Easy Steps To Reverse Tie Dye With Bleach - AB Crafty

Skip to content Bleach Tie Dye – AKA Reverse Tie Dye

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• Daniela Kretchmer
• Updated: Dec 3, 2025
• Clothing, Dyeing, Popular Posts, Tie Dye, Upcycle

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Learn how to bleach tie dye (or reverse tie dye). It’s a super quick and easy way to tie dye colored shirts with bleach to create a unique reverse tie dye effect.

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This is a fantastic tie dye project if you have colored shirts you want to dye. Bleach tie dye, also known as “reverse tie dye,” removes the color from a shirt so you can still get a tie dye pattern on a colored shirt. It doesn’t even use dye! It only requires bleach and water so chances are you don’t even have to buy anything new!

I show you how to make 4 different bleach tie dye patterns using shirts and a tank top, but you can make them on whatever item you’d like! You an also make almost any design using this method so you can take advantage of all of my tie dye patterns.

• Scrunch Pattern
• Target Pattern
• Spiral Pattern
• Striped Pattern

And for a whole tie dye outfit, you can make tie dye shirts, tie dye socks, a tie dye sweatshirt, tie dye shorts, and a pair of tie dye Crocs or tie dye shoes. If you’re instead looking to tie dye white shirts with black dye, you can see my post on using black tie dye.

Note: Some links in this post may contain affiliate links, which means at no cost to you, I may earn a commission.

Jump to the Bleach Tie Dye Instructions

What is Bleach Tie Dye?

Bleach tie dye is a tie dyeing method in which you use bleach instead of dye. It’s one way to tie dye colored items.

Instead of adding color to an item, you remove the color. The bleach lifts some of the the color in the places it was added.

What is Reverse Tie Dye?

Reverse tie dye is simply another name for bleach tie dye.

It’s when you use bleach to tie dye instead of dye. Bleach tie dye is sometimes called reverse tie dye, since instead of adding color they remove the color. Therefore it’s like you’re dyeing, but in reverse!

Don’t forget to pin it to come back to it later!

Materials to Bleach Tie Dye

• Colored T-Shirt or Other Colored Item to Dye (here’s a black and navy one to get you started if you don’t already have them)
• Water
• Bleach (Amazon)
• Rubber Bands (I have this pack of various sizes) or zip ties (this is the set I like since they’re reusable)
• Gloves (these are the ones I have since I have small hands)

Gildan Men's Ultra Cotton Adult T-Shirt, 2-Pack Navy/Black Clorox Disinfecting Bleach, Concentrated Formula, Regular - 81 Fl Oz (Pack May Vary)