I have really been loving the shibori tie dye design I have seen lighting up my Pinterest boards and even in stores now. I decided to try my hand at it on some white dinner napkins. It turned out to be a very simple DIY project. If you would like to try making some for your next dinner party follow along!
what you will need
- Dinner Napkins – You can make your own or store bought. I found mine at World Market.
- Amethyst Purple Rit Dye
- Royal Blue Rit Dye
- Rubber Bands
- Bucket
Gather up your rubber bands and napkins. I decided on two different shibori techniques for my napkins.
For the first design, accordion fold your napkin long ways.
Then accordion fold it to form a square. I ended up getting three good folds.
Then wrap it up with rubber bands. Your first design is complete.
For the second design, I simply twisted the cloth and secured small sections with a rubber band. Done!
Prepare the dye
I followed the instructions on the back of the Rit dye bottle. I wanted to have a vibrant purple almost blue color so I decided to do some mixing. I used an entire bottle of Amethyst Purple and 1/2 a bottle of the Royal Blue dye. I mixed the dye, 1 cup of salt, and hot water together in a bucket.
I added my napkins and stirred everything up. I did stir on and off the entire time my napkins were in the bucket. I didn’t continuously stir because…well… I just don’t have time for that! I left my napkins in for about 60 minutes.
Once they were done soaking in the dye bath, I rinsed them with warm water and laundry soap. I hung them out side to dry.
I love how they turned out! The colors are so vibrant and love those designs!
I think they look great as a place setting.
They even make a great gift for a house warming or for the holidays. I was surprised how easy it was to make. It made a great lazy Sunday afternoon craft. 🙂
I ALMOST braved it and tried this technique on my infinity t-shirt scarf during scarf week, but chickened out. After seeing how brilliantly these dinner napkins turned out, I’m committed to giving it a go! Wow – – I love the richness of the blue contrasted with the white. Your dinner guests are going to LOVE them. Pinning!
Thanks Lauren!! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. I love that they all come out just a bit differently.
These are awesome.. Love the different ways and combining them all is a good idea. I’ve been wanting to attempt, so thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Thanks Marni! I love how the color turned out. I was afraid they wouldn’t have that bold color you can achieve with the indigo dye. I’ve been too chicken to even mess with the indigo dye. This was a nice alternative and I think I like the purple/blueish color even better:) I can’t wait to see what you make if you try it!
Wow this is such a gorgeous colour! They’ve come out looking so great. I really want to try tie die again – I haven’t done any since I was in school. I love it as a gift idea especially
Thanks Amelia! You should try it again! I’ve loved playing with the different techniques to see what would work!
Pinning this for later…I love the accordion fold one! I wanna do this for sure with something…maybe a runner?
Oh yea!! A runner would be really pretty!!
I love them! Thinking of trying it myself. If you don’t mind sharing what material are your napkins made out of? Cotton, linen, a blend? 🙂
Question: Do you launder the napkins first to remove any sizing, starches, etc?
Hi Barbara! Yes! You can throw them in the laundry before you dye!
Beautiful colors Tory! What did you use to set the dye? Are the napkins colorfasr?
I love these, are they pretty colorfast? So beautiful!
It’s been over a year since this project and they have been washed a lot! They have faded a bit. They are still a pretty purple-ish color but they are not as bright as they were day one.