Tie Dye Dream: How to make your own tie dye and ombre tops

Here are the home made tops I made that I mentioned in my previous post. I'm SO happy with how they came out - I want to make more! It was really so, so easy and I recommend to anyone who is considering it themselves. 

As you can see from the photos above, I made three tie dye t-shirts. For these I used Dylon fabric dye from Wilkinsons - which was only £2.99 and you can make a lot of dye from these packets so you could probably cram a fair few shirts in there! For the second and third tops, I used the colour Burlesque Red, and for the first one I used Antique Grey. 

All you need to create the original tie dye look is the something pointy (I used a philips screw driver) and some elastic bands. The reason I used the philips screw driver is because when you're applying the elastic bands to make the circle shapes, you can make the rippled effect like I have by pleating the material over the screw driver, then wrapping the elastic bands around it. You can make as many or as little circles on your top as you wish. In this instance I choose to do one with several circles, and then one with a large one in the middle. After tying on all my elastic bands, I places my top in the dye solution for 45 mins, then put them on a rinse spin in the washing machine.

Here's the video I watched to help me. The technique I've tried to explain in the second in the video: 

I also attempted to create a 'peace sign' tie dye top (pictured above). And although it looks a little like a peace sign gone wrong, I still really like it! I'm definitely going to give it another go some time soon because I think it just takes practice, but nevertheless I'm still very please with my first attempt!

The video below shows the technique I followed to create the peace sign, I'm not even going to attempt to explain it because it's pretty complicated! In the video the guy squirts on different colours to create a multicoloured effect, and also wraps elastic bands right the way down the t-shirt. I didn't do this. Instead, I just wrapped the first set of elastic bands as instructed to create the peace logo, then held just this area in a bowl of dye solution for 20-30 minutes. Then, after removing the elastic bands, I just rinsed the dyed area under a cold tap in the sink to avoid the colour bleeding onto the rest of the top and turning it a pink colour!

Finally, the pink to cream Ombre top pictured at the bottom was done using bleach. This was really very easy to create, and a really big trend at the moment. I basically just brought a big bottle of Wilkinson's thin bleach, mixed 500ml with 2 litres of water in a plastic tub, then placed the tops into the bleach solution, letting just half sit in the bleach - then leave it to do the work! I ended up leaving mine in the bleach for 50 mins, but my boyfriend did a pale green t-shirt and only left his in for about 35 mins as the colour seemed to lift easier. I then rinsed by hand using rubber gloves, as well as putting the tops on a rinse cycle in the washing machine!

All the tops I used in this post where from Primark, and only £1.80 each!

Remember to wear rubber gloves whenever making up the dye, and adding and removing the t-shirts from the solution, and also whenever handling bleach as it is an irritant! Also, make sure you use a tub that isn't too important to you incase it gets stained (although mine was fine in the end) and wear old clothes! Follow the instructions on the Dylon packets, they're really simple! 

Let me know if you make any of your own home made tees! I'd love to know how they turned out!