Home » Crafts » Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial

This post may contain affiliate links, please see our policy for details.

I haven’t tie dyed anything since I was a kid so I wanted to give it a try with a pillow I was making.

When I was searching for the right tie dye to use I was amazed at all the kits they sell these days. To make things simple though, I just chose an inexpensive, standard tie dye kit for this project.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Before I even opened my kit, I hopped on the internet to find different ways to make designs. I knew that I didn’t want the swirling circles that you usually associate with tie dye, but I did want some kind of stripes, so that was he kind of info I searched for.

There’s so many tutorials and examples online but I really liked the shibori techniques so I ended up studying different ones and just started experimenting with my fabric. What I ended up with was very close to what I had envisioned.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Are you ready to see how I got my design?

The first thing I did was to read the instructions on the kit I bought. Number one on the list was to wash and dry the fabric, without using fabric softener or dryer sheets. I didn’t want my fabric to shrink so I washed it in cold water and only dried it until it was damp and then hung it up to dry. I cut my fabric before washing it and, even though I washed it in cold water, it still shrunk a little bit. If I did this again I would make sure to add a few inches to allow for shrinkage. You can always cut the extra off.

Once my fabric was dry, I was ready to begin. First I set up an area to work using plastic bags and a really old towel. Now I’m ready to fold the fabric to make my design. All I did was to fold the fabric accordion style, ending up with a long strip.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Next you want to start at one end of the strip and fold that accordion style.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

I wanted to have some resistance against the dye, so I used a thin piece of wood on each side and made a sandwich with my fabric. Next I used rubber bands to hold my sandwich together (making them as tight as I could).

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

Now I was ready to use my dye. My kit had a squeeze bottle with powder so I just added water, shook it well, and saturated my “sandwich” with dye. I made sure to get into all the folds and really soaked the fabric. When my dye got low, I added more water.

Dying pillow case blue

Once I was sure my fabric was covered, I put my bundle into a plastic baggie and closed it tight, as per the kit instructions. The recommended time to let the dye sit was 8 hours but, because I wanted a deep blue color, I left mine for 24 hours.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

When I felt it was “cooked” I removed it from the baggie, cut the rubber bands off and removed the wood. Then I rinsed my fabric under cool water until the water ran clear.

All that was left to do was to wash it in the washing machine, on cold, with just a tiny bit of detergent and then I hung it to dry. Voila…all tie dyed up and ready to be made into a no sew pillow.

Tie Dye Pillow Cover Tutorial | www.chatfieldcourt.com

This was so much fun that I’m already trying to figure out what I can tie dye next.

Have you ever tie dyed anything?

 

Check out my first post for making a no sew pillow