The Best Tie Dye Patterns

The best tie dye patterns are wonderfully colorful and use individual or combined folding techniques to create unique designs. Tie-dying is the process of decorating a surface by folding and binding items with rubber bands into different patterns and dyeing the material in different sections and colors. Artists tie the material to prevent the entire material from being dyed, leaving interesting white spaces in the design.

The most common tie dye patterns are spirals and circles. However, that doesn't mean they have to be boring. Combining patterns, colors and different sizes of spirals and circles can create outstanding and eye-catching tie dye designs. Spiral and circle patterns lend themselves to any material and can be used on dresses, shirts, curtains and bed linens -- basically anything you can fold and wrap with a rubber band and dip into dye.

Striped tie dye patterns are one of the easiest designs to learn and master. However, variations of the folds and applications of the color can render very unique patterns and interesting effects. Many different color combinations have been used throughout history to adorn the clothing of different cultures like those in Africa and India. Subtle and multiple stripes can take on golden hues that reflect the colors of the earth. Or you can create stripes with intense, bold colors that command attention.

Tie dye rosettes can be applied in multiple patterns and make outstanding designs using single colors or multiple color combinations to make a piece of material explode with life. Rosettes can be placed randomly all over a piece of clothing. Or the rosettes can be strategically placed around the bottom of shirts and sleeves. You can also alternate the size of the rosette patterns to bring even more interest to your tie dye project.

Scrunch patterns are popular tie dye techniques that almost always produce an unexpected design. Although the finished product may look like the simplest tie dye pattern, it is actually one of the most difficult to master. The process involves scrunching large spans of material into a big ball and immersing it into a tub of dye. The hardest part of executing a scrunch design is getting the folds to be somewhat uniform without ending up with a totally dyed garment without white space or ending up with too much white space.