Tie-dyeing with ice (or ice dyeing) is a fun take on tie-dye that is so simple! All it requires is a powdered dye, soda ash, natural fiber, ice, and a little patience.
It’s been 7 years of tie dyeing for me and my favorite way to do it is the ice dyeing technique! I’m here to give you a full rundown on how to tie dye with ice and some things to avoid.
The first step to your ice dyeing journey is to pick the dye you’re going to use. It makes a big difference in colorfastness (how long it lasts), color bleeding, and vibrancy. I compared some tie dye brands here with a full review so you can choose which option might be best for you, but in a nutshell, I recommend procion dyes overall!
Ice Dyeing Summary
- Use prewashed natural fiber fabric, and place your fabric on a cookie rack or in a bowl (this will give a different result as the fabric will sit in the dye after the ice melts.)
- Place your dye on the ice (DOI), or under the ice (DUI) and allow it to melt.
- Rinse the project until the water runs clear. Bump the water up to hot and rinse again. You will see more dye expelled. Next I use Dawn Dish Soap and rinse it to get really sudsy. After this, I wash in a hot washing machine with synthropol.
Common Ice Dye Terms
If you’re new to tie-dyeing with ice, you may have seen a few acronyms or words you’re not familiar with.
- DOI – Dye on ice. Placing the ice first, and then the dye will give you cool effects and usually cause more splitting.
- DUI – Dye under ice. Placing the dye under the ice gives you more control over where the color will be in your final result. I like to do this if I’m creating something like my Christmas tree where I want to make sure the green is in a particular place.
- In the muck – The fabric that you’re dyeing will be in the pool of water runoff after the ice melts. This can cause muddy colors if you’re not careful with what colors are used, but it also can add extra color to your project!
- SAS – Soda ash soak. Soda ash is what will bond the dye to your fiber so it is an extremely important step. Typically the soda ash soak will be 20+ minutes. Mine are usually overnight.
- TDS – Tall deep scrunch. This is a relatively new term that means the fabric is not tied, it is placed in the ice barrier with tall peeks. Some people use wads of tin foil or whiffle balls to make sure the peeks stay tall. The result is a cool watercolor effect that has a lot of movement.
- Color splits – When ice dyeing, sometimes the dye will split into multiple colors. Not all colors do this, so if you want to know exactly how colors split, create a swatch of your color.
- Batched/Batching – This is the time you let the fabric sit after the ice melts. Allowing the dye to set requires time depending on the temperature of the item. Amelia Newhouse did some calculations and came up with the chart below. (I designed it but all data is hers.)
Do I Put the Dye Under Ice or Dye On Ice?
As with every other question I pose here, it depends. What do you want it to look like? I’ve experimented for you so you can see the differences and choose for yourself. I used TDS (tall deep scrunch) to show how the flow is different between the two methods.
The color travels much more with the dye on top of the ice. The splits are much more drastic, which is awesome! Sometimes. Again, it depends on the look you are going for. I would if I could show you every color and how they split with DOI or DUI. One day maybe I’ll do that!
Do I Put the Dye in a Container or On a Rack?
This question is in regards to ‘rack dyeing’ or ‘muck dyeing’. Check out the results here to see the differences between the two methods.
When dyeing in the muck, you’ll need to be cognizant of what colors are being used. If you’ve got complementary colors, you may not want to muck dye (unless you’re looking for some brown! Sometimes brown results will be your favorite.)
Should I Tie Dye Wet or Dry Fabric?
I decided to test the results and how they differ when you have your fabric wet or dry while tie dyeing. In this video I do the TDS method, or just scrunch. I have found it doesn’t make much of a difference with geodes, but I will say I prefer to TIE with my geodes dry because the fabric isn’t slippery.
You’ll see in the video (commentary thanks to my dad), that the dry fabric dye doesn’t move quite as far and has more white space and stronger darker areas. So pick your poison! What do you like more?
My Go-to Ice Dye products
- Procion Dye: Dye is always a must. Dharma is my favorite company and you’ll want to search for fiber reactive procion dyes.
- Soda Ash: Soda ash is also a must. This is what will bond the color to your fiber. Without it, you will get very muted results.
- Natural fiber content blank: These towels are my favorite. They’re what you’ll see in my videos. I like them a lot because they take the dye well and are great for experiments.
- Cooling Rack: Any cooking rack will work. You can get some from the dollar store but the holes are pretty big. I’ve found using a nicer rack is worth the money.
- Mixing bowls: I like these mixing bowls for when I dye in the muck. I also use them to get ice from my freezer to my project. Make sure to avoid stainless steel because soda ash can corrode it.
- Magic Tracks: You don’t have to use Magic Tracks. You can create your ice barriers if you’d like out of cardboard or vinyl baseboards. I’ve found I always come back to magic tracks. They’re reusable and easy to clean!
- Synthropol: This is used in the washing machine after you rinse. It gets excess dye off your fabric.
- Dawn Dish Soap: I also use this in my rinse-out process. I rinse with hot water and it will get off even more excess dye. I suggest not putting this in your washing machine because it will get really sudsy.
Know that a lot of these things can be found at thrift stores. You don’t need anything fancy in most cases because it’s going to get dyed! Also, make sure to never use these things for food after you’ve played around with dye in them.
I would love to answer ANY and ALL questions! I consider myself quite the expert at this point so ask away. Like and subscribe to my YouTube channel while you’re at it. I have new projects posted twice a week!
