How to Ice Dye

Gather Materials

You’re going to need a few things to get started, and you might have some lying around already!

• Something to tie dye
  • Look at the tag and make sure it’s an organic/plant-based material like cotton, rayon, bamboo, hemp, linen, etc
  • Needs to be at least 70-80% of the above materials or your shirt will be dull/faded or won’t even take any dye at all
• Soda ash
  • AKA: Sodium Carbonate (not bicarbonate)
  • Available at most grocery stores in the same aisle you buy laundry detergent
    • Sold as Arm & Hammer™ Super Washing Soda Detergent Booster (not sponsored, just mentioning what I use)
  • Required to change the pH of the garment and help bind the dyes
• A plastic container or two
• Rubber bands
• Scrap cardboard
• Clothespins
• Grate of some kind
  • Cheap baking racks are grate for this
• Gloves (vinyl or rubber)
• Disposable spoons
• Safety goggles
  • To protect against splashes
• Dust respirator or N95 dust mask
• Ice
• Dye catcher sheets
  • Optional
• Dye
  • We’ll be using what is called fiber reactive dye
    • Dyeing is a chemical reaction that permanently dyes the fibers in our garment
    • Once dyed, and properly washed out, the dyes won’t bleed to other garments or fade in color
  • Check out these sites where I’ve bought dye from before (again, not sponsored)
    • https://www.dharmatrading.com/dyes/dharma-fiber-reactive-procion-dyes.html
    • https://www.grateful-dyes.com/dyes/
  • A little goes a long way. You don’t need a lot! A 2oz. jar will dye quite a few garments

Instructions

Safety Notes

• When working with soda ash, it’s best to wear safety goggles and gloves as it’s a mild irritant and repeated exposure can create an allergy.
• When a dye jar is open, wear your respirator! You don’t want dye in your lungs. This is not optional!

1. Mix one cup of soda ash into 1 gallon of warm water
   • I like to do this in a rinsed out gallon bottle of windshield wiper fluid. Don’t fill up all the way at first, seal, shake, then add the rest of the water, and shake again.
2. Put your garment in a container and fill it up with your soda ash water, so the garment is completely submerged
3. After 15 minutes, remove your garment from the soda ash solution and wring it out by hand or toss it in the washer on a spin cycle
   • Save your soda ash solution for the future!
   • Make sure the washer doesn’t add water or else you’ll need to re-soak
   • It’s okay to leave stuff soaking for longer. I’ve left stuff soak for weeks at a time to no consequence
   • I usually let my stuff dry out, then re-wet it with a water spray bottle when it’s time to fold
4. Fold your garment and hold it together with rubber bands, kite string, or sinew
   • Here are some sources for folding tutorials or inspiration
     • https://www.youtube.com/@MrTieDye
     • https://www.youtube.com/@LSDTieDyeTV
     • https://www.chandye.com/video-patterns/
   • If you can’t find anything you like above, just google around and find something you like!
   • Note that some patterns care a lot about dye placement, and that can be rough for ice dye, but not impossible
5. Prep the dyeing area
   1. Place your grate in or over the container you’ll be dyeing in. Make sure it’s lifted off the bottom by a few inches. Scrap wood is great for this.
   2. Center your shirt on top of the grate
   3. Build a fence around the shirt as close to it as possible using your cardboard scraps. Use the clothespins to keep the fence together and in shape
   4. OPTIONAL: You can do something called “muck dyeing” where you use no grate, put the garment in a container (not much larger than the garment itself), then do ice and dye. This can yield really cool results, but make sure you don’t disturb the “muck” until you’re ready to pull the garment out and rinse it out.
6. Dye your garment!
   • You’ve got two options ahead of you: dye OVER ice or dye UNDER ice
   • If you’re trying to get specific dye placement, do dye first, then ice on top
   • If you want more color splits and a funkier pattern, do ice first then dye on top
     • Since putting the dye on the ice will spread the color around, it WILL look like there’s more dye than there really is. It’s okay to put a little bit more on
   • Either way you do your dye placement, I always like to sprinkle a little extra soda ash on top to help with color fixing, but this is (probably) unnecessary
7. Wait about 24 hours.
   • I know it’s a long time, but it’s absolutely worth the wait!
8. Rinse out your shirt under running water while wringing it.
   • I’ve seen some folks unfold their garment onto their driveway or sidewalk and spray it out with the garden hose, but I’m concerned about chemical runoff, so I don’t do this.
   • This will take a while. Keep wringing it out until the water is mostly clear.
9. Wash it!
   • Run it alone (or with other recently dyed garments) in your washer with the same detergent you usually use.
   • You can get special soap, but if you’re not doing a lot of garments, you can get by without it.
   • If you have dye catcher sheets, throw one in for good measure.
10. Dry it out and enjoy your new unique, wearable art piece!
    • After the first wear, if you want to be extra cautious, repeat step 9 by washing it alone again.

Other Resources

Maybe one day I’ll get around to making a video, but in the meantime, here’s some that will go over the same steps above:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFztKXWI8lc
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSslw4KtCU

Dharma Trading Co. is the standard when it comes to tie dye (or other fiber dye crafts) and they have TONS of resources available. Here’s their written tutorial for ice dyeing: https://www.dharmatrading.com/home/learn-how-to-ice-dye.html