​7 Easy to Follow Steps to Make a Custom Tie Dye T-Shirt with Sharpies

We are back with another fun and simple DIY project! Have you ever wanted to Tie Dye a t-shirt but were turned off by the huge mess you would have afterwards? Well, look no further! Check out our step-by-step guide on how to Tie Dye your t-shirt with only a Sharpie, some rubbing alcohol, and a piece of cardboard. Let’s get started:

1. Make sure you have the right tools - The best part about this DIY is that you probably already own them! What you will need is a 100% cotton t-shirt, a piece of cardboard, multi-coloured sharpies, a medicine dropper, and rubbing alcohol.

2 – First, put the carboard inside the t-shirt and place it where you will be drawing your designs. This will ensure that the ink will not bleed through to the other side of the shirt. Make sure to move the cardboard underneath the places where you draw your design.

3 – Now it’s time to draw your designs directly onto the t-shirt! Simple designs work best. For our example we tried dots and 6-point stars. For some other examples, try drawing squares, hearts, or diamonds!

4- Next, put a few drops of rubbing alcohol into medicine dropper and drop the alcohol into the center of your design. The more rubbing alcohol you use, the bigger the design will spread out, but with more rubbing alcohol, the design will look more diluted.

5 – Feel free to branch out and draw different colours close together. This will create a gradient effect with your tie dye design. We suggest using dark colours as the colours will eventually fade after the t-shirt is washed a few times.

6 – Once this is done, you will see that the rubbing alcohol dries in seconds! After the alcohol has dried, set your designs by putting t-shirt in the drier for 15-20 minutes on a low setting. Make sure to put the t-shirt in the dryer without other clothes as the colours may transfer onto other fabrics.

7 – To add a little something extra to your designs, try outlining them in black Sharpie! As you can see from our example, we outlined our Tie Die designs and made them into flowers. This is purely a stylistic choice, but it really makes the Tie Dye stand out and look unique!