DIY Tie-Dye Face Masks

This school year is going to be a little different, if your kids are headed back for in-person learning face masks will mostly likely be mandated. Some kids, mine included, do not love wearing masks especially for 6 hours straight. So, to make masks wearing more fun for my kids, we made it into a craft! I thought they would be more likely to wear a one-of-a-kind trendy mask they could show off to their friends. Here is how we made our own DIY tie-dye face masks.

Tie-Dye Kit

I would recommend getting a tie-dye kit. The Tulip One-Step Tie-Dye Kit is the one I ordered, you can find it through our affiliate link here: Buy on Amazon. I really like the Tulip line of tie-dye, I find they produce bright, vivid colors. This kit had more than enough dye for us to tie-dye 50 face masks. I know what you’re thinking, 50? Yes, I bought a lot so we have plenty for my kids to use at school without having to wash them every day. For the 2020 school year, our school is requiring each child to have 4 clean face masks for each day of school. That can add up quickly as some masks are selling for $15 – $25 EACH online.

White Cotton Face Masks

So, after some late night googling, I found the perfect white cotton masks on Amazon, they come out to roughly $.60 a piece! You can find the masks I used here (affiliate link): Buy on Amazon. Make sure to pre-wash your masks before you dye them!
Note: These masks fit my 9-year-old well after I washed and dried them, but are a little big for my 6 year old. I will be tying the ear loops and may add a stitch to each side to make them fit snugly on her. They just fit me, so I would not recommend them for adults with larger faces.

Other Supplies

Most of the time, tie-dye kits come with all the supplies you need except for the actual clothing items you are dying. If you can’t find a kit, you can still buy the dye but you will need to buy additional supplies separately.
The items that come in a kit are: disposable gloves (the dye WILL stain your skin so gloves are a must), rubber bands, table covering, plastic bottles.
Other items: old clothing you don’t mind staining or an apron, plastic wrap and a plastic bag.

Step by Step

First, prep your area. Cover any work surfaces with plastic or do this project on your lawn. You’ll want to use rubber bands to create the different shapes and patterns for your tie-dye. Your kit should come with some instructions on how to position the rubber bands or there are tons of instructional tutorials online such as this one: Tie-Dye Techniques. I just let my kids go crazy and rubber band their masks however they wanted. I did a few with the standard spiral technique.

Then, you’ll want to start adding the dye. Because my hands were in gloves with dye all over them, I didn’t take pictures of this step. Basically, once your dye is dissolved into the water just start squirting it onto your masks! It helps to only choose a few colors at a time or create a rainbow pattern. If you put too many colors on top of each other, your masks will turn a lovely shade of brown, so keep that in mind.

Washing your tie-dye

Once you’re done adding the dye, the masks need to sit so the dye can set in. Wrap each one in it’s own piece of plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. Let them sit for a few hours or even overnight if you want really vivid colors. Then they each need to be rinsed in water until the water runs clean. (This step took me forever with 50 masks to rinse!) Finally, wash them according to the instructions in your kit. I washed mine in hot water and then washed them a second time before putting them in my dryer. They came out bright and beautiful as you can see in the pictures below!

My girls are really excited to wear these DIY Tie-Dye Face Masks. They can’t wait to show them off to their friends!