coffee dye-ing your own jeans

[majikero]

i know there's a thread about this a while back can't seem to find it now.

im doing a little experiment with my new jeans. 14.5 oz indigo denim. no tags or patches on it but it has somewhat of an edwin arcuate. bought it for like $8 and this seems to be the right time to do it. is there any proper way to tea-dye or coffee-dye your jeans? what methods or steps should i do? i know some SF'er did this a while back but with a broken in denim. mines still in it's raw state. what should i expect? hoping that this experment will have great results. TIA!

-brian

[abstraktgeformt]

wtf? no offense, I really don't know: what is dyeing your jeans in coffee or tea supposed to do?!

[coiol]

I can tell you that I just soaked my ~8-month old New Standards in tea and it did nothing at all. Try using espresso and see if it makes a difference.

[ilovespaz]

my hispanic buddies who work at a denim laundry houses in l.a. soak their raws in coke or pepsi for a week. what they say is the sugars protect the indigo from fade and bleeding giving the denim a longer 'raw' look by sugar starching the jeans... yea...

[dasman989]

"coffee will not dye cotton effectively".... it will dye wool but won't be colorfast at all on cotton.

[ang_kangkong]

Here's the thread:

http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=14460&highlight=dyeing

[mickawes]

Do it anyway! Let us know what happens! Keep the experimental spirit alive!

[majikero]

Do it anyway! Let us know what happens! Keep the experimental spirit alive!

errrr... i would like to but there's on problem. i dont have a camera!!! all i have is a crappy cam phone. but i will try to borrow my cousin's digital camera to document it. they're actually in the soaking pale now... i heated about a 25g pack of nescafe in 4 cups of water. diluted it to a luke warm water for soaking. any suggestion on how long should i let them in the mixture?

[Double D]

I did this a couple of years ago with some old Diesels. Tea works a hell of a lot better than coffee. Use a whole 40 pack, and don't dilute the water at all, just pour the whole lot straight onto your jeans in the bath, move them around until soaked through, and then either drip or tumble dry them. Should give a natural textured dirt wash. If you want a more even wash, use a little water in the bath and plenty of salt (half a pack or so), which should make the tannin spread more evenly.

[Landy]

if you add ice and condensed milk, you can make a refreshing beverage.

[Double D]

any suggestion on how long should i let them in the mixture?

Don't rinse them, else it'll wash straight out. Even tannin from tea will only hold for a couple of washes, which is good when you're 6 monthing.

[Double D]

if you add ice and condensed milk, you can make a refreshing beverage.

Not only does lemon and sugar make it taste delicious, but I hear it stops indigo bleed during the dying process

[abstraktgeformt]

Come on, guys. That's just nasty! xD

Wearing jeans for month without washing is fine by me... But soaking them in tea/coffee/coke without washing... ugh. Nothing for me...

[tanner68]

I have tinted my STF501 jeans after they have some wear marks and fading.

Use at least 20 tea bags and make the brew with a big cooking pot and a strainer. Put the jeans in a five gallon bucket and enough water to cover them. Soak for at least half an hour and agitate periodically. Don't rinse them afterwards or you'll rinse the tint out. Just air dry. Takes two times to get a good dark tint. The tea scent is mild and fades quickly.

[masuerte]

URM sugar starching denim + doing a six monther will make your denim REEK like satan's asshole

[Bandwagonesque]

Try soakin' 'em in balsamic vinegar.

[tony_hige]

I was actually planning on doing this treatment this weekend to my LVC 1947's. They're fading nicely, but they're a bit too blue compared with my RRL's. Coffee and tea have a mystical ritualistic cache, but I just use Rit dye because essentually all you're doing is overdying your jeans. I mix a little yellow with brown and dilute it more than what the instructions on the box recommend. Give my jeans a quick dunk and they come out with a great dirty tone.

[Ott]

I was actually planning on doing this treatment this weekend to my LVC 1947's. They're fading nicely, but they're a bit too blue compared with my RRL's. Coffee and tea have a mystical ritualistic cache, but I just use Rit dye because essentually all you're doing is overdying your jeans. I mix a little yellow with brown and dilute it more than what the instructions on the box recommend. Give my jeans a quick dunk and they come out with a great dirty tone.

did you do that with your holy-grail sorahikos, too?

just curious.

[Ott]

these are the ones I was talking about..

(these are your's right?)

if so, they look great. Maybe I should dye my old Nudies brown, I dislike the lightish blue.

[englandmj7]

my hispanic buddies who work at a denim laundry houses in l.a. soak their raws in coke or pepsi for a week. what they say is the sugars protect the indigo from fade and bleeding giving the denim a longer 'raw' look by sugar starching the jeans... yea...

A week? All that would do is horribly stain whatever receptacle you were soaking them in, make the jeans sticky and uncomfortable, attract millions of ants into your closet, and most likely get a nice fuzzy layer of mold on the jeans. Or maybe you are joking.

[tony_hige]

did you do that with your holy-grail sorahikos, too?

just curious.

oh HELL no!! but this is a perfect illustration of how LVC gets it almost right. the indigo tone on those 45's is just beyond perfect. the indigo tone on the RRL's I have is amazing...too bad I overestimated how much they'd shrink (or underestimated how much they'd stretch). the LVC 47's are a great fit, great construction, but the indigo tone is just not right. I've actually changed my mind about the Rit treatment - just saw the pics of the 4 yr Flare Glenns, so I'm just going to be patient and commit to let time and french fry grease do their job. but to the point of this topic, coffee and tea sound cool...maybe it works even better if you sit inside a pentagram of candles...but Rit dye does the same exact same thing.

[Double D]

Nah, dye doesn't work quite the same way. Tannin from tea attaches itself to fabric in a much more natural, clumpy kind of manner... it's pretty much impossible to get tannin to spread completely evenly in water. It's more like chucking your jeans in dirty water for an hour than dying them.

[schmallo15]

if you add ice and condensed milk, you can make a refreshing beverage.

haha. sounds delicious!