How to Do Ombre or Gradient Tie Dyeing | Tie Dyeing

I'm going to show you how to do ombre gradient tie-dye now. For that you'll just prepare a normal immersion vat. I prepared this one by mixing my dye, which I choose a blue color in water with my dye activator, which is washing soda.

For the ombre you want to prepare a dye vat that is a little bit more concentrated than usual, and you'll see why in a few. I started my fabric just wet in fiber and I made these marks in the salvage of the fabric that will sort of guide me through the ombre, marking the changes from dark to medium, and from medium to light.

Those are just like guidelines marks, and if you make them on the salvage you will be able to cut them. After you dyed, if you're ombreing a shirt and you don't want the marks in there, you can just put safety pins or threads or something that will allow you to identify.

So I start with my fabric wet as it should be, before any dying technique, and I'm just going to start dipping it into the dye bath. First I'll go as high as my medium color, maybe a little bit above the line trying to keep a pretty straight front line, and then I'm going to start raising it and dipping it, and raising it constantly.

What you're doing here, you're pretty much making gravity work for you. So keeping the fabric in a vertical position, the weight of the fabric will start pulling the dye out, making this line here that still appears pretty solid, sort of like fade through.

At the same time, you always want to keep the bottom of your fabric, which is going to be your darker color, immersed into the dye solution, so the dark shades can start building. The reason why I keep pulling it up and down is to avoid building up very rigid horizontal lines. So by pulling it up from the bath and putting it into the bath, I'm just changing where the line is happening.

This process is very basic and beginning way to make an ombre. You can get great results out of it, but it also involves a lot of physical work. You have to be here working it out for at least half an hour. There's more complicated processes to do in ombre that will allow you to get also get better results.

One of them would be by making at least three different dye baths, all with different concentrations, and then dipping your fabrics. First in the lighter one, moving it to the medium, to the darker, and then you sort of build gradient by-lines.

Another way you could do the gradient is by painting the dye into a wet fabric and really like push the dye with the brush full of water. Those are all more advanced techniques I feel like you should try after you try this one. Or maybe after you try a couple of times this one, so you get a good feeling of how the gradient is done.

You can see that my gradient is appearing. I have a pretty light stop and my medium is happening to here at the bottom. I have it darker and I've only been working it for a couple of minutes.

You should continue to do this for at least a half an hour and then at some point
I like to just hang it. So if you're doing this by a place that has a shelf you could just even put two clothes pins, and then just hang it from a shelf. So you don't have to be physically here for a half an hour. Your arms can get tired, so that's a trick that I sometimes do. Or even one of those clothes hangers that are circular and you're just able to hang the fabric from it.

And this is how you do ombre dying with fiber reactive dyes.

[ethank]

Legend has it, she's still dipping the cloth in the dye to this day

[MrSpazzard]

I know it's an old vid, but there is a far better way to do this, and it just involves osmosis, alcohol and wetting the fabric constantly... The dye just creeps up, and as long as you keep the top of the garment wet you get a far better result than this... Keeping the garment wet is the key though... The wetter it is at the top the less the dye creeps, but it is the most natural looking way to do this.

[RaederlePhoenix]

I would have liked to see what it looked like after it was done.

[KennedyOkami]

Thanks! I'm new at sewing, I've only made to barbie dresses by had (tres chic!) and two pillows (tres...comfy?) haha! But I have big plans and ideas for designs and products. I REALLY want to make dresses, and this technique will really help once I learn how!

[jacksapple]

i just watched a woman talking and dipping cloth in dye for 4 minutes -_-
why didn't you show the result? how am i supposed to know if this even works?

[imagineglasses]

Thank You! This is a perfect beginning technique for me! I am totally using this for my Halloween costume

[BuddhaScribe]

You gave me several good ideas. Thanks woman 🥂

[natasharaymond]

if I were to try this I think I would do In reverse I suppose so dip the bottom to achieve a darker look. Allow to dry. Then dip again to achieve the lighter gradients at the top but get a really nice dark colour at the bottom by doubling up the colour

[MixieMoon]

what color fiber reactive dye did you use?

[erasamus]

after you do this how do you then rinse it so the color doesn't just run?

[sparkwelleventsstyling]

Thanks so much mam... Uh so cute.... N uh explained everything so nicely.. Thanks so much love uh dear

[MegaBusterMovies]

Im dying some black pants with a sort of crimson red rit dye. I want to do a fade on them and i was wondering if the pants are still going to be able to soak up the red properly?

[sam]

If i want to manufacturer 100 tshirt do i have to do one by one or how

[hokulea]

I have 5 yards of fabric.  How can I Ombre dye large fabric?

[silverhaze]

Hi, I dyed my t-shirt using this method, but then when I made the first washing with the washing machine - as I feared- all the upper white side turns out pink (I used a red color). How can I fix the color and wash ombré dyed wearing without this happening?

[origamigek]

very cute, very informative, 10/10 smile and twinkely eyes

[sway--designs]

i get headaches when someone talks to much in a video am interested in

[elin]

We don't have tie-dye where I live, can I use something else?

[sofiesongekittelsen]

How does it work on synthetic chiffon?

[codelucky]

How safe is it to wash with other white fabric?