I found a white cotton knit dress with pockets at Old Navy, and I knew it would be perfect to turn into a 4th of July Patriotic Red and Blue Tie Dye Dress. I just love how this dress came out, and it’s one of my favorites.

Every year the local state university and the Lion’s Club puts on a big 4th of July event at their stadium. It’s local bands, food, fun, and ends with a fireworks show. And of course, we all dress in our red, white, and blue for the event.
Before they built their new stadium, the fireworks actually shot out of the entrances to the seats on the other side of the stadium. The very last year it was the old stadium, something went wrong and the fireworks all shot off at the same time. It was crazy and a bit scary! Now the fireworks is in the big field behind the new stadium.
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What do you need to make a 4th of July Patriotic Red and Blue Tie Dye Dress?
Here’s what I used:
- white cotton knit dress
- rubber bands
- dark blue dye (2 bottles)
- red dye (2 bottles)
First, you need a COTTON white knit dress. The dyes don’t work as well with other fibers. With 100% cotton, you’ll get vibrant color, but if you use a blend of cotton and polyester or other fibers, the colors will be more muted and pastel.
I found my dress at Old Navy HERE. But, I’ve seen a similar dress that’s a little longer at Target, and I think I remember seeing some Walmart recently.
How do you make a 4th of July Patriotic Red and Blue Tie Dye Dress?
First, prewash the dress, but don’t dry it.

Take it out of the washer and rubber band the design you want on the dress. You can do swirls, hearts, circles, whatever! There are lots of tutorials to make tiedye patterns around.
I went with easy, I just scrunched it widthwise and added a rubber band every 6 inches.
I found using an under the bed plastic storage bin for this project, so that’s what I used.
I bought my dye at Walmart. They have single bottles you can purchase for around $1.70/ea, and I used 2 bottles of each color.

Then, every other row I created, I added either red or blue dye. Make sure to really soak each layer with dye. Get inside the folds with the dye, otherwise, you’ll have lots of white space.
Make sure you use gloves or your hands will be dyed.
Let the dress sit overnight or at least 12 hours.

Then, wash it in cold water in the washing machine and dry like normal.
Now your dress is done!
I just love how my dress came out. One thing I did do, was I added red dye to the very bottom hem around the skirt. I had added a rubber band right above it and that last inch I just added red.

This is a very intimidating post for me because I never post pictures of myself. I’ve developed a pretty scary immune disorder over the last two years where I started having idiopathic anaphylaxis all the time. If you’ve recently read about Halsey’s recent illness, I have the same thing.

In May 2021, we finally started to figure out what was wrong with me. Since then, we have finally be able to stabilize a lot of my reactions. I haven’t been to the ER with anaphylaxis since October 2021! Yay me! While this disease is a horrible cross to bear, the silver lining is that it caused me to lose 100 lbs that I’ve been able to keep off for an entire year now.
More Tie Dye Fun
- Patriotic Dip Dye Baby Onesies
- How to Make Tie Dye Socks
- How to Tie Dye Scrunchies
- Tie Dye Knit Summer Dresses
- How to Tie Dye Baby Bodysuits 2 Ways
More 4th of July Fun!
Here’s a few more fun ideas you can do with the kids to celebrate!
- 4th of July Patriotic Cheesecake Bars
- How to Make a 4th of July Patriotic Red and Blue Tie Dye Dress
- 4th of July Fruit Pizza
- Free Kids 4th of July Printable Games
- Red, White, and Blue Patriotic Hot Cocoa Bombs
- DIY Patriotic Flag Waving Wands
- How to Make Bomb Pop Cupcakes
- Red, White & Blue Edible SLIME
- 4th of July Scavenger Hunt
- Cherry Bombs from Cups, Sticks & Nibbles by Nicole Meyer
- 4th of July Fireworks Ice Cream Floats
- How to Make DIY 4th of July Wands

Tie Dye Dress
Materials
- white cotton knit dress
- rubber bands
- dark blue dye (2 bottles)
- red dye (2 bottles)
Tools
- gloves
Instructions
- First, prewash the dress, but don't dry it.
- Take it out of the washer and rubber band the design you want on the dress. You can do swirls, hearts, circles, whatever! I went with easy, I just scrunched it widthwise and added a rubber band every 6 inches.
- I use an under the bed plastic storage bin for my tie dye projects for easy cleanup.
- I bought my dye at Walmart. They have single bottles you can purchase for around $1.70/ea, and I used 2 bottles of each color.
- Then, every other row I created, I added either red or blue dye. Make sure to really soak each layer with dye. Get inside the folds with the dye, otherwise, you'll have lots of white space.
- Make sure you use gloves or your hands will be dyed.
- Let the dress sit overnight or at least 12 hours.
- Then, wash it in cold water in the washing machine and dry like normal.
- Now your dress is done!
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