Crumple Tie-Dye Jeans Technique

Step 1:

All you need to get started is a pair of white or light-colored jeans made from 100% cotton and your favorite Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit! Jeans made from 100% cotton or another natural-fiber fabric will give you the best and brightest tie-dye results. Before tie dyeing your jeans, make sure to wash them (without fabric softener) and leave damp. There's no need to presoak them in soda ash beause Tulip One-Step Dyes already have soda ash in the formula. Cover your work area with a disposable plastic surface cover and you're ready to get started on the crumple tie-dye technique!

Step 2:

Lay your damp jeans out on the covered work surface. Scrunch jeans into a crumpled mound. You can make them loosely crumpled or really squish them all together for tighter, more defined crumples.

Step 3:

You can secure your crumpled jeans with rubber bands before tie dyeing if you want to, but it's not needed. It can help hold those crumples together more tightly if you are trying to achieve a super defined crumple tie-dye pattern. But if you don't use rubber bands, your tie-dye jeans will still turn out looking awesome!

Step 4:

Mix your Tulip One-Step Dyes according to instructions, then apply to your cumpled jeans. You can apply one dye color or multiple dye colors - it's totally up to you! Tip: If you are applying several dye colors, it's okay to allow the dyes to mix on the damp fabric, just make sure they're colors that blend nicely together (example: yellow + blue = green). Some colors will turn a brownish color if they mix, so if you're not sure what will happen when you blend your dyes, try using them together on scrap fabric first. Don't forget to flip your scrunched jeans over and apply dye to the backside as well. Place in a sealed bag or cover with plastic to keep damp while the dye sets, then rinse and launder according to instructions.

Tulip Crumple Tie-Dye Ideas

Now that you know how easy it is to do the crumple tie-dye technique on your jeans and just about anything you can tie dye, check out this roundup of ideas to get you inspired to start trying the crumple tie-dye technique on, well, everything!