Best Fabrics To Tie Dye

When you create any project, you want to use the right supplies. It gives you the best chance at success and hopefully makes the creation process easier (or as easy as it can be). In tie dyeing the main 2 supplies that are needed for an awesome colorful project are: an item with the correct type of fabric and the right dye for that fabric. So, what are the best fabrics to tie dye with?
Let’s discuss the types of fabrics available, what dye works best for each and what fabrics to look for when you tie dye.
Best Fabrics For Tie Dyeing
Types Of Fibers (Fabric Content)
In order to discuss what fabrics work best, we must first talk about the fibers that make up these fabrics. It’s really the type of fiber(s) in the fabric (the fabric content) that determine if it can be tie dyed and what dyes to use. Fibers fall into 2 categories: Natural and Synthetic. Within those categories, there are sub-categories. Since this is about tie dyeing and not a Textile Science lesson, I will focus on the natural fibers.
Natural Fibers
Natural fibers are broken down into 3 groups: plant, animal, and mineral.
Plant (Cellulose) Fibers
Plant, or cellulose, fibers come from plants grown in the ground. The most common and inexpensive one these days is cotton. Flax (linen), hemp, jute (twine), bamboo, viscose (rayon) and ramie are other natural fibers.
Animal (Protein) Fibers
Animal, or protein, fibers come from animals (as in the name). The most common and available ones are silk and wool. Alpaca, llama, and cashmere are also well known protein fibers, however, they are rarely made into fabrics that you and I would dye and are very expensive.
Mineral Fibers
Mineral fibers come from nature, but are not used in apparel or crafting projects. One example is asbestos.
Synthetic (Manufactured) Fibers
Synthetic, or manufactured, fibers are man-made from either chemicals or natural/protein fibers that are chemically processed. Some of the more common ones are polyester, acrylic, nylon, and polyvinyl.
What Type Of Fiber Can Be Tie Dyed?
The tie dyeing process works best when dye can be applied directly to sections of the fabric, without heat or being dunked in a dye bath (with the exception of shibori tie dye). This rules out a lot of the fibers listed above due to the type of dye (and process) they need, leaving us with one main type: plant/cellulose.
Cotton, linen, and rayon are the most common plant fibers used in tie dye. They are readily available with costs ranging from quite inexpensive to moderately expensive. NOTE: Silk is unique in that, while it is a protein fiber, it can also work with the dye that plants use.
What Dye Is Used To Tie Dye?
Fiber reactive dyes are the best and easiest dyes to use with plant fibers (and silk). They activate with just water and soda ash (which is commonly now mixed into a lot of dyes, Tulip is my favorite), do not require heat, and can be applied directly to the fabric with a squeeze bottle or brush.
Can you Tie Dye Polyester?
Polyester is a synthetic fiber which requires a heated dye bath to bond with the fabric. So, in a word, no. You cannot create tie dye patterns with multiple colors. HOWEVER, you can bind the fabric using shibori techniques to create light or white patterns on the fabric. You could also dip parts of the fabric in different color dye baths to get a multi-colored effect. It just wouldn’t be the traditional tie dye patterns.
Can you Tie Dye With Cotton/Polyester Blends?
Since any cotton/polyester or polyester/cotton blend fabric contains cotton, it can be used in tie dye. The percent of cotton in the fabric will determine, however, how well the dye takes to the fabric. The MORE cotton, the BETTER. For example, in Tie Dye Sweatshirt: How To Create 2 Easy, Colorful Designs I mentioned fabric blends because sweatshirts most commonly are a blend of cotton and polyester. 75% of cotton or higher is preferred. In the spiral example, however, I misordered and the sweatshirt was 60% cotton/40% polyester. The pattern turned out well, but you can tell that the colors were definitely mute.
Using Fabric Blends To Create Pastel Tie Dye
One thing to note about blends is that you could use them intentionally to create pastel tie dyed projects with regular tie dye colors. Check out How To Pastel Tie Dye for more details on this.
So, there you have it. The best fabrics for tie dyeing are plant-based fabrics like cotton, linen and rayon. Be sure to double-check the Fabric Content the next time you’re picking out your next tie dye project to get the brightest and best results possible. Happy Tie Dyeing!