DIY Reverse Tie-Dye – Easy At Home Project with @Clorox

Hey all – by the time you read this post, I’ll be on a train on my way to Manhattan for Fashion Week and Strut Moms, the first ever fashion show for Moms! Founded by several Moms, including my good bloggy friends Vera & Audrey, the show promises to be exciting and full of great ideas for stylish Momwear. I can’t wait to report.

But in the meantime, Clorox is a part of the Twitter pit, which I’ll be hanging out in. While gearing up to head to the show, Clorox asked me to partake in this Do-It-Yourself project. Now I’ve done a lot of home made tie-dying before but never with Clorox. This is essentially reverse tie-dying. It’s pulling color out rather than putting it in.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Here’s a step by step of what I did – I LOVE my finished product!

Here’s a step by step of what I did and how you can do it yourself and do cool things with Clorox in your house too.

What you need to get started – Clorox, a bucket or tub of some kind to dye in and whatever you want to reverse tie-dye! (I used a black workout tank top and a brown hat that Clorox sent me.)

Here’s the tank and hat together. The hat was a dark brown and the tank top was black.

Similar to tie-dying, I used rubber bands to tie random bits up of my tank top. When doing this, you have to make sure you make the rubber bands nice and tight. Otherwise, just like with tie-dying, the Clorox will soak threw and you’ll lose the effect.

You’re basically doing the opposite of tie-dying when you use Clorox to dye a shirt. You’re pulling all of the colors OUT rather than putting a new one in. So if you want to save some of the original color, you need to have it covered by something tight. Hence, the rubber bands.

Put your item or items in your bucket and first pour the water. The stats I read said 1cup of Clorox for every 9 cups of water. I ended up with roughly 14 cups of water and about 1 1/2 cups of Clorox (that’s how much I needed to fill the tub and have it cover my items)

Don’t go more than a half cup for every 9 cups of water though or you risk yellowing or creating holes in your clothes.

Random note: I used an old plastic cup for the Clorox as you can see below. I was too paranoid to use a real measuring cup and to wash it out later and use it for food. I’d recommend the same for anyone. I measured and it was exactly 1.5 cups to that line so it worked out well for me.

After pouring the Clorox in, it’s probably good to mix it around with a stick or item you will get rid of or won’t need after.

This picture here is two minutes into the process – isn’t it amazing how much the colors have changed already?

Use your own judgment but I recommend stopping around 15-20 minutes in. This was 20 minutes in:

Once done, get rid of the water/Clorox mix and be sure to rinse your items off well in cold water. Watch your hands – I was careful to touch as little as possible and then to wash them well afterwords.

Then wash your items through an entire cycle in the washer. The instructions I had said to air dry after the wash cycle but I tossed them in the dryer on a gentle cycle because I was eager to have them dry.

Here’s the end result on the tank top – isn’t this adorable?!! (Excuse my gross, makeupless look – I was about to crawl into bed when I took this!)

I have no idea how the reds pulled out but I really do love it and can’t wait to wear it to the gym.

Disclosure: Clorox provided me with a coupon and information on how to dye (reverse dye) these items.