Fabric Dyeing 2

[Avantster]

In sydney there is a company called cullachange who dye all sorts of things, they use a combination of dyes which means polyester thread also dyes too. I'm sure businesses such as this exist in other cities. A must for anyone who has ever tried to dye black and got purple.

Have you tried them? Always been curious if they're any good.

[asho]

I have. Had some luc pants dyed from mid grey to black. turned out well, even colour with no blue hints, though it didn't turn out jet black. i think it retains a little luc-nes. the white lining is jet black though. Also the stitching dyed evenly, though I was kinda hoping it wouldn't.

[lowrey]

i just got a pair of pants (100% cottone) in white the other day. couldnt pull it off, tried to dye them black. got the dylon velvet blacks. they're now a dirty green. damn. will give it a second shot next week.

make sure you use plenty of dye and the right temperature. also try soaking them in the dye for a while, stirring every now and then.

[nictan]

yea i did the soaking and stirring thing, for slightly more than an hour. gonna up the ante next week, hopefully it comes out black this time :D

[francojean23]

and use plenty of salt too . dyeing black you have to really overdose the dye

[lowrey]

speaking of dye not sticking, I tried to dye some old Raf Simons jeans a few days ago.. the quality is terrible, back when I bought them several years ago, they faded ridicilously fast and went from a dark blue to this ugly pale colour after a couple of months. I dug them out of the closet and tried dyeing them with a pretty good amount of black and mixed in a little grey. they actually came out even lighter after I rinsed them. wtf?

I dyed them the same way I've dyed other jeans, even ones that had 3% elastane took the colour in better than these, which are 100% cotton. how is this possible? could they have some strange dye or chemical in them that prevents the dye from getting into the fibres? makes no sense to me.

[francojean23]

were you using reactive dye , like procion ? i tried to dye a piece of canvas once with procion and it all just rinsed out , then i tried rit dye and it took very well

[nictan]

and use plenty of salt too . dyeing black you have to really overdose the dye

yup which is what i did. i used dylon velvet black dye, and on the package it read 1 packet for 250g of fabric. my first attempt, which turned out a dirty green, i used 1.5 pack. over the weekends, i did a second round, this time, hopefully, as the base colour is now a dark greenish colour, i will get a better result. i used 2 packets this time, with slightly less water then instructed, to try get as concentrated a dye as possible. added in 400g of salt too.

came out pretty well, it was pit black. but there were a few streaks here and there that were slightly lighter, i guess it must be due to the wrenching. but they're only visible under certain lightings, so i can live with that.

anyone uses vinegar to retain the dye? my mum said they used to use salt first, and den add vinegar at the end, which apparently helps to fix the dye.

[francojean23]

you could try adding soda ash towards the end of the process to set the dye , i haven't tried vinegar so i couldn't say

[mortalveneer]

I used dharmatrading's jet black procion dye a few weekends back on about nine articles of clothing. I didn't quite double the recommended amount of salt (used twelve cups instead of the recommended twenty). I used soda ash for the last hour of stirring in the tub, and then used a fixative for the first two of four rinses. All items were 100% cotton and varied in colour from baby pink and salmon beige all the way to dark grey. All came out jet black, evenly coloured. I couldn't have been more satisfied with the result, although the prevalence of synthetic yarn usage on 100% cotton clothing was definitely highlighted for me, as a lot of the items now have "contrast" stitching...

Next up, idye for polyester blend fabrics...

[Prototypes]

Soda ash is a better replacement than using fine salt, if u still need to re dye the pants, get the dylon dye (@ art friend) that requires machine wash. its more effective.

[nictan]

my mom doesnt allow me to 'experiment' with the washing machine. hahaha. so im stuck with hand-wash. anw. my machine doesnt allow temperature setting. so its all cold water.

[francojean23]

ahh , i've had that problem with stitching before as well , sometimes it looks interesting , other time annoying , but the process sounds about the same as i do it , glad it all worked out

[nictan]

my black pants came out with white stitching as well. looked really tacky. i used a thin black permanent marker and traced over the threads. did the job well hahhha

[Aleks]

I would honestly read up on how to dye before you dye something expensive.
Dying should be done in stages with a certain ratio of water to dye to salt to soda ash to provide proper results. You should also be constantly stirring and taking your garment out , flattening it, then putting it back in. You should also make sure you rinse the garment out intensely (meaning that all the water dripping from it is clear) before you put it out to dry. Make sure you also do it in a well ventilated are, wear gloves and a mask since the dye is toxic in it's dry form. It's an intense process.

Don't use dylon, use Procion MX dye.