September 23, 2025

Reverse Tie Dye - Tips and Tricks to DIY this Never-ending Trend

Reverse tie-dye has been a huge trend over the last three years and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere. But what is exactly reverse tie-dye? It's exactly the opposite to tie-dye, so instead of adding dye to a tied garment you remove the dye (with bleach or colour remover). So, while generally starting from a lighter coloured garment to achieve a pattern of darker dye, you start from a darker garment to get the colour off and get lighter stains.

This brings us to a very important point about reverse tie-dye. It is generally quite hard to predict the final result as you won't know what colour will the garment fade into. Black generally fades either into off-white or orange. Here is a TIP though: you can pour a small drop of bleach on a seam or a non-visible part of the garment to get an idea of what color is the base fiber, at least you can see if you like it or not! See video below. The stains are fading stains so we know for sure it will fade in that pink colour!

If you are unsure if this is for you I am going to give you another tip! You can always dye on top of the faded part if you don't like the resulting colour. See the picture below of one of our sweatshirts. It faded into a grey but we wanted a more browny colour so we dyed on top with taupe, getting this beautiful result! Most of the time this is also the beauty of this technique, not knowing what it will look like!

Now, let's get down to business. To do reverse tie-dye you will need:

Your garment: any will do here, it doesn't have to be natural fibers. I did a lot of sweatshirts, tops, shirts but also jeans.
Elastic ties, also any will do here, the thin classic ones are generally the best.
Bleach or colour remover. Bleach can be aggressive especially on lightweight fibers, but it's safe in 99% of the cases (not on wool). If you have a very delicate garment I suggest you use a colour remover, it is less aggressive and will do exactly the same job.
A bucket and if you like a cooling rack (You don't need a cooling rack if you want to submerge the tied garment, see Bath Option)
A squeeze bottle, if you are going for the Pour Option.

BATH OPTION

This is most suited if you want to see more bleached fabric than the original colour.

With a bath option we are going to tie the garment and submerge it into a bleach/water bath. Prepare your garment by tying it with elastic bands. Bleach penetrates everywhere so if you want to see the original color and not too much fading I suggest you tie as tight as possible. The loosest you tie the more the bleach will get through. See in the video below I almost made a very tight ball and see the final result. The orange part is the bleached one and it's now the majority of the turtleneck. All you have to do with this method is then submerge it into a mix of water and bleach (I do 50% /50%). You can submerge it also in only bleach but it will take a very short time to fade and potentially can penetrate faster. If you would like a more controlled result it's better to add water to the bleach. It will take longer but it will give you the time to check on your garment and take it out when it got to the shade you like the most.

Once the garment has faded take it out of the bath and rinse thoroughly. Remove the elastic bands and wash in the washing machine. Do as many rinses as possible, as the odour of bleach will linger around.

You can also do reverse tie-dye with colour remover, like the @ritdye one and you will get a very similar result but without being so aggressive on the fabric. When it's a high-quality natural fabric, like silk or wool I would avoid bleach. Also, using colour remover will most likely give you an off-white fade against the orange that usually comes from bleach.

Truth is that every time we do reverse tie-dye we get a different result! So it's always worth a try. You can always redye on top of it!