Bleach Tie Dye Patterns – Reverse Tie-Dyeing Colored Shirts

How to create reverse tie dyed shirts by removing the color with bleach

We all love our tie dyes, right? I know that I do. And I also love having friends over for tie dye parties, too. Well, how about a new, different twist on an old favorite with Reverse Tie Dyeing using regular laundry bleach?

Bleach Dye involves removing color from clothes instead of adding colors with traditional dyeing. The bleach takes out part of dye that makes up the color of the garment.

Making these bleach tie dye patterns involves folding your shirt or other piece of clothing and then spraying the exposed areas of fabric with the chlorine solution.

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First, you fold your fabric with a tie-pattern such as Spiral or Bulls Eye. Secure it with rubber bands. Next, you spray your fabric with a bleach and water solution. Wait for the bleach to react and then rinse thoroughly.

What is bleach tie dyeing?

Basically, you fold your fabric with traditional tie dye patterns (i.e. spiral, bullseye, etc.) and then ‘dye’ it with a diluted bleach solution instead of regular tie dyes.

Bleach Tie Dye differs from traditional tie dye in one way: instead of adding colored dyes, you take away the color of the fabric with bleach.

This process works for not only t shirts but sweatshirts, sweatpants, long sleeve shirts, jeans and even cloth shoes.

Can you reverse dye a colored shirt with bleach?

Yes, absolutely and that is exactly what we are going to do! Bleach takes away the color of your shirt. But, don’t expect the resulting fabric to turn white. Chances are that it will not.

For instance, in my experience black shirts usually turn a brown to orange color when you apply bleach.

What is the ratio of bleach to water?

I have played around with different strengths of bleach to water and find a good basic starting point is 1 part bleach to 3 parts water.

You just spray that solution on your fabric and then wait 15 to 30 minutes. If the fabric has not lightened enough, I will increase the amount of bleach to 2 parts.

So far, that has been a sufficient amount and I have not had to increase the bleach any more than that. Note, it also depends on the type of fabric. Some materials may require more bleach than others.

How long do you let the bleach sit on the fabric?

This question gets asked a lot and the answer is … it depends. How long the bleach solution takes to work depends on the type of material you are bleaching, how thick the fabric is and how much water you add to the bleach.

Obviously, the thicker the fabric and more diluted the solution, the longer it takes for the bleach to work.

Usually, I will wait about 15 – 30 minutes for the bleach to work. If it doesn’t, I increase the ratio amount of bleach to water.

Folding the shirts:

With this tutorial, I wanted to see how different colored shirts look after reverse dyeing. And, rather than just using one tie dye pattern, I thought it would be more fun to try several.

The basic steps for each shirt are the same, regardless of the color or folding pattern, except for the pole wrapping. That one has a slightly different process.

Spiral Tie Dye Pattern (Black Shirt)

For my first experiment, I decided to do a traditional spiral tie dye pattern on a basic black t shirt.

Fold or twist the t-shirt:

First, decide where you want the center of your spiral to be. Then, using your fingers, pinch that spot and slowly rotate your hand, gathering the shirt with your other hand as you go.

Continue twisting the shirt and creating the spiral pleats that radiate out from the center.

Secure the shirt:

Once the shirt is completely twisted in a spiral, secure it with several rubber bands.

Flag Fold Tie Dye Pattern (Blue T Shirt)

The flag fold method creates multiple triangles all over the fabric. Think of a folded American Flag and you get the basic idea.

Folding the shirt:

Begin by folding your shirt in half lengthwise. Then, fold it in half again.

Now, you will fold the shirt into one continuous triangle. Beginning at the bottom hem, fold over one corner into a triangle.

The second triangle will be tucked underneath the first so that they are stacked on top of each other.

Continue folding back and forth (over and under) until the entire shirt is one thick triangle.

Finally, secure the shirt with several rubber bands. Make sure the rubber bands are tight to keep the bleach solution from bleeding underneath.

Accordion Fold Pattern (Purple Shirt)

Folding the shirt:

The accordion technique is similar to the above flag fold except it is a rectangle instead of a triangle.

You begin by folding over one edge (in this case the bottom). Then you fold that section under.

I also tie dyed some cotton long johns using this method.

Continue folding shirt over and then under until the body part is a thick rectangle and then secure the folded part with a couple of rubber bands.

Next, you will repeat the whole process with the sleeves using the same over and under ‘accordion’ method. Again, you want to wrap this section with one or two rubber bands to keep the folds from falling apart.

Pole Wrapping Method (Brown Shirt)

Folding the shirt

This particular tie dye (or shibori) technique creates uneven folds or creases instead of straight lines.

First, you want to fold your shirt in half lengthwise.

Note: I folded it so the two halves of the front of the shirt are together, facing each other.

This resulted in unmatched halves: one side has the creases but the other has an image of the straps that were folded over.

You may wish to fold your shirt with the two back halves facing each other which will result in the front of the shirt having all creases and the back being mismatched. (See the photo of the finished shirt below)

Next, take the old wine bottle or PVC pipe and you will roll the folded shirt onto the bottle.

Then, take your twine or string and tie it tightly around the bottle several times. This is what will create the creases.

Finally, you want to scrunch the tied part of the shirt together.

If the shirt slides on the bottle and doesn’t hold the scrunch, place a rubber band at the top and the bottom to secure it.

Bullseye Tie Dye Pattern (Dark green shirt)

Tying rubber bands on the shirt

First you need to decide where you want your bullseye patterns to appear on the shirt. Then, with your fingers, pinch and lift a small section of that part of the shirt and tie a rubber band around it.

Pull it up further and tie a second and third rubber band (if desired).

Repeat tying rubber bands over other areas of your t shirt.

Bleaching the tied shirts

Now that your shirts are all tied up in the various ways, it is time to reverse dye.

Before you start bleaching, however, make sure and put on old clothes and the gloves!

Making the bleach and water solution:

To start, measure out and combine 1 part chlorine bleach with 3 parts water and carefully pour this into your spray bottle. Gently shake to combine.

Note: depending on how many garments you have to spray, you can make more or less of the bleach water. For my 5 shirts, I ended up using about 1 cup total.

Spraying the t-shirts with the bleach solution:

Safety Note! Take your tied shirts outside to do this!

Spread them on concrete or a plastic tablecloth. Then, spray the clothes with the bleach/water solution, lightly at first. (You can always add more later).

Flip them all over and spray the other side making sure that you also cover the sides of your garments.

Waiting . . .

Now you have to just wait and watch the bleach work. This color change can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more.

If the colors have not lightened significantly within 10 or 15 minutes, go ahead and spray them again. And then wait some more ….

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Your fun new clothes are now ready to wear! If you like, you can take this reverse dyeing a step further by tie dyeing with color over the bleached areas.

Simply, take a tie dyeing kit and apply the colors to the lightened parts of your shirts.

This makes a cool craft project for a teenager’s birthday party so give it a try and let me know how your bleach tie dyed clothes turn out.
Enjoy!
Annette

FAQ:

Do you wash after bleach tie dye?

Yes! This step is super important! If you don’t stop the bleaching process by rinsing and then washing your shirt, it will continue to lighten and eventually may ‘eat’ through the cloth leaving you with holes.

Simply put your shirts in the washer and run them through a cold water cycle with regular laundry detergent to remove the remaining bleach.

(DO NOT put any other laundry in this load!)

When you are happy with the amount of bleaching, rinse out the shirt with water and then run it through a washing machine cycle.

NOTE: It is okay to wash several bleach tie dyed clothes together, but again, you do not want to put any regular laundry in this load.

Can I use straight bleach to tie dye?

Straight chlorine bleach is an extremely strong and caustic substance and therefore should not be used for reverse dyeing without diluting it first.

If your bleach/water mixture is too strong, you risk “burning” holes through your shirt. (I actually did this with a bucket full of cloth diapers once!)

According to Rit Dye, their “Color Remover formula is a non-chlorine, reductive type of bleach that won’t damage or deteriorate washable fabrics as chlorine bleach does.”

RidDye.com

What’s the difference between tie dyeing wet or dry?

This simply refers to whether you apply the dyes to dry fabric or fabric that has been soaked in water first.

Have you ever noticed that if you put a bead of water on a dry sponge, it just sits there for a while? The same principle applies. When you put dye on a dry shirt, it will take a while to sink in and then it won’t go much further.

On the other hand, if you put dye on a wet shirt, the dye will follow the water and spread out into the shirt.

Can you bleach after you tie dye?

You sure can. Bleach dyeing works on previously tie dyed as well as solid colored cloth. I, personally, have not tried this but you could get some interesting effects.

For instance, you can create a spiral dye with a range of bright colors and then make the same spiral and apply the bleach/water solution to remove some of the swirls.

Bleach Tie Dye Patterns – Reverse Tie-Dyeing Colored Shirts