How to Tie-Dye with Sand at the Beach

Learn how fun and easy it is to tie-dye with sand at the beach.
How to Tie-Dye Shirts with Sand at the Beach - Try something different on spring break. Tie-dye with sand at the beach. It's fun and easy and creates a great vacation keepsake.
A great time was had on our spring break beach vacation last month. We rented a waterfront condo and just enjoyed a relaxing week along the gulf. Our days were filled with long walks along the beach, sand castles, and gorgeous sunsets. We also enjoyed exploring the Gulf Shores area. Our trip included a lot of colorful beach crafts, including dying shirts. I thought it would be cool to try to tie-dye with sand at the beach. Instead of tying, we used sand to resist the dye.

How to Tie-Dye with Sand at the Beach

Supplies

clean white shirt
fabric dyes
gloves

Directions

Get your shirt wet. You can soak in a combination of water and soda ash to hold the color. I did not use soda ash, so our colors faded a little bit.
Lay your damp shirt on the beach and create a design with sand on top. The thicker the sand, the more resist you will get.Apply the fabric dye and let it set for a while. Ours was out there a little over and our. We had a lot more sand on the shirt on the right and you can see how it resisted the sand.Thoroughly rinse the shirt until the sand comes off and the water runs clear. I rinsed ours in the outside shower down by the beach.
Wrap in plastic or place in a plastic bag overnight. This is what ours looked like the next day.

Aren’t those shirts great? I placed the shirts out on the drying rack on our balcony to dry and it ended up raining overnight. We had to pack up and drive home, so I placed the shirts in plastic bags. Unfortunately, the dye kind of soaked in together and we lost of varied colors. Didn’t matter to my son. He has been wearing his shirt a lot lately. It’s his spring break keepsake.Have you ever tie-dyed with sand or other alternate techniques?

Check out these other great beach crafts~

Jane

Thursday 18th of April 2019

Happy Birthday! I am going to steal this idea !!!

Diana Rambles

Thanks! I hope you share your creation.

Anita

Friday 31st of March 2017

Are the dyes actually safe for the wildlife?

Thursday 13th of April 2017

I used non-toxic dyes.

Justine

Friday 8th of July 2016

This is wonderful as well as the sand art and coloured sand castles. I'm teaching some meditation classes for children at the beach and was on the hunt for mindful crafts to incorporate into the lesson so these are perfect. Can I ask about your fabric dyes? What brand did you use or would you recommend? Many Thanks

Monday 11th of July 2016

My favorite dyes are the fiber reactive procion dyes from Dharma Trading Co. They come in powder form. It seems expensive but comparatively, it's a better price per application than the kit ones that you get at the box stores. I find that they are more vibrant and they don't fade much. I did not use the procion dyes at the beach. We had a big tie-dye party recently that I will be posting later this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Michelle @ Sunshine and Hurricanes.com

Tuesday 19th of April 2016

Such a clever idea! We live in FL and spend a lot of time at the beach so this is perfect!

Make sure you check out my other beach crafts too!

Kelly

What a fun craft to do on the beach! What a bummer your shirts got rained on, but looks like your son doesn't mind a bit. Are his shoes tiedyed also?

Yes! He loves his tie-dyed shoes. His skivvies are quite colorful too, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

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