T-shirt Upcycle: Tie Dye Summer Tote Bag

It's time to Tie-Dye Your Summer! I've made a Tie Dye Summer Tote Bag and I'm going to show you how to make one too. This DIY sewing craft is SO SIMPLE and QUICK to make! So grab a t-shirt and let's start tie-dying, I think you're going to really have fun making it too!

Make a tie dye t-shirt tote bag - designed by Jen Goode — Make a tie dye t-shirt tote bag – designed by Jen Goode

Tie Dye Summer Tote Bag

We are tote bag people. It seems everywhere we go we have more bags than hands. I have no idea why we think we need to take so much stuff with us, but it happens… all the time. So a new tote bag is definitely handy. The best part, this tote bag is handmade with love AND full of summer color. You can make your own to coordinate with your swim gear or a picnic party or whatever you like.

There's so many ways to change this up, just by changing the colors you use. Just so you know… i Love to Create is compensating me for sharing this with you… but they aren't paying me to love it. I really did have fun using this kit – the colors are amazingly bright and the ready for water bottles of dye are super easy to use.

I really love this tie-dye kit from i Love to Create. It comes with tons of colors, full instructions WITH pictures and complete with everything you need to make a fabulous tie-dyed creation. You just need to add the water and the fabric (or whatever else you want to dye). Note: The dye works best with 100% cotton fabric – make sure to follow package instructions.

Tulip One Step Tie-Dye kit from i Love to Create — Tulip One Step Tie-Dye 18 color kit from i Love to Create

There are plastic gloves, rubber bands and even a plastic table cloth. They really did think of everything!

I love all the color choices in this tie-dye kit

How to make a Tie-Dyed t-shirt tote bag

OK, enough about the kit, let me show you what I did with it…

Materials you'll need to make your own t-shirt tote bag:

T-shirt
Tulip One Step Tie-Dye kit from i Love to Create
Water
Scissors
Needle and Thread (I used a sewing machine)

Instructions

First you need to dye the shirt. (I cut the sleeves off so I could use that fabric from something else.) Then scrunched the shirt up long-wise and added rubber bands every few inches. Then follow kit instructions for adding dye. Add color to each segment of the fabric between the rubber bands. Be careful not to allow different colors of fabric to touch as the wet dye will mix.
Once the dye is set and you've washed and dried the fabric, you're ready to make your bag.

Colored fabric with tie-dye from i Love to Create

Now you're ready to sew!

Check out the full, step-by-step instructions to make your own Easy Sew T-shirt Tote Bag. If you already know how to do the sewing for this project, you can skip this article.

Have you ever made any kind of tie-dye project? I'd love to hear what you like best about tie-dye. I love watching the reactions of the kids as they unfold their finished colored piece. If you're looking for some great summer fun, you can't go wrong with these Tulip One Step kits. They are so fun and make tie-dying sooooo easy. It's a great activity for the whole family!