How To Bleach Tie Dye EASILY (Reverse Tie Dye)

How to bleach tie dye is a skill worthy of mastering since you can turn boring, plain fabric into something artistic and stylish. Bleach tie-dyeing is a technique where you “dye” a colored material instead of dyeing white fabric; hence the name reverse tie dye. It usually involves using bleach to remove or lighten the color in some areas, creating a unique and creative pattern.

How To Bleach Tie Dye - Important Considerations

Some of the things that you need to keep in mind before attempting to practice how to bleach tie dye are:

1. Safety
2. Fabric Choice

#1 - Safety

The reason you need to consider safety is that you will be using bleach in tie-dyeing your fabric. Although you’ll use a diluted solution, the active component can still irritate your eyes, skin, and mouth. Prolonged exposure can also cause respiratory issues if you inhale it and cause poisoning when swallowed.

As such, it’s best to keep pets and children away from the work area and practice the following:

• Choose a Good Working Area: The best place to work when following the steps of how to bleach tie dye is the outdoors. If that’s not possible, choose a well-ventilated area or one with enough windows. Just ensure the bleach’s smell won’t reach the other areas of the house.
• Wear Protective Gear: Rubber gloves with a length reaching your elbows are a perfect way to protect your skin from the bleach. When working indoors, you may also wear a face mask. Eye protection glasses are also recommended. If you spill the solution on your skin, rinse it immediately with water to further dilute the active components.
• Protect Your Working Area: Whether you’re working in your lawn, garage, or indoors, make sure you also protect areas and items that might come in contact with the bleach. Just lay plastic on your working surface.

#2 - Fabric Choice for Bleach Tie Dye

Not all fabric materials will work well with bleach, so it’s advisable to check the product’s label or instructions to ensure it will work with the fabric you want to reverse tie dye.

Generally, though, the solution can badly discolor or damage fabric made of artificial fibers, such as nylon and polyester. Those made of protein fibers are also not recommended, so stay away from wool and silk. Ideally, choose fabrics made of plant fiber, like cotton and linen.

Choose items in dark colors as this will give the largest contrast when certain areas are bleached. Items such as hoodies, sweatpants, sweatshirts, t-shirts and any old clothes make perfect bleach tie dye projects. Black shirts are a favorite for this technique. You can even get a different look for old jeans!

How To Bleach Tie Dye - Preparation

Before you start with the process of how to bleach tie dye, you need to ensure the following are ready:

• Materials and Working Surface
• Fabric

Materials and Working Surface

The things you’ll need are:

• Household Bleach
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Measuring Cup
• Safety Gloves, Mask and Eye Protection
• Water
• Timer
• Two Water-Filled Sinks or Basins

Depending on the pattern and method (discussed later), you would also need rubber bands, twine or string, an old wine bottle or PVC pipe, a bucket, a spray bottle, a squirt bottle, and tongs (optional). Then, as noted earlier, prepare your working surface by covering it with plastic.

Fabric Preparation

Prepare your solid-colored, garment or fabric-made item by soaking it in warm water for about five minutes. It will help soften the fibers, opening them up for proper bleach distribution and absorption. Some prefer to keep the fabric damp, so they just place it in the spin dryer. However, most experts suggest using a dry cloth, and this is what we’ll follow.

How to Tie Dye - VIDEO

Check out the Youtube video I made for how to tie dye using the regular technique! Bleach tie dye is very similar - instead of colored dyes, you will use bleach.

How To Bleach Tie Dye Patterns Creation Tutorial

Once everything is ready, the next thing that you need to do is decide what pattern to use, as this will be the design of your tie-dyed item. You have several options, but you can begin with four of the easiest ones, namely:

• Spiral
• Bullseye
• Pole Wrap
• Flag Fold

Spiral Pattern Bleach Tie Dye

The spiral is the most common pattern used in the process of bleach tie dye. To achieve this, follow these steps:

1. Lay the fabric on a flat surface and smooth it out to ensure there are no wrinkles and creases.
2. With your fingers, pinch the fabric on the spot where you want the spiral’s center to be.
3. Lift it slightly and start twisting to create spiral pleats.
4. Once the whole fabric has been twisted into a spiral, secure it with rubber bands.

Bullseye Bleach Tie Dye

This pattern is a variation of the spiral, so some of the steps are similar.

1. Lay the fabric on a flat surface and smoothen it out to ensure there are no wrinkles and creases.
2. With your fingers, pinch and lift a small section of the fabric where you want the pattern to appear.
3. Tie a rubber band around the portion of the fabric you lifted.
4. Pull it up further and then tie it with a second rubber band. You can tie a third rubber band if you prefer.
5. Repeat the steps until you tie most of the fabric with rubber bands.

Pole Wrap Bleach Tie Dye

This folding technique will produce uneven creases or folds rather than straight lines. What you need to do are:

1. Lay the fabric on a flat surface and smoothen it out to ensure there are no wrinkles and creases.
2. Fold the fabric lengthwise and then take your old PVC pipe or wine bottle and roll the fabric onto it.
3. Tie a string or twine around the bottle or pipe with the shirt multiple times.
4. Next, scrunch the fabric’s tied part and tie a rubber around the bottom and top to secure the scrunch.

Flag Fold Bleach Tie Dye

Choose this pattern if you want your fabric to have triangles as a design after you’re done with the whole process of how to bleach tie dye. The way you’ll fold the fabric is like how one would fold a flag.

1. Lay the fabric on a flat surface and smoothen it out to ensure there are no wrinkles and creases.
2. Fold the fabric lengthwise, and then fold again.
3. Take the bottom of the fabric and create a triangle by folding it over one of its corners.
4. Create another triangle, ensuring it gets tucked underneath the first triangle you made.
5. Continue folding the fabric back and forth or over and under, ensuring every new triangle gets stacked on top of the last triangle you made.
6. Once you have a thick triangle, secure the fabric with rubber bands.

How To Bleach Tie Dye - The Five-Step Process

Once you’re done folding your fabric for the specific pattern you want, follow these five steps:

1. Tie the Fabric
2. Apply Bleach
3. Rinse
4. Neutralize
5. Wash the Fabric

Step #1: Tie the Fabric

Tie the fabric using any of the regular tie dye pattern techniques. Read how to tie dye to get some great ideas. The easiest is to do a scrunch pattern. All you have to do is scrunch up your garment and place rubber bands all the way around.

Step #2: Apply Bleach

There are several ways to apply bleach, and we will focus on three techniques that are easy to follow and master. Choose which one works best for you, but make sure you have your gloves, mask and eye protection on throughout the process. Don't forget to be careful of fumes.

Spraying Bleach

Spraying is the most time-consuming application technique. Because you are spraying, you should also wear safety glasses to protect your eyes from any stray droplets. The steps you need to follow are:

1. Dilute ¼ cup of bleach and ¾ cup of water in a spray bottle, then shake gently. (1 part bleach to 3 parts water).
2. Test your spray bottle by spraying the solution in the sink. Make sure it’s spraying and not streaming, so adjust if necessary. Always be aware of what direction the nozzle is pointed. You do not want to spray yourself.
3. Begin spraying the entire top portion of the folded fabric.
4. Leave it for five to 10 minutes, and then spray again. Repeat multiple times as desired, ensuring you don’t exceed 60 minutes.
5. After the last spray, regularly check for color changes. Once you are happy with the color change, proceed to the rinsing step.

Pour

Dilute the bleach in the squirt bottle as above, and do the following:

1. Pour a good amount of the bleach solution onto both sides of the fabric.
2. Leave it for five minutes and check for color changes. If there are still no visible changes, leave it for another five minutes.
3. Once there are changes, repeat the whole process.
4. After the last five minutes, proceed to the rinse and neutralize step of how to tie dye with bleach.

Submerge

This bleach application method is the fastest among the three but can damage the fabric if you soak the item for an extended period.

1. Place half a cup of bleach in a bucket full of water. If you’re working on small items like bandanas, handkerchiefs, and napkins, you would only need one to two cups of water and two tablespoons of bleach.
2. Completely submerge the fabric into the solution and leave it for a few minutes. That is from two to 20 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the item. Again, your clue is the visible color change.
3. Remove the item from the solution with tongs or with your gloved hands. Then, proceed to the last three steps of the process of how to bleach tie dye.

Step #3: Rinse

After you notice color changes, immediately soak the bleached fabric in a basin or sink full of water. While in the water, carefully cut the rubber bands, strings, or twine to ensure the whole fabric gets rinsed with water. Swirl the fabric multiple times to remove the bleach successfully. Then, move it into another basin or sink full of water to give it a final rinse.

Step #4: Neutralize

The purpose of this step is to remove any bleach clinging to the fibers. That's because the bleach can create holes in some parts of the fabric over time. However, some DIYers skip it by choice because they consider the holes as part of the design.

If you don’t like this to happen, simply pour 3% hydrogen peroxide on the rinsed fabric. Read the instructions on your hydrogen peroxide label carefully. Usually, you will add 1 part of hydrogen peroxide to 10 parts of water. There are also commercially available ready mixed neutralizers. Once again be careful with safety by using gloves, masks and eye protection.

Step #5: Wash the Fabric

The last thing you need to do in this process of how to bleach tie dye is wash and dry the tie-dyed fabric by following the fabric's care label or laundry symbols. You can throw it in your washing machine with the right amount of detergent or wash it by hand. Then, hang it to dry, tumble dry, or put it in the dryer.

How to Bleach Tie Dye - Frequently Asked Questions

How To Bleach Tie Dye - In Conclusion

Congratulations! You have now gained another beneficial skill that you can use for your own needs or in preparation for a small business. Overall, the process of how to bleach tie dye isn’t as complicated since you can create patterns on your own, especially since they don’t need to be perfectly shaped. After all, arts is all about creativity. Just make sure you prioritize safety and that you don’t overly bleach the fabric. Also, it’s best to start with small pieces of fabric to get the hang of the timing and bleach dilution and application. Have fun and stay creative!

More Tie Dye Articles

• How to Tie Dye for Beginners
• How to Bleach Tie Dye
• How to Tie Dye Socks
• How to Tie Dye a Hoodie or Sweatshirt
• Tie Dye Patterns