Reverse Tie-Dye Your Old Clothes and Turn Them New Again!

Fashion Attack
by Fashion Attack
4 Materials
$5
1 Hour
Easy

Imagine waking up and getting ready to conquer the day only to find out your favorite dress is ruined with a stain. Yup, I’m sure that’s happened to everyone at some point. But before you go ahead and trash your favorite clothing item, you can transform it into something better. All you need is…. Bleach! That’s right! Learn how to reverse tie-dye your favorite dress or t-shirt! Reverse tie-dye never gets old and is a wonderful alternative to discarding your clothing items. Let’s get this tutorial rolling!

Tools and materials:

  • Old, dark, or colorful clothing items
  • Bleach
  • Elastics
  • Clips
How to reverse tie-dye

Make your pattern

You can actually make any shape your heart desires. For this tutorial, I have decided to use 4 laundry clips and a bunch of elastics. I did a random pattern by twisting the middle of the dress and holding it in place with an elastic. Next, clip the edges of the dress. When you get to the top, do the same on the sleeves and not the chest area; otherwise, it will look a little funny.

Reverse tie-dye patterns

Next, I twisted the whole dress into a flower-like structure and held it in place with an elastic.



TIP:

You can reverse tie-dye on any color, as long as it’s not light colors, otherwise, you won’t be able to see the cool effects.

Reverse tie-dye bleach

Make your solution

Fill one cup with water and the other half with bleach. If you only use bleach, you will damage the fabric, so make sure to be gentle.

Reverse tie-dye with bleach and color

Pour the solution

Put your dress in a bathtub, making sure nothing else is nearby because we are about to get messy! Pour your solution, but make sure not to pour it all over the dress. The trick here is to create a pattern. Pour the solution on the sides of the dress. You don’t need much, either. Turn your dress around and repeat the process. Remember, because you twisted it in different places, it will blend in different ways and make a lovely pattern.

How to do reverse tie-dye

The process is quick - within about a minute, I could already see the transformation as pictured.

Check your tie-dye dress

Open the dress

Open the dress so you can see the magic that has just taken place. Also, this is a great opportunity to maybe add more bleach to a spot that didn’t blend correctly, or simply add more to places you want to be bleached; this is your canvas!  

Rinse your tie-dye

Rinse with cold water

Once you are satisfied with the result, quickly rinse your dress in cold water. Rinsing will ensure that all the bleach is washed out.


TIP:

Wear white or old clothes while doing this because just one spray from the rinse could damage what you’re wearing!

Wash your tie-dye dress

Throw it in the washing machine

Once it's all rinsed, put your clothing item in a washing machine on a quick wash setting. This will ensure that everything blends correctly.

Stunning tie dye dress


Here is the awesome result! Doesn’t it look funky? I love this! I also love the patterns and how it kind of flows with the dress. You will notice that the sleeves look different here, that’s because I decided to cut the sleeves and give the dress a more rigid design. The former style didn’t go with this kind of vibe.


Bonus Patterns 


I like to go all out, and while I was waiting for my dress in the washing machine, I decided to go all out and tie-dye other items with different patterns! Take a look below and be inspired!

Tie-dye shirt pattern

Here, I have basically twirled my t-shirt in a ball-shape and wrapped three elastics around it. I had 6 segments to play with, and I basically poured the bleach solution on every other segment. So, one yes, one no. You will notice that this t-shirt has a lovely print in the middle; I tried to steer clear of the print and basically reverse tie-dyed the edges. I didn’t mind that the print would get bleached; I didn’t want it being bleached entirely.

Lovely tie-dye shirt

How lovely does this look? It’s rad and fab!

Classic shirt tie - dye

I then tie-dyed another item, this time, with different silky fabric. I rolled it into a long sausage and segmented it using clips. Again, just like the t-shirt, I bleached every other segment.

Funky tie-dye shirt

It looks amazing! This is something to wear on a night out or to a lovely social with friends!


Suggested materials:
  • Clothing
  • Bleach
  • Elastics
See all materials

The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 5 comments
  • Penelope Evjenth Worsham Penelope Evjenth Worsham on Mar 08, 2021

    I know how to reverse tie dye, but the pictures of the results are hard to see.

  • Ann Ann on Mar 09, 2021

    I am having problems with my hands, so a lot of craft stuff I usually do isn’t really possible at the moment,but will be after surgery. I saw thist and think with rubber gloves I can reverse tie die the whole house , thanks for the push and showing how easy it can be achieved, you can’t really make mistakes, they might be the thing look better . Massive thanks xx love your stuff was a little bit dark but I zoomed it and loved it all x

Next