A Tie Dye Experiment with Acrylic Paints

I decided to attempt this little tie dye experiment because I wasn't totally happy with a sweatshirt I recently bought. The tipping point was when my fourteen year old asked me if I'd spilled something on my shirt because it looked stained. That's when I knew it wasn't just me who thought this shirt was messed up looking.

I bought it this way but was pretty disappointed with how blotchy and faded it looked. I guess you always run that risk with online shopping. This sweatshirt was extremely comfortable but I needed to improve the look of it so it didn't look stained. I liked the touch of a tie dye feel it had but it was such an extremely faded look that it gave the impression that I'd accidentally bleached it in the laundry.

I wanted to stick with the tie dye look but see what I could do to make it better. I started researching what kind of things can be used to dye fabric, since I have a lot of craft and art supplies laying around. I might as well use what I already have, right?... Out of all the things you can use to dye fabrics, acrylic paints won as I had an abundance of colors to work with and it sounded like a very simple process.

Supplies:

Fabric- I used a Lightweight sweatshirt
Rubber bands or string- I used Nylon String (because I only had 2 rubber bands)
Acrylic Paints- I used Passion fruit Pink, Metallic Bronze, & Soft Baby Pink
Two disposable paper cups
Paintbrush
Water
Chip-clip & Plastic Hanger

Here's how I approached this tie dye experiment:

1. Scrunch & Tie Your Shirt: Out of all the different ways you can crinkle and tie a shirt for this process, I decided on a vertical option. I laid my shirt flat on a table, then from one side I scrunched everything together from the left side to the right. I used a couple rubber bands to temporarily hold my scrunching together while I tied it with my string. I left about 3 inches untied at the top (collar/shoulders) and at the bottom hem. This way I could get a more solid coloring on the top most part of the shirt and I planned to fade it down to no dye/paint at the very bottom. Giving the shirt a Ombre' look.

2. Prepare your paint(s) -

One part Paint & Three parts Water: Using one of the paper cups I played with mixing my three colors until I got a result I liked. I tried to get a almost rose gold color and I like what I came up with. After you have your color or colors the way you want, add water. You'll want to add 3 times as much water as you have paint. I had the bottom inch of my cup filled with paint so I added 3 more inches with water.

Optional: I wanted an ombre' affect on my finished shirt where the color would be strongest at the top and fade towards the bottom. To help get this result I wet the bottom 3-4 inches of my shirt with plain water. I hoped this would fade and dilute any paint as I reached the bottom of my shirt while adding the color.

3. Paint your shirt: In a safe location, aka somewhere you can drip paint and get a little messy. I did this step outside on some old cardboard. I started at the top of my shirt where the collar and shoulders were scrunched together. The shirt was quick to soak up my watery paint and I continued toward the bottom of my shirt. I added less paint as a got closer to the bottom and actually I didn't use my paintbrush on the bottom 4-5 inches, just my fingers for some blending. Having the bottom of my shirt wet did help with fading the paint just like I wanted.

4. Hang to Dry: I used my chip-clip on a plastic hanger to let my shirt hang and drip awhile. (I probably got it a little too wet with my paint water, oh well...) I made sure to hang it upside down, so my end with little to no paint was up and kept anymore paint from dripping/running into this area while it dried. I left mine outside on a hot day for about 2 hours, it was still damp but good enough for the next step.

5. Untie & Toss it in the Dryer: Even if it's dry toss it in the dryer. The heat from the dryer sets the paint into the fabric, helping to permanently stain your shirt. My shirt is still damp in this picture and good and wrinkly from being scrunched & tied for several hours.

6. Enjoy!