History Of Tie-Dye

Fabric dyeing has been around for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until the hippie movement of the 1960s that the term tie-dye became synonymous with the process of resist-dyeing fabrics that produces the amazing multi-colored t-shirts and other garments and fabrics that we know as tie-dye today.

The process of tie-dyeing fabric starts with dye friendly cloth like 100% cotton. Other natural fabrics like rayon and silk will work too, but synthetic fabrics, like polyester will not. Design patterns are achieved by manipulating the fabrics in different ways, like folding, cinching, tying crumpling and even drawing and tracing patterns. While the design patterns are important, equally important are the color selections. Tie-dye nearly always use bold, bright, vivid colors. Although occasionally you will see purposely washed out pastel colors.