Are you bored with your regular old curtains? Give your space a touch of life and color when you learn how to tie-dye curtains. Despite its flowery and hippie reputation amongst society, tie-dye curtains can actually fashion fun and modern look.
With swirling, straight, textured, and simple patterns, redefine your window treatments. Make bold statements or trendy patterns and sophisticated designs. All you need is your choice of liquid dyes, natural curtain fabric such as cotton, silk, wool, and other synthetic fabrics.
Simply pre-wash the fabric and dissolve the salt in the bucket with very hot water. Use squirt bottles to spread the liquid dye. Soak the area of the cloth wrapped in rubber bands and rinse in cold water. You can use a single color or blend multiple hues together.
Tie-Dye
When making your own tie-dye curtains, you can experiment with ombre coloring methods, swirling and striped patterns, even basic batik. Just make sure that you don’t tie-dye curtain fabric made from 100 percent polyester.
It is a great DIY project that you can also do with your kids and family. It is also one of the biggest fashion trends in 2020. Tie-dye is a popular design in clothing that you can do on any piece of synthetic fabric.
Step 1: Select your curtain fabric
The most crucial part in perfecting a tie-dye craft is finding the perfect fabric. Some materials like polyester and other synthetic fabrics are unable to hold the dye. Using cotton, silk, and similar fabric will make the fabric creases secure the pattern in the curtain.
Step 2: Prepare the fabric
Fill a bucket with water and soda ash. Soak your fabric in the mixture for at least fifteen to thirty minutes. The soda ash will allow the dye to stick to the cloth. You will be able to retain much of that vibrant color.
After soaking the fabric, ring it out to get rid of the excess water. Make sure that the curtain fabric is damp so that it can easily absorb the die. A damp fabric will also let you crinkle and shape your curtain to make the pattern.
Step 3: Twist your fabric
In this step, we are going to create a spiral tie-dye fabric. Lay your cloth flat with the right side facing up. Decide where you want the center of your spiral to form. You can place it at the center or side of the fabric. It depends on the effect you want to create.
Once you figure out where you want your spiral’s center, grab the cloth between your index finger and thumb. And twist it so that the fabric spins into a tight spiral formation. Adjust it as much as you want until you achieve your desired appearance.
Secure the cloth in place using a string or rubber band.
Step 4: Dye the cloth
If you want a lovely tie-dye effect, you might want to use a squirt bottle. There are tie-dyes that come in a squirt bottle, so you don’t have to mix your own fabric dye. Fortunately, you can easily buy squirt bottles and regular fabric dyes separately at your local stores.
Squirt the liquid all over the cloth. Make sure that you don’t thoroughly soak the fabric. Otherwise, it will completely remove the pattern and the concept of tie-dyes. You can be creative with how you spread the liquid across the material.
Once you get the desired amount of liquid onto the fabric, let it sit for 24 hours. The timeframe will allow the dye to set and stain the fabric nicely. Once the dye has set, rinse it with cold water. Place it in the dryer and hang it like normal.
Design tips
If you want to use more than one color, now would be the right time to incorporate the dyes together. You can make a rainbow tie-dye by using different colors and sprinkling them over the fabric. Create an ombre effect using lighter and darker shades of the same hue.
Step 5: Hang your curtains
When your curtains have thoroughly dried, take your curtain hardware and slip it onto the rod. Hang it onto the brackets and enjoy your freshly dyed curtains. Learning how to tie-dye curtains is a pretty easy venture. It is also an enjoyable project that you can make with your family.
Creating patterns
Like we have mentioned earlier, you can make different patterns like ombre and stripes. You can easily change the pattern you make by how you fold the fabric. For ombre curtains, you don’t have to fold the fabric.
Try the tub-dyeing method and add a darker dose of the color while allowing it to fade to a lighter shade. Slowly pull out one section at a time so that the fabric immersed develops a darker color over time.
A traditional tie-dye is performed in the same method as we mentioned above. Your base color is the fabric itself, but you can change it too by dying the entire curtain flat in one color. Once you have changed the base color, add your tie-dye liquid and print the design.
Overall, learning how to tie-dye curtains is the perfect weekend activity. You can also try to experiment with different patterns and prints through basic batik. Don’t be afraid to try new things and enjoy a touch of color and luxury to your window treatments.