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
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 Blueno 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
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
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.
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
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.
There you have it! Four easy color ideas to get you started successfully! I’d love to hear how yours turned out!
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.
Green can be tricky because there isn’t a pure green dye pigment. For the analogous fabric I had used Emerald Green, Cobalt Blue, and Turquoise. Emerald Green on its own does have a yellow split as well; adding some additional blue can help. I’ve also found mixing equal parts of Cobalt Blue and Lemon Yellow gives a decent green – just make sure the powder is evenly mixed prior to sprinkling it over the ice and don’t rinse the fabric before the 24 hour mark.
Better Blue Green from Dharma splits wonderfully
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!
For the rainbow I’d recommend Fuchsia, Soft Orange, Lemon Yellow, Emerald Green, Cobalt Blue and Grape. I had actually used Cerulean Blue in that picture but it’s no longer being manufactured. (I think that’s a huge bummer because it was my favorite of the blue dyes!) Cobalt Blue is the color of the single dye picture.
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!
If you hold the tank just by one arm strap it will naturally hang diagonally – so if you pick it up by one sleeve then lay it down as is you can just dye from top to bottom in straight lines and it will dye the tank in that diagonal pattern.