How to Ombre

Here’s a short tutorial on how to dye fabric with the popular ombre effect. I took these pictures for a tutorial back in May and just realized I never posted it while I was ombre-ing a baby gift this weekend. So here’s how to ombre and I’ll be back to share my ombre project with you soon!

I used 100% cotton and a box of Rit dye to achieve the ombre.
First step: Add equal parts dye to three buckets and some salt, maybe a tablespoon to each bucket to help set the dye.

Then add different amounts of water to create 3 different shades of the color. In bucket #1 I added 8 cups of water, #2 I added 5 cups of water, and bucket #3 I added 2 cups of water.

Starting with bucket #1 (the lighest) I dunked the entire piece of fabric and let it sit until it had reached the desired color. Squeeze out the extra dye and more to the next bucket. If you don’t want your hands to change colors I strongly recommend wearing latex gloves while dyeing. Then using bucket #2 I dunked the fabric about 2/3rd of the way, let it sit and then squeezed it out.

And then moved it to the final bucket to dye the last 1/3rd of the fabric to get the darkest color. Squeeze it out and then rinse with cold water.

Continue rinsing and squeezing until the water runs clear.
And ta da! An ombre piece of fabric.