How to Tie Dye Your Clothes Using Acrylic Paint

This trend from the 1960s has made a comeback! Tie-dying your clothes is a fun way to add colour to your wardrobe. Celebrities like Kylie Jenner, Harry Styles and Willow Smith have all been spotted rocking the tie-dye fashion trend.

What you need:

• Acrylic paint in various colours of your choice
• Plastic bottles with spouts for each colour of paint (This is a good opportunity to recycle disposable water bottles or empty sauce bottles.)
• Warm water and cold water
• White t-shirt or material you want to tie-dye
• Rubber bands

Method:

Mixing the paint can get quite messy, so it is best to do it outdoors on the grass. Pour a different colour of paint into each plastic bottle. You only need to fill about one eighth of the bottle with paint. 

Fill each bottle halfway, with warm water. Put the lids on tightly and shake well. This step is very important if you are using acrylic paint. If it doesn't mix properly, the paint may become dry and crusty. Add cold water to fill up all the bottles and shake well again.

There are many different patterns that you can make with tie-dye. For the bullseye effect, pinch the t-shirt or material in the place you want the center to be and pull up to make a tube shape. Wrap a rubber band tightly around the pinched fabric. Wrap a few more rubber bands around the fabric leaving gaps in between each rubber band. You can use as many or as little rubber bands as you like. Each section will represent a different colour. You can also choose how much space to leave between each rubber band.

Take one of your bottles of diluted paint and squeeze the paint onto the first section of the fabric. Take another colour and squeeze the paint onto the second section. It is up to you which colours to use; be as creative as you like. If you don't want any white spaces on your final product, make sure to add enough paint to cover the fabric completely.

Take the rubber bands off and leave the fabric to dry in the sun for a few hours.

If you do everything outdoors, the clean up will be super easy. Just use a bucket of water or a hosepipe to wash away any paint splatters on the grass. 

You can also use food colouring instead of acrylic paint. For every 250ml of water, add about 16 drops of food colouring. If you want lighter colours, only use about 8 drops per 250ml of water.