A simple knit dress, which I then tie-dyed! Tutorial
If you ask me... it's hard to say which is cooler about this dress: that I made it out of a twin-sized fitted bedsheet, that I traced a tank top to cut it out instead of using a pattern, or that I tie-dyed it striped. A knit tank dress that's tie dyed? And super comfy? It doesn't get a whole lot more summery than this. I love summer. (I'm not alone! This post is part of the Tie Dye Your Summer project!)
I mean, you can see how excited I am about this..JPG)
And I have a tutorial for you! I'm sure you hardly need one, but I documented the process nonetheless.
Striped Tie Dyed Knit Dress Tutorial
You will need:
- White cotton knit dress or tank (I made mine from a 100% cotton jersey bedsheet)
- Tulip One-Step Tie Dye Kit
- Plastic bag for keeping the dress wet in for 24 hours while it sits
- Grass (optional - I don't trust myself squirting dye indoors.)
That's pretty much it. It actually comes with rubber bands and plastic gloves, although I used my own thicker rubber bands to make wider white stripes.
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1. Make the dress. Does that count as a step? If you're using a storebought tank or dress, skip this part. If you're like me, trace a favorite tank over the fabric as a pattern, giving generous seam allowances since the jersey may not stretch as much as a ribbed tank. Use a zigzag stitch to sew the long seams, and finish seam allowance edges if you don't have a serger.
2. Make stripes in the dress with rubber bands. I spaced mine approximately evenly apart.
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3. Add water to the One-Step Tie Dye bottle and mix with the powdered dye.
4. Squirt dye in alllllll over the rest of the dress. (This bottle technique would work great for doing different colored stripes on one garment!)
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I used two bottles!
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5. Follow the instructions for letting the dye sit, and washing the garment. I put mine in a plastic bag for 24 hours, then rinsed it and washed it a couple times by itself. Color is totally set!
That's it!
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Knit dresses in the summer? In the top 2 most comfortable things you can wear.
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The only downside to this approach? I forgot that the thread doesn't dye! I used poly thread on cotton, and as you can see at the hem and neckline... the thread stayed white. So, try 100% cotton thread, I bet it would take the dye!
This post was sponsored by Tie Dye Your Summer and I Love to Create.