Reverse Ice Tie Dye with Bleach Crystals

You may have seen ice tie dying, but you’ve probably never used this tie dye technique before!

You’ve probably heard of ice dying aka tie dying with ice.

You might have even seen my popular post all about ice tie dying.

But have you heard of REVERSE ice tie dying?

I couldn’t help but wonder:

If we can tie dye with ice and dye powder, we’ve got to be able to do something similar with bleach. Right?

I wasn’t super excited about the idea of dealing with a bunch of liquid bleach. And then I discovered the secret ingredient to a relatively mess-free reverse tie dye bleach technique…

So if you’re wondering what’s the easiest way to tie dye a black shirt with bleach, keep reading!

How to Reverse Ice Tie Dye with Bleach

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

• Dark colored item of clothing
• Clorox bleach crystals
• Ice

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Rack
• Large glass container

Voila! These Clorox bleach crystals are going to replace the dye powder previously used in typical ice tie dye techniques.

I had found this hoodie at the thrift store for a couple bucks and knew it would look even cooler with a grungy bleach effect.

Turns out, I was right 😉

Step One: Prepare your textile

Run your textile under water to get it completely wet. Wring out the access water so it’s no longer dripping wet.

Step Two: Arrange the textile on a rack

Place a rack over a large glass dish or other container to collect the drippings.

Remember, this water is going to be bleach water so you don’t want it dripping on anything porous!

Then, scrunch your textile up on top of the rack.

This is important to note:

Make sure the textile is as flat as possible before you begin to scrunch so that you can allow the bleach to penetrate as much of the textile as possible.

Step Three: Place ice on top

Place a layer of ice on top of the scrunched up textile.

PRO TIP: Use crushed ice so that you can cover as much of the item as possible without it falling off.

Step Four: Apply the bleach crystals

Generously sprinkle the Clorox bleach crystals all over the ice.

You will probably want to use more than you think, especially if you’re reverse dying clothing as thick as a hoodie like I am.

Allow the bleach to work until all of the ice is completely melted. Mine took approximately 2 hours.

Step Five: Wash and dry the textile

CAREFULLY dump the bleach water out of your container.

Rinse as much of the bleach out of the item as possible under running water in a sink.

Then, wash the textile in your washing machine using hot water and laundry detergent.

Make sure you wash it on it’s own because it’s full of bleach!

An important lesson I learned through this whole process:

If you’re going to use a bulky textile like I did, you’re probably better off repeating the process on the back side.

I did not do this, but Brynn was loving it just as it was.

With a thick fabric, plus a hood, it’s harder for the subtle bleaching that melting ice is to penetrate all the way to the back.

You might still be wondering: what color does bleach turn black?

Most black textiles will turn various shades of deep orange or red.

Other dark shades will usually turn a similar lighter shade of their original color (purple turns into pink, red into light orange, etc.)

You might still be wondering: can you bleach tie dye a white shirt?

Because this technique involves removing pigment and white lacks any pigment, I’m going to say no you can’t bleach tie dye a white shirt.

What you could do is tie dye the white shirt and then do the bleach effect. That could be very interesting!