How-To Tie-Dye Sweatshirts

Hi, my name is Teresa and I’m obsessed with tie-dye. After buying far too many tie-dye sweatshirts, and still wanting more, I decided it was time to attempt to make them myself. DIY projects do not come naturally to me. I was almost confident that I would mess this up and need to buy a new set of sweatshirts, but I somehow pulled it off (with the help of my brother Gino), without any meltdowns or mistakes. I shared the how-to on TikTok, but since it’s pretty sped up, I thought I would breakdown the steps for those who are wanting to give this tie-dye DIY a try!

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

• Plain white sweatshirts (I used these hoodies and these sweatshirts)
• Assorted dyes (I used the colors Rose Quartz, Tan, and Camel)
• Squeeze bottles
• Rubberbands
• Ziploc bags

*The color Rose Quartz is really hard to find right now, but I found it here.*

The steps:

1. Start by pre-washing all of the sweatshirts. I did a quick wash with cold water and a little detergent, and then dried them.
2. To make the dye: Fill a pitcher with hot water and begin adding dye. Mix it together and continue to add dye until you achieve your desired color. Pour the dye into a squeeze bottle. I used these and they worked great.
3. Prep your area. I put two trash bags on an outdoor table to act as a workspace.
4. Before you start dyeing your sweatshirts, you’ll need them to be damp. I rinsed all of the sweatshirts and put them in a bucket.
5. Begin by laying your damp sweatshirt on the trash bags. To get the cloudy look, I scrunched the sweatshirt together and secured it using rubber bands (I didn’t have any, so I used hair ties). Then it’s time to start dyeing!
6. Using the bottle, start applying the dye allover. Because tie-dye is so one-of-a-kind, there isn’t a right or wrong way to do this. At one point, I did remove the bands so that I could make sure I liked the design. From there, I just added more dye with the squeeze bottle where I felt it could use more color.
7. After you finish adding the dye, put the sweatshirt in a ziploc bag and let it sit overnight.
8. The next day, rinse the sweatshirt in cold water until the water runs clear.
9. Then, wash and dry the sweatshirt, and viola!

Click here to watch the video tutorial.

I hope this helps if you’re going to attempt tie-dye at home. I’m so happy with how they turned out, but honestly my brother and I had so much fun making them regardless!