dyeing clothes

[xcoldricex]

does anyone have any experience with this? if anyone has some pointers/advice/direction in this area any information would be appreciated. i had this scarf lying around that i never wore because i could never match it- so i decided to dye it black (i actually hoped i could get it a lighter black/grey, i didn't think it would take up the color so fast). i'd like to explore this further, trying to get nice blends of colors- particularly a purplish grey, bluish grey, and dark green/black. here's some pictures.

before:

after:

i wanna dye this shirt also, the seams are taped with a brown color tape, which you see at the seams on the other side. what color would go well with that?

inside out:

[2000dB]

Who makes that shirt again? I think someone posted it already but I forgot...

As for dyeing, I have no experience, but I'd like to know more too.

[Kane]

Black, Navy, any of those deep dark colours have very high concentrations of dye. If you want to have interesting variations of colour, just make sure that the bundles are relatively tight before you dye, and skip the step where they ask you to put in salt. Salt gives garments an even dye. Also, you might just want to swirl the garment in once, twice, then quickly out.

Only thing I can think of right now that'd go with that tape is maybe a dark chocolate. Or you can consider the tape as a natural/leather colour, and anything that ggoes with that will go. Navy?

[xcoldricex]

that'd be great tg, thanks.

OT: anyone know where i can get this heat garment tape? it'd be lots of fun to mess around with... i found one place through google that has it but i think they only sell it wholesale.

[familyman]

I'd also appreciate that tg, I've got a few things I'd like to try but am a little aprehensive.

[faust]

Who makes that shirt again? I think someone posted it already but I forgot...

.

I believe it's by Carol Christian Poell.

I have a wool blazer I want to dye black. I don't know if I'd want to do it myself though. Coldrice, what did you use?

[poly800rock]

i was really close to dying the nice collective jacket that i got (i really don't wear anything that is khaki colored these days) buy ended up not doing due to the fact i was scared about losing color when I washed it, plus i remember last time I dyed something it bled like crazy for a long time.

[xcoldricex]

i think the color loss would be pretty cool- and well you can always dye it again.

i just went with RIT dye as it was a small project- i've looked online and might order stuff for later. i have a friend that traveled around studying traditional natural dyes and methods so maybe she can help me out, but she has no experience with synthetic dyes.

[Felix]

i made a thread about dying with chemical indigo...i don't know if you are interested or more important if you have access to chemicals but you can check it out: http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/showthread.php?t=14463

[Felix]

oh and if you have questions just ask...and if you need any chemicals pm me;)

[mike lowrey]

thanks for the info, I'll check it out later on

I've dyed a few t-shirts, the good thing is that dyeing doesn't affect the prints. I used a color remover for a blueish grey t-shirt and oddly enough it turned into a nice beige. if that wasn't weird enough I used it on a similar colored hoody and it turned into a darker beige. apparently thats the base fabric used for a color like that and the beige coloring was done in someway which the remover didnt affect.

[minya]

I dyed my Spruce hoodie!

original: (tiger fleece purple; pretty bright purple)

after a 25 minute bath in a bucket of Rit black dye:

(I look like a Luisaviaroma model )

Anyhow, I'm very pleased. I was kind of sick of it being so god damn PURPLE so I was hoping the black dye would do something interesting. It didn't really dye it black, so much as make it a much darker purple. But I think it looks a lot better now... the heathering is much more subtle, and the bright purple stitching REALLY stands out now. very pleased.

[xcoldricex]

how'd you keep the zipper white?

[wild_whiskey]

About two years ago I experimented by dying natural-colored shirts with veggie indigo in a small cement-brick vat. It was pretty interesting but a ton of work and with very varied results - I didn't get a single shirt that came out a nice solid blue (was hoping for a 45rpm-ish result. fat chance I guess)

Oh well. I still recommend it to others as a fun experiment (although dropping $10 a shirt for Alt. Apparel because you SWEAR the next one is gonna be the right one gets pricey). I found the materials on a website that I just found through google.

[minya]

how'd you keep the zipper white?

Riri zippers are the bomb

[wild_whiskey]

how'd you keep the zipper white?

Cotton picks up dye well, but the material around the zipper, which I believe is a dense polymer-coated polyester or something similar will lose all the dye in a wash.

[adsurgo]

Cotton picks up dye well, but the material around the zipper, which I believe is a dense polymer-coated polyester or something similar will lose all the dye in a wash.

yes. same with the thread.

[Kane]

Check out www.gsdye.com for a mess of supplies. I've dealt with Dixon before, and he's been helpful. They've go premixed Indigo. Haven't used it myself, but the other stuff they carry has been quality.

[poly800rock]

I dyed my Spruce hoodie!

original: (tiger fleece purple; pretty bright purple)

after a 25 minute bath in a bucket of Rit black dye:

(I look like a Luisaviaroma model )

Anyhow, I'm very pleased. I was kind of sick of it being so god damn PURPLE so I was hoping the black dye would do something interesting. It didn't really dye it black, so much as make it a much darker purple. But I think it looks a lot better now... the heathering is much more subtle, and the bright purple stitching REALLY stands out now. very pleased.

thats good to know, and it looks really good as the black on my spruce hoodie is fading and its nice to know there is a way to get that color back

[poorboy]

minya what kind of dye did you use? i got a cheap pair of white jeans on sale and i wanna dye em black. i was wondering what i need to use and how to do it. do i have to use some kind of dye remover first? thx.

[minya]

Rit black dye, as I said in my post

[poorboy]

my bad. do you think i have to use a remover before i soak it in the black dye? also what method do you recommend, soakin it in a tub or with the washing machine?

[minya]

I'm no expert. You don't have to use a dye remover unless it's pitch black and you want to dye it pink or something. I used a bucket and hot water, because I didn't want to stick my sweatshirt in a pot of boiling dye on the stove.

[ikidomari]

personally, i prefer to use the tub method just because i like to see the effect myself. imo, its more satisfying to do it manually despite all the careful cleaning up you're going to have to do when you're done. make sure you have chlorine bleach or whatever to clean up with.

the washing machine method sort of dyes the inside of the machine; make sure you wash it out afterward so you don't accidentally dye your laundry lol. buuut you'll have to wash the dyed article like maybe 3 times by itself to get rid of the excess dye anyway; so this saves soo much time.

imo, liquid dye is so much better than powder dye for like every reason out there.rit is good and you can find it anywhere. i prefer to add the salt after i dunk the thing in the tub. im sure it doesnt make a difference but salt supposedly drives the dye out of the solution and into the fibers so I like that feeling of dying the whole article at once. it just makes me feel warm inside.

[kumo]

not really feelin it

so i did

the result

[mr fluffernutter]

Wow, that looks like it worked really well.

What dye did you use?

[kumo]

these ones here

wasn't able to get a hold of rit dyes..

ended up to a really dark navy, i guess the lighter colored navy dyes are stronger than black dyes (even though i used 2 pack of black and only one pack of navy). i was aiming for a black with hint of navy sort of color.

[ikidomari]

lol nice.

i've tried mixing 2 black + 1 dark navy packs of powder dye before. It was Dylon brand. I dyed a pair of camo pants with it, and the pants became a super dark navy, like yours did. the camo pattern was barely discernable until after a few washes, but even then it looked like subtlely better bape trousers or something. it was cool for a moment until I gave it to a goodwill store.

I guess it would be a good idea to have a couple fabric swatches to dye as you throw in more dye into the tub, to test to see if its the color you want. That sounds like a really good idea... I think I'll do that next time I dye something and I'll report back.

[mlproject]

can anyone recommend good fabric dyes? i've used RIT a lot and it always fades considerably. i need something that will dye a deep blue or true black. i am dying linen and cotton.

[xcoldricex]

try getting some indigo! you can even get natural indigo- it's actually not that much more expensive (maybe even same price, i haven't checked in awhile) as synthetic indigo. you can do multiple dips to get a deeper indigo.

black is probably the hardest color to get- still looking for a good black dye..