The Ultimate Snow Dyeing Technique & Fabric Guide

A pair of kids’ PJs that I snow dyed for this post (I actually did 2 pairs!)

If you’ve followed WAXON for very long, you know we are obsessed with and constantly talking & teaching about ice dye. So, what is snow, but ice in a different form?

Many people ask me if our ice dye kits can be used for snow dyeing, and the answer is YES! So bundle up and order yourself a scooper of some sort because we don’t want your hands to freeze when you’re out there gathering snow for your beautiful textile projects.

What Is Snow Dyeing?

Snow dyeing is when you use fiber reactive dyes to apply permanent color to fabric, but using snow instead of ice or liquid water. It’s a great way to make use of an incredible gift from nature.

Can you believe how much money you’ll save by not buying ice, and still getting the results on your hand-dyed projects that you would get from using ice cubes? It’s like winter wants us to save money, stop buying ice, and use what is naturally falling from the sky and waiting for us on the ground!

Is Snow Dyeing The Same As Ice Dyeing?

Essentially, yes, snow dyeing is exactly the same as ice dyeing because when you think about it, ice and snow are both forms of frozen water. You get similar results, but just different enough due to the form that frozen water is taking.

Whereas ice cubes are solids that melt slowly from the outsides of each cube, snowflakes are all about the same size, and are just clinging & clumping together because… well I don’t actually know - I’m not an environmental physicist (shocker, right?).

A snow scientist is a real thing by the way I looked it up. I’m a textile artist, and all I know is that snow is lots of individual snowflakes and that’s cool enough for me.

Does It Need To Be Winter & Do I Need Snow For Snow Dyeing?

This blog post has been something I wanted to write for a long time, but because it hardly ever snows in Asheville, NC, I had to wait a few years until we got enough snow on the ground for me to take photos and videos. If you don’t have snow falling or enough snow on the ground to gather, you’re sort of out of luck… unless you want to use that snow-cone machine in your attic.

Ice is easier, honestly. If you’re traveling to an area where there will be snow, bring along an old t-shirt or a cotton pair of leggings and some fiber reactive dyes, and enjoy making your own totally unique souvenir!

When in doubt, go for 100% cotton fabrics.

The Best Snow Dyeing Fabrics

It’s crucial that you check the labels of whatever you want to dye. Anything synthetic (polyester, nylon, spandex, etc) will not take the color with fiber reactive dyes.

Procion type dyes are not designed for anything other than cellulose fibers, though they will work on some protein fibers (like silk and wool), with varying degrees of colorfastness and accuracy. A little bit in a blend, like 90% cotton 10% spandex, is just fine.

Here are some of the most popular fabrics that get the best results.

Cotton

The old stand-by, cotton is everything you want a fiber to be — it’s natural, it’s recyclable, it takes dye amazingly, and it can be knit or woven at a million different thicknesses and textures.

Rayon/Bamboo

Rayon takes fiber reactive dyes beautifully, and so does bamboo, viscose, modal, and cupro — all different names for very similar things! When you take a plant fiber and chemically turn it into mash in order to spin it out into new fibers, that’s what you’re doing, you’re reconstituting it.

Rayon is usually made from bamboo or birch fibers. Cupro is recycled cotton, but made in a way that makes it look and feel like silk. As long as it’s not polyester or nylon, go for it!

Linen

The cloth made from flax is called linen, and it’s one of the longest staples in the plant world (which means it’s incredibly strong, and gets softer and softer with age and washing). Linen is expensive, usually, or at least more expensive than cotton — but go to your local thrift stores and you are almost guaranteed to find some linen clothes that could use an upgrade!

Don’t worry if they’re a color that looks ugly to you; you’re going to snow dye them into a totally new thing. Whatever you choose to make, be sure to give it a really good scour before dyeing, and make sure you know what percentage of it is made from plant fibers.

Snow Dyeing Technique Using Reactive Dyes

When we talk about snow/ice dyeing, the most important thing to know is that we’re talking about using fiber reactive (or Procion type) dye powders. It’s essential that you make sure that you have this type of dye on hand.

Fiber reactive dye powders are sprinkled over or under ice, to create amazingly beautiful tie-dye effects on cloth. Ice dye is characterized by color splitting, which is what happens as the cubes (or snowflakes) slowly melt and pull the colors through the fabric.

So make sure you have fiber reactive dyes on hand.

Want to watch the steps before you read about them? I made a video for you showing the whole snow dyeing process!

Step 1 - Scour Your Item.

You don’t want any dirt, oils, fabric softeners or starches left on the fabric. Even if you pulled it out of the back of your closet and it hasn’t been worn since the last time you washed it, give it another wash in hot water— that’s call scouring. It removes all the yuck from the fibers. I use a tiny squirt of Blue Dawn dishwashing detergent, it works really well!

Step 2 - Soak In Soda Ash Solution

Or use our pre-mixed dye powders (that have soda ash already mixed in).

If you don’t have one of our kits or want to use your own dye powders, make a soda ash soak by dissolving 1 cup soda ash into 1 gallon of water.

This is a huge selling point of WAXON’s ice dye kits: the soda ash is already mixed in with the dye powders in our super convenient little packets, so you don’t have to do the soda ash soak. I repeat, with our  kits, you don’t have to make a soda ash bath or do any pre-soaking!

Go ahead and soak your item in regular tap water and wring it out like crazy. You want all the drips to be wrung out. The reason we soak in water and wring it out is because damp fabric holds patterns way better than dry fabric, which is really helpful for the next step.

Step 3 - Fold, Bind, Twist, or Tie Your Pattern

I advise practicing the simpler patterns first before jumping into too complicated folds (like a mandala). Whether you choose a simple scrunch or something that requires more concentration, like the heart, now is the time to do that.

You will use the included rubber bands, or a strong string (we use faux sinew), to tie or band your pattern into place. Your item will cooperate because it’s been thoroughly dampened and wrung out!

Again, damp fabric holds patterns much better than dry fabric. Nothing wrong with a simple scrunch, like I used for these PJs! You can click here to download our Beginner’s Patterns Handout.

Keep it nice and simple for your first few projects! Crumples are always great looking.

Step 4 - In The Muck Or On The Rack?

There are two main types of snow dyeing, in the muck (a container that the project sits in while the snow melts), or on the rack (so that the cold dye water can drip through and away from your piece, usually into another container or the sink). There is not one better method than the other.

It’s just personal and artistic preference. At WAXON Studio, we are muck dyers 99% of the time. Try a few experiments and see what you like better.

There are benefits and drawbacks to both. I am snow dyeing in the muck for this project.

Step 5 - Apply The Dye Powder

There are also two main types of dye powder applications. There is snow first, with dye on top. Or, there is dye powder first with snow on top.

When we ice dye at WAXON, we are dye over ice 90% of the time. However, for this snow project, I used dye under snow. You can do either!

Try a few experiments and see what you like better. You might really like the look of one over the other.

Step 6 - Scoop The Snow High & Evenly

Try not to disturb the powders too much. I used a big wide ice scooper to go outside and collect snow.

Make sure you place the snow all over your entire project and sort of pack it down. The more snow you use, the more the dyes will be able to move through your fabric!

Step 7 - Waiting & The Washout

After you have got snow and dye all over that thang, in the muck or on the rack, and you are super sure your piece isn’t made of any synthetic fibers that won’t take the dye, it’s time to wait and let snow do what snow does:

Melt slowly, while refusing to give up any of its secrets about how it’s all going in there.

Trust the process!

Don’t poke at it, mess with it, try to make it melt faster or slower, or pick it up and move it somewhere else. It’s best to just leave it be.

In fact, we even give you a cute little sticker that says “Trust The Muck” in most kits. Sometimes we send you a button or a different sticker, because hey, we like to keep it fresh.

You’re going to ignore the whole thing for at least 24 hours, some even say 24 hours after the snow is melted. I’m not always that patient, but you should try to be.

The dyes need to cure at room temperature, for about 24 hours, so take that into consideration. Once the time is up, dump that baby into the sink and start rinsing with cool water.

Rinse both your project and the container/rack. Set the tools away to dry.

Rinse the fabric until water runs mostly clear, taking off any rubber bands or string in the meantime. Fiber reactive dyes are safe for city sewer or septic systems.

Make sure everything is rinsing clear. Squeeze your project, flip it inside out, squeeze it, and examine the water that’s rinsing out. Satisfied?

Next, with much hotter water, add a small squirt of dish soap (blue Dawn is best), and hand wash again until water runs clear. If it’s running clear now, you’re in the clear!

Your snow dye is ready to be dried and worn, and from here on out it can be laundered as you would all other cottons. I wash my dyed items along with all my other laundry because I trust the process.

I love a clear container because I can watch the color magic happen!

How To Snow Dye with a Snow Dye Kit

I promise I’m just here to educate, not to pressure sell, but I really do love being able to save folks time and money by delivering just the right amount of dye, soda ash, instructions, patterns, and rubber bands in one handy kit.

They come in 24+ colors, with new seasonal colors rotating in & out every quarter. You can read all the reviews on Etsy — newbies have been getting awesome results the first time by using our specially prepared dyes, and that makes me so happy.

If you do use our kits for snow dyeing, try both the dye under snow and dye over snow methods and see which one you like the results of better.

Click to buy our snow dyeing kits!

By using the snow dyeing techniques described above you can create beautiful DIY snow dyed projects. Be sure you select appropriate fabric too!

By now I hope your creative juices are flowing and that you’re eyeballing some of the old cotton tees (or undies? or socks?) that are in your stash, needing an upgrade.

I’ll never not love tie-dyeing with bottles, since that was the dye form that got me started on my journey way back in the early 2000s. And of course, Shibori, low-water immersion, and batik are all close to my heart, too. I’ll never give any of them up!

But, snow dyeing offers a more grown-up, modern, and sophisticated watercolor-like look. It can be subtle or wild depending on how you like it.

It saves you time, and money, and is generally more tidy to do in a small space. If you use snow that’s collected on the ground, you don’t even have to buy much — just dye powder and soda ash.

When it comes to alternative tie dye methods, snow dyeing is top of the list. I hope you’ll try it out if you haven’t already.