Get ready for spring and music festival season with this super easy and inexpensive DIY!
I admit while browsing through Nasty Gal I spotted these cute tie dye shorts and almost died..but mostly over the $82 price tag, and then I thought I could easily make them myself for less than $20!
What you need
1. White shorts: old or new you simply want to dye them! I had these old Hollister shorts I was getting bored of, but you can find white shorts for cheap anywhere. The ones I used aren't high waisted like the Nasty Gal shorts but you can find some at thrift stores, flea markets for less than $15, or cut an old pair of white pants!
2. Transparent plastic tub: I used this one because it wasn't too deep and I could control how far I was dipping the shorts better. I highly recommend using a transparent bucket/tub to see the color of your dye better.
3. Fabric Dye: I used Rit Dye petal pink and lemon yellow, I couldn't find a turquoise or light blue dye for Rit so I bought iDye which I was actually very pleased with! The color turned out vibrant and beautiful. I recommend both brands and they can both be found at any craft store, or wal-mart for about $2.49 each, iDye was a little more expensive. My shorts were cotton which is a common material, but make sure that you can dye your specific fabric with that dye, it usually says on the packaging.
4. Hot Water: Quantity depends on the amount of pieces you are dying so read the fabric dye instructions!
5. Studs: I decided to buy some studs to add a little edge to the shorts since they weren't high waisted, and found a pack of one hundred for about $7.00 at a bead store.
6. Hanger: or pretty much anything to mix the water and the dye, I chose to use a hanger because I had to use it later to hang my shorts to dry anyway!
7. Thick rubberbands: These are to separate the color levels you are dying on the shorts. Thick and heavy duty rubberbands work the best because their thickness keeps the colors from mixing with each other when you dip it in the dye!
1. Boil the amount of water you need and then mix with desired amount of dye. I eye balled the amount of dye I poured in depending on how dark and intense I wanted the color on my shorts. Since they're white, the color will really be absorbed so if you're going for a lighter pink, add about 1/4-1/2 of the package depending of amount of water you have. Boil new water for each color!
2. Apply rubberbands to shorts according to the amount of color levels you want and their position. The TOP waist part of the shorts is dyed first, then the middle color, and at the end the bottom. After doing the top, DON'T DIP THE SHORTS! This will dye the bottom part too! To dye the middle I placed all the rubberbands and very carefully put it in the dye while folding the sides up so they didn't get pink on them. This was my way to do it and it was a little tricky, but you can try anything as long as you can keep the bottom clean! I left the shorts in about 1-2 min for each level, and sometimes left it in longer if I saw the color was taking longer to get to the intensity I wanted.
TIP: The longer you leave in the shorts the darker the color will be! I was going for a pastel yellow but probably left it in too long or applied too much dye to the water because mine turned out darker.
3. After dying the middle, dip in the bottom and you're done! Try not to submerge the rubberbands on each level but dip just below it, that way nothing will leak through to the other level. After you have dipped the shorts in all the colors, rinse them with cold water somewhere you don't mind possibly staining Once water comes out almost clean you can put them in the washer by themselves and you're done! You can choose to hang dry them or put them in the dryer.
4. To add some edge you can add the studs of your choice around the front and back pockets if you want. Do this by putting the stud through the fabric and folding the "teeth" with a butter knife, doing it with your fingers is hard, painful, and doesn't secure the teeth as well.
&&&& done!
I was really pleased with the result! The blue turned out the perfect hue I wanted and even though it mixed a little with the pink it made pretty hints of purple here and there. I added square and heart studs later on the front and back pockets, and tried to rip them up a little but decided to leave them like this. I want to make another pair later with high waisted shorts and maybe change up the colors. I still have enough dye left for at least another 2 pairs so I am good to go!
