pattern

To make a large bullseye design:

1.Lay the shirt flat on a table. Pinch a small section of fabric at the center of the shirt.
(If you want the bullseye to be off-center, choose a small section off-center.)
2.Pull the pinched fabric up to a point, and smooth the rest of the shirt down to create
a skinny cone shape.
3.Wrap rubber bands around the cone of fabric, starting about an inch below the point
of the cone. You can add as many or as few rubber bands as you want.
4.To make stripes, apply alternating colors of dye.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

4.Sunburst Design

The sunburst design is like a series of small bullseyes. To make the sunburst tie-
dye pattern:

1. Lay the shirt flat on a table. Pinch a small section of fabric, and pull it up to
create a small pointed cone shape.
2. Wrap a rubber band around the small cone of fabric, about 1/2 to 1 inch
down from the point of the cone.
3. Repeat this process, pinching another small section of fabric to create
another cone. Secure with a rubber band.
4. Make as many sunbursts as you like.
5. Apply 1 or 2 colors of dye for the background color.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

5. Horizontal Stripes

To make horizontal stripes:

1. Lay the shirt flat. Starting from the left sleeve, fold the shirt in a series of 1″
accordion folds. Alternate the folds back and forth, like you’re making a paper
fan.
2. Secure the folded shirt with rubber bands, placing a rubber band every 1 to
2 inches.
3. To create stripes, apply dye colors in alternating sections

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

6. Diagonal Stripes

To make diagonal stripes:

1. Lay the shirt flat. Starting from the bottom-left corner, fold the shirt
in a series of 1″ accordion folds. Alternate the folds back and forth,
like you’re making a paper fan.
2. Folding the left sleeve can be a little tricky, but try to keep it in line
with the rest of the folds.
3. Secure the folded shirt with rubber bands, placing a rubber band
every 1 to 2 inches.
4. To create stripes, apply dye colors in alternating sections. Or, create
a color-blocked design like the shirt in the pictures above.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

7. Vertical Stripes

Making vertical stripes is very similar to making horizontal stripes. To

make vertical stripes:

1. Lay the shirt flat. Starting from the bottom hem, fold the shirt in a series of
1″ accordion folds. Alternate the folds back and forth, like you’re making a
paper fan.
2. Secure the folded shirt with rubber bands, placing a rubber band every 1 to
2 inches.
3. To create stripes, apply dye colors in alternating sections.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

8. Chevron Tie Dye

This chevron design is a variation of the

diagonal stripe designs that we learned
above. Here’s how to make a tie-dye
chevron:

1.First, lay the shirt out flat. Then, fold

the shirt in half lengthwise.
2.Draw half of a chevron V-shape on the
folded edge with a washable marker. You
can position it higher or lower than mine,
or make it pointing upward or downward –
your choice.
3.Starting at one end of your line, begin
making small accordion pleats. Follow
along the drawn line, folding the pleats in
such as way that the marker line appears
straight on the top of the folds.
4.When all of the fabric has been pleated, secure it with a thick rubber band. Put a
runner band on the line itself, and add more rubber bands on the inside or outside
sections as desired.
5.For a color-blocked look, add 1 or two colors of dye. For a striped chevron look,
apply dye in small sections, alternating colors.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

9. Ombre Dip Dye

For this technique, you don’t have to fold the fabric – though I think it would look really
awesome with some thin accordion folds! To make an ombre dip dye design:

1. Dip one end of the shirt into a bucket of dye. As it sits in the dye bath, the
dye will slowly work its way up the fabric.
2. You can repeat this process by dipping the other end of the fabric into a
different color of dye.

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor
TIE DYE DESIGNS

MARICRIS V.NANGLIHAN,PhD
Subject-Instructor