Candy Cane Tie-Dyes

Nothing says Happy Holidays like a peppermint candy cane. We realized that it would be a fun and easy shape to tie dye and we are going to show you how. These make great gifts or dye up one for the whole family for your traditional holiday greeting card photo!

Let's get started!

Getting started

Be sure to pre-wash your garments in Professional Textile Detergent (or Kieralon) to make sure you get the best results. The first part of this will be easier if the shirts are not too wet so spin them out a little more or pop them in a short dryer cycle.

Lay your garment out flat on a table and grab your Auto Fade Pen. Decide how big you want your candy cane to be and draw an outline. It is going to look a little like two half hearts. You can redraw your lines if you need to, the old ones will automatically fade.

Use Auto Fade pen and draw outline

Outline on Union Suit

Outline on Long sleeve T

Now, following the lines, pleat up the fabric. The smaller your pleats the more stripes your candy cane will have.

Pleat and rubber band your fabric

More pleats will make smaller stripes

Be creative

Tie the pleats snuggly in place with your rubber bands, line them up as best you can over your guide lines.

Next, mix up your soda ash soak. You need 1 cup of soda ash per gallon of warm water, mix up as much as you need to soak all your garments. Soak them for 5-10 min while you mix up your dyes.

For the colors we used #10 Fire Red* and #30A New Emerald Green*. We needed 4 tsp of dye per cup of warm water and 1 TBS of Urea. We pasted up our dye with a little of the urea water before putting it in our squeeze bottles, then we filled the rest of the bottle up with more warm water.

Take your garment(s) out of the soda soak solution and squeeze out the excess, you don't want them to be super drippy.

Pro-Tip: You can spin your garments out in the washing machine or a dye room dedicated salad spinner so they will absorb more dye.

First apply the Fire Red. Carefully apply it between the two rubber bands, this is going to make the red stripes of your candy cane.

Apply Fire Red first

Between two rubber bands

Cover the rest of the fabric in the New Emerald Green being careful not to overlap (makes brown!) it into the red. You want to go just up to the rubber bands but not over.

Cover the rest in Emerald Green

Carefully flip your item over, and not on the same spot it was laying before, so as not to contaminate your colors, and repeat the dye application on the other side. Place the garment in a plastic bag or cover with a plastic sheet. Let it batch for 12-24 hours.

Flip over and get both sides well

Bag or cover and let cure overnight

Once the dye has set, rinse your garment(s) under cold running water. As you rinse you can cut off or untie the rubber bands. Keep rinsing until the water runs mostly clear. Wash in a HOT wash with more Professional Textile Detergent. Dry as normal.

Pro-Tip: Use a little Milsoft in your rinse or wash a second time with your normal detergent for a softer feel when you wear your shirt for the first time. Use a baby friendly product for a final 2nd wash if the item is going to be for infants or toddlers.

Now you are stylin' and ready to be the hit of all your holiday parties in your Candy Cane Tie-Dye!

Finished socks

Finished Union Suit

Back of Union Suit

Finished long sleeve T back

Finished long sleeve T front


Customer Comments
Image of a notebook and pencil
 

If you'd rather speak with a human, please call toll-free from anywhere in the U.S. or Canada M-F 8am to 5pm PST

Phone: (800) 542-5227

Your item has been added to your shopping cart   Item Added to Cart
Your item has not been added to your shopping cart   Item Not Added

About Tiered Discount Levels

You can combine cotton and rayon clothing & accessories to get the greatest discounts. Your discount is figured on the total number of cotton and rayon items we ship, not how many of each type, style or size. Mix and match them to get the best discount.

Example: adding 4 each of 3 different T-shirts in any sizes will give you the 12+ price on all 12 shirts.

Visual aid for discount details

Visual aid for how discounts will look in cart

Some products may be excluded from discounts, and / or may discount only with themselves. If you have any questions at all please contact us toll free at 800-542-5227 (no buttons, just humans).

Drag and Drop chips to the Palette first.

ssl test img