How to Apply Watercolor Wash to Your White Clothes
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how I added watercolor wash tie-dye to a tiered white skirt I made. It’s a little different than traditional tie-dye, but the effect is beautiful and adds a little spice to my outfit. Follow along to learn how to watercolor wash your garments!
Tools and materials:
- White skirt
- RIT fabric dye
- Salt
- Dish soap
- Water
- Bucket
- Sponge paintbrush
Fill bucket
To make this DIY watercolor skirt, the first thing I did was fill my bucket with hot water.
Add dye and mix
Next, I added fabric dye to the hot water. I just eyeballed the amounts, but you can get a more accurate idea of amounts by reading the instructions on your dye packaging. Then I mixed it together.
Add dish soap
I added a few pumps of dish soap to the water and dye.
Add salt
I added salt to the water, which is necessary if you are going to be dying cotton, rayon, or linen.
Test
I used a piece of scrap fabric to test how the color will appear on the fabric.
Submerge the garment
I submerged the skirt in the dye for just a few seconds. The longer the fabric stays in the dye, the darker it will become. Some areas of the garment will have less dye, but that’s part of the design.
Squeeze
I squeezed the skirt to remove excess dye and help blend the color.
Add black
Next, I added a very small amount of black dye to the water.
Paint
I dipped a sponge paint brush into the dye and used it to paint a few areas on the bottom of my skirt, like a watercolor painting. Don’t forget to do the back of the garment, as well.
Dry
When I was satisfied with how the colors looked, I hung the skirt to dry.
The final result is beautiful! The colors dry much lighter than how they look when the garment is wet.
Are you going to try this DIY watercolor wash project? Which clothing items are you going to dye?
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That turned out so pretty you've inspired me to try it. Thank you for sharing
I too do not like the psychedelic tie dyes! They are usually too colourful. My issue is with the Rit dyes as I find they lose a lot of their vibrancy. I've since switched to the fibre reactive dyes, they are so much stronger and do not get lighter. You can still do the same technique but it doesn't look washed out, and you can omit the tieing. 'And yes the blues are the best.. https://www.madebybarb.com/2018/09/16/the-new-modern-tie-dye/