Dip-Dyed Eyelet Dress DIY

We've been obsessed with dip-dye and ombre as of late around our studios!  While ombre involves a big paintbrush and dye, dip dye is exactly how it's named...you simply dip the bottom of the garment into a container of dye!  We're so, so excited with how this technique is working on the pretty white eyelet dresses from Old Navy!  They add an extra punch to a plain white dress.  

What you need: 

– White Eyelet Dress (100% cotton material, ours was from Old Navy)

– 4 bottles of Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye in Fuchsia 

– Medium-sized bucket

– Clothesline and clothespins

– Tulip Surface Covers or plastic bag to protect your work surface.

Dip dyeing isn't hard to do at all!  Here's the steps you will need to follow: 1. Prewash dress without fabric softener and do not try. 2.  Add dye powder from all four Fuchsia dyes to plastic shoebox. Fill box with water and use stirring spoon to mix until dye is completely dissolved. 3. Cover floor with plastic sheeting. Hang dress from clothesline using plastic clothespins. 4.  Bring the box with the dye up to the dress so that the bottom of the dress is touching the bottom of the box. Tip: only allow the bottom hem of the dress to barely touch the bottom of the box…otherwise, the fabric will lay oddly in the dye and you’ll end up with white spots. 5.  Let soak 24 hours to allow the dye to travel up the dress. 6. Carefully remove dress from dye and rinse out excess dye in sink until water runs clear. Be very careful to not splash dye on upper part of dress. Line dry.

You will want to wash this dress by hand for the first 3-4 washings using a product like Woolite.  This way, you will be guaranteed that the white part of the dress won't be dyed a light pink.

Here's the bottom of another dress that we dip-dyed.  The reason that the dye does not take to the ornate detailing is because the threads used on this dress are not 100% cotton.  They are made up of a polyester blend and that blend rejects the dye.  It turns out to be such a cool effect.

Here's Alyson wearing the finished dress!  It looks perfect on her!

So, do you think you wanna give dip-dyeing a try?  What color of dip-dyed dress would you want?

Inside the iLoveToCreate studio via Instagram

There's always a lot of action going on in our studios on a daily basis!  This past week, there was a whole lotta tie dye going on, as well as a couple photo shoots.  One of the mom's of a model who came in brought this pretty conure.  We had to put him on a tie dye shirt and he also left a present for us on said shirt. Haha.  Oh, and by the way, he was born with his little feet that way, so nothing is wrong with him if you were wondering.

Lauri dip-dyed this shirt from Forever21.  She used the Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye in coral.  It left it a cool purple tone!

We are making shirts in the studio using various products that can be mass-produced for shirts to be displayed in stores.  This neon shirt is using Tulip Fabric Sprays.

Pattiewack was painting Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye on specialty paper for an upcoming tradeshow.  The colors are so full and rich!

During our sales and marketing meetings, we all bring a craft to work on!  Alexa is working on  a new Puffy Paint Canvas in honor of PUFFY PAINT! See what she's going to do with it in this blog post.

We're decorating our human resources area with bright and vibrant pieces that we've created for our web site.  This rainbow-covered stool is so bright and cute...find the instructions to make it here.

And finally, we, once again are mass-producing shirts for retail stores!  We think we've hit the BULLSEYE on this one.

How to make Dip-Dyed Pillows

Making pretty dip-dyed pillows is so much easier than you might think!  We love using our Tulip One-Step Tie Dye on silk.  Silk is the best cause it just absorbs the dye and stays so super vibrant! These pillows were created by designer Lauri Eaton (she's the queen of tie dye around our studios). Here's the easy to follow step-outs of how she makes them!

What you need:

– Tulip SuperBig One-Step Tie Dye Kit

– Tulip Surface Cover

– 3 Silk pillow covers (we got ours from Dharma Trading Company)

– Pillow forms for inside the pillows

–Plastic shoebox sized containers (enough for each dye color)

Large pastry cooling racks (optional)

Before you begin: Set up  your work surface by laying out your Surface Cover, cooling rack, and supplies. Select and fill up colors of your choice, then pour the colors into your shoebox containers.

Also, Lauri planned out her designs in a sketch before she started. This helped her make a more deliberate decision when it came time to dye!

Wet pillow form by soaking under sink and wringing out or by lightly misting with water in a spray bottle.

Put on your gloves, now scrunch cover horizontally and dip one end into yellow and carefully squeeze out excess.

Carefully unscrunch pillow and dip one opposing corner into green dye. You will want to make sure to leave white in the middle, only unless you choose to let the colors run together.

Lay onto drying rack and cover with plastic. Let set for 8 hours, then rinse out all the dye. Wash and dry by itself for the first time, so you won't get dye on other items.

After they were washed and dryed, this is how all the pillows turned out!  For the blue pillow, Lauri actually added a little bit of salt around the edge. That's why you see the little flecks in the dye!

What color combination of dip dye would you like to try?   There's so many possibilities!  You can also use this technique for other items including shirts, socks, pillowcases, and more!