Dyeing clothes

[Feline]

Any advice welcome. Bought a 100% cotton top with print of a tiger on it (£3.00 in Boyes). The tiger is dark purpl-y with glitter & quite thick & stiff. The background is cream which I can't wear so would like advice as to what colour & type of dye to use on it, thought pink or light purple could look good.

 

[LoveInColor]

MUXU, your post cracked me up! Be careful that the spray paint doesn't leak thru onto your skin... I think that once it's dry, you're good to go.

 

[cheepmunk]

I've got this orange/melon-y scarf that I absolutely love. Unfortunately, the color is hideous on me. I thought it was red when I bought it, but I came home and compared it to my red sweater and it... wasn't. I finally bit the bullet and ordered some red Procion MX dye that should be here next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the scarf will come out red without bleaching first. Though, if worst comes to worst, I can always bleach it and dye it again.

Yay! This is my first DIY project, so I'm very nervous, even if a scarf is pretty much the easiest thing I could dye.

 

[gius]

^Where are you getting the Procion from?

 

[cheepmunk]

I ordered it online from Amazon.com. Hmmm... I was planning on weighing it out at home someplace well-ventilated (and wearing a surgical mask), but I work in a lab with a fume hood if you think that would be better. I could weigh some out there and make a concentrated solution, then dilute it out when I get home. That way, I really wouldn't have to worry about inhaling any.

ETA: Of course, I'd probably have to explain to my co-workers what I was doing, but it wouldn't be any weirder than the time someone set up a wart removal clinic for family members next to the liquid nitrogen tank. At least, I don't think so.

 

[gius]

yeah You just don't want any wind to blow the powder about, so I'm thinking a fume hood shouldn't work. I just use a fume hood when I'm handling smelly things like bleach... In this case, the hood sucks up the bleach fumes.

Try Dharmatrading.com for more instructions
I hope your dye will come with some instructions. There are different kinds of dyeing...

P.S. You know for sure your scarf is made of either cotton/rayon/silk? Also, some companies use colour on their products that is resistant to bleach, but the Procion should be able to cover the orange anyway...

 

[cheepmunk]

Thanks for the help, gius! I'm still waiting for my dye to get here, and I'm trying to get everything else together in the meantime. The only things I don't have are calsolene oil and Synthrapol. I'm not too worried about the Synthrapol though, since I hardly ever wash my scarves.

Yup, the scarf is 100% rayon. At least, that's what it said on the tag. I'm glad I ordered some soda ash just in case, too, because it was so cheap. Does it matter what kind of vessel I use? Obviously, I don't want to use something I'm going to cook in later, but is there a difference between using, say, a plastic tupperware container and using a foil baking dish (like the big ones that are for turkey basting)?

 

[gius]

You're welcome Rayon's lovely...
What are you using the calsolene for? I think maybe you can just use any ordinary gentle soap instead of Synthrapol. When we clean wool, we just use ivory that's been grated and turned into mush

 

[cheepmunk]

Woot! My dye has arrived. I'll probably wash the scarf tomorrow and dye on Monday. I still have to get my hands on a big plastic container. Stupid question: what do you use to stir? I should probably pick up one of those at the store, too.

According to the dharmatrading site, calsolene oil is handy for evening out dyes and for dyeing tightly woven fabrics, which rayon... is? ... isn't? I have no idea. (Heh, I am so DIY-inept).

 

[UNiQFashionista]

are there tailors who would do the dye jobs themseleves? i posted a thread about dyeing my christopher kane dress, its dark blue, i want it neon yellow :X
so what do i do?

 

[gius]

^Sounds a bit impossible since it's dark to begin with... Do you know what the fabric of the dress is made of? Cotton, silk...?

Cheepmunk We've just used a kind of hard plastic spoon with a long handle.
Funny I think I've seen the same kind in cooking class, but I don't see what was the use for that in eating... The 'shovel' part is too shallow to hold much.

 

[Meg]

uniq thats a really difficult question. The fact that it's dark means you would literally have to bleach it up and then redye. just like hair. i'm assuming it's silk? I just don't think it's worth playing around with to be honest. You'll get sick of the neon yellow in a year. I think the dress looks better in a darker color anyway.

 

[cheepmunk]

So! I finally finished dyeing my scarf! A month later than I was planning on doing it, but still. I am done! Yay! I even got a compliment on it today, with the person asking me for dyeing tips. HA!

I was going to tell her about all the things that went wrong, but I didn't want to blow all my cool cred. Due to lack of planning, I didn't have all the equipment I needed, so I had to improvise (I ended up stirring with a tiny plastic fork, for example). I also forgot to bring home a mask, so there was this hilarious scene of me trying to dump dye out of the bottle from three feet away while not breathing. In the end, though, the scarf came out red and I didn't burn down the kitchen or kill myself in the process, so I'm counting it as a success.

I'm feeling emboldened by my successful dyeing. It was much less painless than I thought it would be. I'm thinking of moving on to t-shirts and dress shirts, since I can never seem to find them in the color I want. I take it from browsing older posts that the best place to get white shirts is American Apparel. Is that still true?

Thanks again for the handholding, gius!

 

[softgrey]

just dyed some stuff with black RIT dye... waiting to see the results once they come out of the washer... ...

 

[Feline]

Any advice welcome. Bought a 100% cotton top with print of a tiger on it (£3.00 in Boyes). The tiger is dark purpl-y with glitter & quite thick & stiff. The background is cream which I can't wear so would like advice as to what colour & type of dye to use on it, thought pink or light purple could look good.

I actually put it in with some things I was dyeing black and was amazed by the result! The tiger turned bright pink which looks really good against the black background. Just goes to show, when dyeing clothes, it pays to take a chance and experiment.

 

[marylauda]

Could something like this be done by using dye?

style.com

 

[gius]

hi marylauda
i think i've seen a closeup of that print...
you should be able to.. it's basically like a watercolour painting (with also jewels/lamé stitched on)
you can use a mask (masking tape, paper, etc.) for the straight edges

 

[marylauda]

thanks

 

[gius]

by the way... i guess it depends on what dye you use
some dyes, they have a separate procedure if you're wanting to paint with it on fabric
and then they have another procedure for doing an 'immersion' dye

if you're going to use RitDye, i've never used it...

 

[marylauda]

Thanks for the warning. I've never dyed before, but I would like to experiment.