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4 Easy Color Ideas for Ice Dyeing

Want to try ice dyeing but worried it’ll turn into a muddy mess? Today I’m bringing you four super easy, no-fail color ideas to make sure your fabric turns into a gorgeous masterpiece!

Single pigment dye

Blue ice dyed fabric

This was dyed using a single pigment blue.

When you buy powdered dye, a vast majority of them are premade color mixes put together by the manufacturer. There are only a handful of dyes that are one single color. For ease, I’ve listed Dharma Trading’s pure pigment colors below (updated 3/14/2021):

  • PR1 Lemon Yellow
  • PR3 Golden Yellow
  • PR6 Deep Orange
  • PR12 Light Red
  • PR13 Fuchsia Red
  • PR22 Cobalt Blue
  • PR23 Cerulean Blue no longer available 
  • PR25 Turquoise
  • PR26 Sky Blue
  • PR188 Bluebird
  • PR186 Nebula Navy
  • PR117 Grape
  • PR175 Neutral Gray (only works in hot water – does not work for ice dyeing)

Using just one color really draws attention to the beautiful cloud-like patterns it creates.

Mixed pigment dye

Ice dyed fabric with purple, pink and blue

Believe it or not, this was dyed using Sapphire blue!

Pick a color you like. Just use the one. It’s seriously that easy. Because the mixes are made up of colors that already go together really well, you can’t go wrong!  It’s a wonderful surprise to see all the colors that emerge through the dyeing process!

Analogous Colors

Blue, turquoise and green ice dyed fabric

This was dyed with blue, turquoise, and green.

Quick color theory lesson! Analogous colors are colors next to each other on the color wheel and are generally pretty pleasing to the eye.

Color wheel showing analogous colors

So if you pick two or three analogous colors (single pigment or mixed pigment, doesn’t matter much) they are pretty much guaranteed to mesh well. Sprinkle randomly all over or do it with a bit more premeditation; either way will turn out fine.

Rainbow

Rainbow ice dyed tank tops

We can’t very well have an awesome color list and not include rainbows! I seriously love rainbows – they just make me feel so happy! I think it’s all those bright, cheery colors all in one spot.

They key here when doing rainbow colors is to place them with intention. Simply placing the dye in a line is the easiest. This will give you that nice color gradient and you won’t have to worry about contrasting colors mixing together and making muddy color splotches.

Ice dyeing rainbow

 

There you have it! Four easy color ideas to get you started successfully! I’d love to hear how yours turned out!

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Lisa Lee
Lisa Lee
June 22, 2020 1:37 pm

Great page Lindsey – thx! Do you recall what blues and greens you used in the “analogous colors photo? There are so many and a lot of the greens I have been trying split *very* yellow. I am looking for something more subtle and closer to what you pictured.
 

Gail Slocum
Gail Slocum
September 23, 2020 8:02 pm
Reply to  Lindsey

Better Blue Green from Dharma splits wonderfully

Robin
Robin
August 19, 2020 3:43 pm

I’ve been looking around for some ice dyeing tutorials — thanks so much for posting this:) I love Dharma and have considering trying some of the procion dyes for a while now. My kids would LOVE rainbow shirts! Can you PLEASE tell me what colors you used to get such a lovely effect? Thank you!

Justine
Justine
June 10, 2021 12:36 am

Hi! I love your color combos! I was wondering for the rainbow tank top on the left how you got that diagonal pattern? How did you fold it to make that? It’s so pretty!