How to Wash Tie-Dye Clothes and Fabrics Without Fading

Whether you’re reviving your colored T-shirts with bleach spirals or transforming whites into a full-blown rainbow, tie-dye doesn’t just add flair to your wardrobe. It’s fun. It’s engrossing. And the best part: It doesn’t really matter if you mess up when you’re making it. 

Laundering tie-dye, however, is a bit of an art — assuming you want it to last. What’s the best way to care for your freshly dyed clothes? (Or throw pillows, or fabric masks, or…?) We talked to laundry expert Patric Richardson, owner of the Minneapolis-based boutique Mona Williams, to figure it out. 

Before you wear (or use) your tie-dye creation, you’ll need to give it a good rinse to remove any dye powder particles from the fabric. Richardson recommends thoroughly rinsing the garment or item with cool water, then hanging it to dry completely. 

Next, an important step: Set the colors. “If you really want to go pro level and make your tie-dye last, put it in hot water with ¼-cup salt for a few hours, or ideally overnight,” Richardson says.

After allowing the piece to air dry (which should go pretty fast if you set it outside in the sun), it’s time to wash it for the first time. Since there might be some dye powder lingering in the fabric’s fibers, Richardson recommends washing any newly tie-dyed item by itself. “Dye you buy at the store isn’t as dissolvable as commercial dye, so powdered dye clinging to the fabric could run,” he says. 

Wash on the hot water setting using a few tablespoons of mild laundry detergent, then dry on high heat. Your piece should be good to go!

After that initial soak and wash, you can wash your tie-dye piece normally — until you get a stain on it. The ideal way to remove a stain from tie-dyed fabric depends on what type of tie-dye you’re working with. 

Never use bleach on tie-dyed clothes unless you’re going for an intentionally bleached look. If you used bleach to do a reverse tie-dye treatment on darker clothes, you can use a spot-treatment stain remover, or dip the garment in a solution of water and The Laundress’ Bleach Alternative, then wash normally. Don’t dry the garment until the stain comes out, since heat from the dryer can set it.

For items colored with dye, you might have to be a little more careful. Skip the bleach and any kind of bleach alternative, which Richardson says could result in discoloration or fading, and opt for a stain stick, like Fels-Naptha. If that doesn’t do the trick, escalate to soap and a brush, and finally, a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Always spot test on an inconspicuous part of the fabric before applying any chemicals. Richardson suggests running a cotton swab along the inside seam.

Still can’t get the stain out after all your hard work? “That’s just part of the beauty of tie-dye,” Richardson says. “Unless the stain is really strange, no one will know it’s there.”