Learn how to DIY your own tie-dye sweatshirt with bleach! Use this fun and easy bleach tie-dye technique to make custom sweatsuits, sweatpants, hoodies, and more! Keep reading for the step-by-step tutorial and video.
How to Tie Dye Shirts with Bleach
If you’ve ever wanted to try reverse tie-dye using bleach, you’re in luck! I’ll show you how to transform your dark-colored shirts with this easy guide to bleach tie-dye.
What is Bleach Tie Dyeing?
Tie-dying with bleach is a big trend right now, and it’s not hard to see why it’s so popular. It’s a fun DIY style craft that you can do at home with just a few common supplies.
You can transform a plain black or navy sweatshirt by tying it up with rubber bands, and lightening the exposed fabric with household bleach.
There are a lot of different folding techniques you can use to create unique designs and patterns in your bleach dyed items.
You can even go an extra step and try Reverse Tie Dye — which is adding a new tie-dye color to the bleached areas. To learn how to add color with dye, check out: How to Tie Dye – Easy Techniques for Beginners.
For even more tie dye ideas, check out this list of 17+ cool tie dye patterns.
Bleach Tie Dye Tutorial Video
Supplies for Dyeing with Bleach
The great thing about this DIY project is that it requires only a handful of inexpensive supplies. You likely have everything you need at home already. Here are the materials you’ll need for this project.
I mixed 2 cups of bleach with 2 cups of water to create my diluted bleaching solution. I then dipped my sweatshirt into this solution.
Another method you can try is to use a spray bottle to spray the bleach solution onto the garment. This will give you a different look.
If you don’t have regular liquid bleach, you can try using a spray bottle of bathroom cleaner that contains bleach. I haven’t tested it myself, but I’ve seen other people have success using gel bleach cleaners, like Clorox Toilet Bowl Cleaner. In this case, the cleaner was applied directly to the tied shirt.
Best Types of Clothes to Bleach Tie-Dye
You can use this bleach dye process to create all sorts of garments, like shirts, sweatshirts – and even a tie dye hoodie. For this project, you’ll have the best results with dark-colored clothes that are made from cotton. 100% cotton fabrics are preferred, but cotton blends will also work well.
If you are unsure how your shirt will react, you can always test a small corner of the garment with a dot of bleach. That way, you’ll know what color the garment will turn without committing to the entire process.
Here are some of the types of clothes to tie-dye with bleach:
It’s hard to know exactly what color your sweatshirt will turn in the bleach solution. Sometimes the color-change results can be really unexpected!
If you want to know what color your finished sweatshirt will be before you dye it, I recommend testing a small inconspicuous corner of the fabric. To do this, dab a small amount of bleach on the inside part of the sleeve cuff or waist.
In most cases, black sweatshirts turn red, faded orange, or tan. Navy shirts can turn a faded red-orange as well. Purple and maroon shirts turn a pink color. And most lighter blue shirts will turn white.
Find a Safe Workspace
Here are some important considerations when working with a strong chemical like bleach.
Wear rubber gloves to protect your hands while you’re dying with bleach.
Remember that bleach is a strong chemical, and its fumes can be dangerous. So work in a well-ventilated area, or outside if you can.
Wear old clothes that you don’t mind getting bleach on.
Prepare your Shirt for Dyeing
Before you start the project, make sure that your shirt is clean.
You can start with a dry shirt, or you can start with a slightly wet shirt. Try misting it with a spray bottle of water until it’s just damp. (In the photos above, I started with a dry shirt.)
Then, tie the shirt in any tie dye pattern you like. You can use rubber bands to tie up your shirt in a spiral, in a bullseye, or in another design of your choice.
Bleach Tie-Dye Patterns
For my sweatshirt, I used the Crumple Tie Dye technique. I folded the sweatshirt up, somewhat randomly, and secured the folds with plenty of rubber bands.
The parts of your shirt that are tied up will stay the original dark color, while the exposed fabric will turn a lighter color when it interacts with the bleach.
So, if you want less of the shirt to be bleached, tie it tightly. If you want more of the shirt to be bleached, tie it loosely.
If you prefer the swirly Tie-Dye Spiral look, pinch a small amount of fabric in the center of the shirt, and twist it around until all the fabric is in a tight spiral. Secure it with 3 rubber bands. Criss-cross the rubber bands across the middle point so that it creates 6 wedges shapes.)
For even more tie-dye patterns, read: 5 Folding Techniques for Bleach Dye and 17+ Tie Dye Patterns and Folding Techniques
Apply the Bleach
Here are a few different ways to apply the bleach.
Bucket Method: Fill a plastic bucket with a solution of 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Put the tied-up sweatshirt into the bucket, and submerge it. Leave the shirt in the bleach for about 10 minutes, until you start to see a color change.e
Spray or Squeeze Bottle Method: Fill a spray or squeeze bottle with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Spray the bleach solution on to the exposed fabric of your garment. You can use more or less bleach depending on how intense you want the color change to be.
Gel Toilet Cleaner Method: For best results, start with a slightly damp shirt. Squeeze the gel cleaner onto the exposed fabric. You can create different looks by applying the bleach to some areas, and not to others.
After you apply the bleach, you will need to let it sit for a while, about 5-20 minutes. The amount of time the sweatshirt needs to soak in the bleach solution will vary based on the type of fabric it’s made from. For example, 100% cotton fabrics will bleach faster than cotton-poly blends.
Note: Some dyes bleach a lot more quickly than others. It’s a good idea to do a small test in an inconspicuous area if you’re unsure how your fabric will react.
I recommend setting a timer for 5 minutes and then checking in on your sweatshirt to see if you have the desired amount of color change. You may need to wait longer, up to 20 minutes.
Rinse and Wash your Sweatshirt
After you’ve let the sweatshirt soak in the bleach solution for a few minutes, you will start to see a visual color change. Let the fabric sit in the bleach until you are happy with the amount of color change.
Tip: Remember that the colors will look lighter after you wash and dry the sweatshirt!
When the timer is done, remove the rubber bands and rinse the sweatshirt thoroughly. You’ll want to wash the shirt right away to stop the bleaching process. If you want, you can run the shirt through a regular cycle in the washing machine. Just to make sure no other clothes get bleached, you may want to wash it by itself.
How long is too long? For some fabrics, you may want to leave the bleach on for 15 minutes, or even up to 20 minutes. Be careful, though. If you leave the bleach mixture on for too long, the bleach can damage the fabric of your sweatshirt.
Explore More Tie Dye
Learn more about tie dye techniques with these related articles.
How to Tie Dye Socks: A Step-by-Step Guide
How to Ice Dye
How to Set Tie Dye So It Won’t Fade
What’s Next?
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Bleach Tie Dye Sweatshirt
Yield: 1
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Active Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Learn how to make a custom tie-dyed sweatshirt with bleach.
Materials
a dark-colored cotton sweatshirt
household bleach
Tools
a plastic bucket
a pair of gloves
several rubber bands
spray bottle (optional)
Instructions
Protect your hands with rubber gloves, and work in a well-ventilated area.
Fold or crumple up the sweatshirt, and secure the folds with the rubber bands.
In the plastic bucket, prepare a mixture of 1 part bleach to 1 part water.
Let the sweatshirt sit in the bleach mixture for about 10 minutes, or until you are satisfied with the color change.
Remove the rubber bands and rinse the sweatshirt thoroughly. Wash with mild detergent and rinse as normal.
Notes
Remember that the colors will look lighter after you wash and dry the sweatshirt!
Don't let the bleach sit too long, or it can damage the fabric of the shirt.
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Sarah Stearns Founder and Editor
Sarah Stearns has helped thousands of makers find their next craft project with free patterns and step-by-step tutorials on her blog, sarahmaker.com. Read more.
Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, Good Housekeeping, Vox, Apartment Therapy, Lifehacker, and more.
Using household bleach to tie dye is just as easy as regular tie dye, but with faster and more dramatic results. Plus, since bleach removes color from fabrics fairly quickly, there's no need to wait hours for dyes to set! You'll be able to wear your bleach tie-dye projects the same day you make them— it's that quick!
Using household bleach to tie dye is just as easy as regular tie dye, but with faster and more dramatic results. Plus, since bleach removes color from fabrics fairly quickly, there's no need to wait hours for dyes to set! You'll be able to wear your bleach tie-dye projects the same day you make them— it's that quick!
To remove spot stains, dilute the non-chlorinated bleach. Just like chlorine bleach, it's too strong for direct contact with fabric. For an entire garment, make a weak solution of bleach and water and soak your items overnight.
First you'll want to make the neutralizing solution. Bleach works very quickly, so having the neutralizing solution ready ahead of time will make it easy to stop the bleaching process once the desired lightness is achieved. To make the neutralizing solution, mix one part hydrogen peroxide with ten parts water.
For other methods of tie dying, it helps if the t-shirt is wet, but for bleach tie dye, it's much better to start with a dry shirt. You'll want to prepare your shirt for whatever pattern you'd like to see on your final product.
First, collect the supplies that you will need to bleach tie dye. Here's what I use with all of my bleach reverse tie-dye projects: Dark Colored Shirts (Black Shirt, Navy Shirt, Grey Shirt) Household Bleach (Clorox works well)
Much depends on how the blended fibre is made. If the cotton is on the exterior it will usually bleach and take dye like pure cotton does but if it's not on the exterior, then it's the polyester that is and that won't bleach or take much dye.
Leave your clothing submerged in the bleach solution for at least five minutes. Check it every minute to see whether it has lightened to your liking. Keep in mind that the color will be a shade or two lighter when it is dry.
Simply add 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide to the washer drum before adding the water and clothes. The hydrogen peroxide can also be placed in the automatic bleach dispenser of the washer where it will be dispersed into the wash cycle.
To tie dye, first, fold or crumple fabric and tie it with string or rubber bands. Then, dip the fabric in buckets of dye, or apply the dye with squirt bottles. The folds and ties act as a resist, preventing the dye from saturating the fabric evenly.
To make an all natural bleach alternative for laundry, combine lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, castile soap, and VERY hot water in a bucket. Submerge your stained items and let them soak. Then agitate them, rinse them out under cool running water, and hang to dry in the sun and you will have whiter whites!
In short, no – adding baking soda to your wash load will not bleach your clothes as harsh chemical cleaners will. What this pantry staple will do, however, is enhance bright whites and bring out the clarity of color in colored garments for a truly refreshed closet collection.
How you use bleach is the key to either making or breaking its cleaning power. By using hot water instead of cold/tepid water to create a solution, you can render the active ingredients in bleach ineffective. So for bleach that works, always make sure you dilute it in cold/tepid water.
Try soaking your tie dye in equal parts white vinegar and cold water for 30 minutes after you initially rinse out the dye from your garment. The vinegar helps with colorfastness. After the first couple of washes, wash tie dye in cold water to prevent dye from fading.
Do you wash tie-dye in hot or cold water? Rinse tie-dye items in cold or cool water until the excess dye has been removed and the water runs clear. Then, wash the tie-dye items in hot water with Synthrapol or another dye-safe laundry detergent.
Tie-dye needs to sit for at least 8 hours, but ideally up to 24 hours, before rinsing. Keep the dyed items wet and in a warm place. And if you live in a dry climate, you should keep them wrapped in plastic to prevent them from drying out.
Spray or Squeeze Bottle Method: Fill a spray or squeeze bottle with a mixture of 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Spray the bleach solution on to the exposed fabric of your garment. You can use more or less bleach depending on how intense you want the color change to be.
Although your clothes appear black, the dye used to make them that colour is actually made up of a mixture of navy, red, and yellow. When the fabric is exposed to bleach, some of this dye is stripped from the material, causing it to turn orange.
Bleach is no different, and adding it at the wrong time can result in little to no whitening and possibly even damage to your clothing. Follow the instructions on the bottle and follow the washing instructions on the clothing label. Doing so should help you get a satisfactory clean without too much fuss.
It might be a quick fix solution for stain removal, but in the long run, bleach may cause your whites to turn yellowish and will weaken the fabric, causing it to tear easily. Bleach also tends to weaken the shirt fibers and returns the synthetic polymers back to their original colour, yellow.
Most importantly: don't leave the bleach on for too long. Doing so could cause irreversible damage, which results in brittle strands. If you need more advice on how to bleach your hair at home, you can always speak to a hair professional.
Using too much (either extremely concentrated bleach solutions or undiluted bleach straight out of the bottle) can also cause yellowing. To presoak with bleach, use ¼ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach per gallon of cool water, and limit the soaking time to just 5 minutes before machine washing.
Pour about a quarter cup of pure bleach into a spray bottle. You don't need to dilute the bleach for this project. Spray a very light coat of bleach onto your shirt all around the stencil using a very fine mist setting on the nozzle; one or two trigger pulls will do it.
'Baking soda will not bleach or lighten your clothes,' she reiterates, 'but it may have the effect of brightening colors and whites. ' For whitening, Penny recommends using an oxygen-based bleaching agent, such as Oxiclean, available at Walmart (opens in new tab), or sticking to carefully using bleach in laundry.
Non-chlorine bleaches, such as oxygen bleach and hydrogen peroxide, are also good at whitening. These products are gentler and less dangerous than chlorine bleach, making them safe for most fabrics and dyes. You can use hydrogen peroxide to whiten and brighten clothes, disinfect laundry, and remove stains.
Like bleach, it effectively kills fungi, spores, and yeast. We recommend using hydrogen peroxide because it is a safer, more environment-friendly alternative to bleach products. It's a biodegradable material made of water and oxygen that completely decomposes.
Again, remember to test out the solution on an unnoticeable part of your cloth first. The process is quite simple, pour a decent amount of hydrogen peroxide onto the affected area. Then, wait 10 minutes before continuing to wash it as you normally would.
Wash the stained item with cold water and normally used soap or detergent. You can also soak the entire garment in a bowl of hydrogen peroxide. Let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the stained clothing from the hydrogen peroxide and rinse it out in cold water.
Yet, you need to treat hydrogen peroxide with care. Too much of it can leave you lamenting your ruined clothes. Test a small patch of colored clothing before proceeding with adding hydrogen peroxide to your laundry. Avoid mixing vinegar, chlorine bleach, or ammonia with hydrogen peroxide.
Place the wet garment in the bleach bin for 1-15 minutes and rinse it in the cold water. Then, soak it in the chlorine for 10 minutes. Or, fill a spray bottle with 1 part bleach and 5 parts water. Lay your garment flat and spray on the solution until it's lightened to your liking.
Use chlorine bleach as part of your white-laundry routine. Apparently, you have heard that chlorine bleach can harm fabric and, to some extent, this is true. If you use too much or if you pour bleach directly onto the fabric, you will surely damage it. But careful use on your all-white garments will not cause trouble.
Bleach can also brighten and whiten fabrics and help remove stubborn stains. Sodium hypochlorite bleaches (also called chlorine or liquid household bleach) are the more powerful laundry bleaches; they disinfect, as well as clean and whiten. They work on many whites and colorfast washables - but not on wools or silks.
Diluted bleach can actually be used on light colors as long as the fabrics are safe for bleach, like cotton. It's also a good idea to spot test any fabrics if you're worried about staining them. You can also mix up a homemade stain remover using powdered oxygen bleach.
How you use bleach is the key to either making or breaking its cleaning power. By using hot water instead of cold/tepid water to create a solution, you can render the active ingredients in bleach ineffective. So for bleach that works, always make sure you dilute it in cold/tepid water.
It might be a quick fix solution for stain removal, but in the long run, bleach may cause your whites to turn yellowish and will weaken the fabric, causing it to tear easily. Bleach also tends to weaken the shirt fibers and returns the synthetic polymers back to their original colour, yellow.
Baking soda whitens, freshens, and softens fabrics. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda along with your regular laundry detergent. For spot stains, make a paste of baking soda and water and apply it directly to the fabric.
Rather than staining white clothes, bleach can leave a yellow residue. Removing this yellow stain is pretty simple with some white vinegar. Rinse the fabric for several minutes. Put straight white vinegar on the yellow stains.
In the plastic bucket, prepare a mixture of 1 part bleach to 1 part water. Let the sweatshirt sit in the bleach mixture for about 10 minutes, or until you are satisfied with the color change.
The exact amount you need depends on how big your garment is—mix enough water and bleach to thoroughly coat and soak it. Use chlorine bleach to turn your clothes white rather than all-purpose or color-safe bleach, which may not bleach your clothes evenly.
Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach keeps white clothes their whitest and kills 99.9% of germs in your laundry. It works better than detergent alone on hard-to-remove stains including berries, juice, mud/dirt, ketchup, grass, coffee, red wine and tea.
Should you bleach white clothes to keep them white? No! In fact, most experts recommend avoiding old-fashioned bleach on your white laundry. Chlorine bleach strips away valuable dyes, reacts poorly with detergent, and may lead to yellowing instead of whitening.
Introduction: My name is Jeremiah Abshire, I am a outstanding, kind, clever, hilarious, curious, hilarious, outstanding person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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