Once you start to tie dye you never go back! Or at least that is my opinion on anything to do with tie dye. It is such a fun and creative outlet and the options for things to tie dye seems to be endless. This year I decided I needed to create a Halloween tie die shirt. I have a bunch of shirts to celebrate Christmas but not many for the Fall/Halloween season. Tie Dye is such a fun activity especially for kids of all ages, if kids are younger make sure you have an adult to help with the entire tie dye process.
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Supplies Needed for Halloween Tie Dye Shirt
- Tie Dye Kit (my favorite is Tulip brand as it comes with all the supplies needed)
- White t-shirt (or any other type of white fabric blank, mine came from Michael’s and is a Bella+Canvas brand)
- Plastic dropcloth
If you are new to tie dye I will walk you through all the steps below. I have only done tie dye using Tulip brand colors, their colors are great and the tie dye kit comes with everything you need and so I highly suggest using them for anything you want to tie dye.
If you are planning to do this project with 4-5 people you will want 1 kit but also it is a good idea to buy extra dye packets that are also available on Amazon.
When you first start tie-dying your fabric can be dry or wet, the instructions that come with Tulip will give you instructions for both. I like to start with a dry shirt, although I have done both options I prefer when done with the fabric dry. I chose a cotton t-shirt from Michael’s from my favorite brand: Bella+Canvas.
There are so many types of patterns for tie-dye, just do a Google search and many types will pull up showing you how to fold your shirt to create the pattern you desire. The design I chose was the scrunched pattern. The kit usually includes many rubber bands, even more than you possibly need. I usually like to use about four rubber bands per item, depending on the item and the design that is chosen.
I had a kit from Tulip and I had not used all the colors for my last project so I chose colors that would be Halloween colors: black, purple and neon green. Unfortunately I did not have any orange tie dye on hand and I didn’t want to buy any new colors. All the colors come in squeeze bottles with the tie dye powder added and the only step you need to complete is to add warm water and shake to combine.
A crucial step when doing tie dyeing is to use gloves on both hands, the Tulip kits come with plastic gloves that will fit any size. In addition you will want to make sure you have a covered workspace with a plastic dropcloth as the dye stains very easily.
When doing tie dye I like to use an aluminum pan under the item and if possible a wire grid so that the dye can fall to the bottom of the pan and not soak back into the fabric. For this tie dye project I didn’t have a wire grid on hand so I tried to lift the shirt when applying the dye so that it did not all run together.
Because the black can be overpowering to the rest of the colors it is best to start with the lightest or brightest colors and then work towards the darkest. I used as much minimal black dye as I could and was not worried about there being a lot of white space as I wanted more white space than I did black.
Once you have all the dye applied that you want the design needs to sit for 24 hours at best. I like to place the item in a plastic bag so that it doesn’t leak onto any other surface.
After the time has lapsed it is time to rinse the item and cut off the rubber bands. When rinsing the instructions mention to rinse with cold water and then wash the item in the washing machine set at the warmest setting with a bit of detergent. Because I use detergent pods, I just add 1 pod to the drum.
After the shirt has been washed and dried you are ready to wear it for the spooky season!
Once you create a Halloween tie dye shirt you will want to create all things tie dye! Other items that I have tie-dyed are drawstring bags, and drawstring bags, as you can tell it is one of my favorite activities. Also available to tie dye are hair scrunchies, beach towels, makeup bags and bandanas. And another way to extend the life of old clothes that may have a tiny stain
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