Can you dye towels?

cuca

I am trying to spruce up the bathroom a bit on a serious budget. Do you think I could dye towels or would they run when used? I have a few light coloured ones that i want to make dark brown. I was thinking of using the washing machine dye. Anyone tried this?

Emptynester

I've done this a few times and always been pleased with the results. If the towels are slightly different shades to start with they will be slightly different when dyed but I have always thought the dyed towels an improvement on the ones I started with.

I just followed the instuctions on the dye packet and have always found the dye 'fast' @ 40 degrees.

Penelope_Penguin

cuca wrote: »

I am trying to spruce up the bathroom a bit on a serious budget. Do you think I could dye towels or would they run when used? I have a few light coloured ones that i want to make dark brown. I was thinking of using the washing machine dye. Anyone tried this?

I've dyed towels, using cold water dye. You need to wash them alone (or with similarily coloured items) for a couple of times, to remove excess dye, but after that they should be colour fast.

If you use the WM, you need to ensure that all the dye is removed before you wash anything else

Penny. x

sunflower76

I'm going to do mine soon as they are starting to look a bit grey. They are around 15 years old though so have had a fair bit of use.

I've dyed stuff in the WM before and like PP says you do need to run it through a few times before washing your whites.

thriftlady_2

I've dyed towels very successfully, in fact they are one of the best things to dye because they 100% cotton.

I used Dylon machine dyes and had no problems at all. I dyed my pale greying towels bright blue and purple, they took the colour really well.

foxgloves

You can do towels. Just seen it as a thrifty suggestion in a magazine this week & have been thinking of having a go. I have used washing machine dye to do some curtains & it was so easy. You have to run the washing machine on empty afterwards just to get rid of any traces of dye but apart from that, I got the result. Don't know why I bought a white curtain anyway as it looked rubbish. It is now dark purple and looks like a new one!

ceridwen

I dye things frequently. The one thing one needs to be aware of is that if the original item is a strong colour then the final colour of it (ie after dying) is likely to be somewhere halfway between the starter colour and the dye colour on the packet.

ie something that is white/beige or similar colour will almost certainly be the colour of the dye packet one has just bought - but a strong green/orange/purple or whatever colour on the original colour will "mix and match" with the colour of the dye packet one buys - still worth doing though IMO.

tandraig

yes ive done this with towels - and had great results - gone from light to dark tho - just follow the directions on packet. oh - ive done an empty wash after - just to make sure no dye remains.

Savannah02K

Hello all, I've decided to revamp bathroom, have got loads of white towels and flannels, initial thought is to dye them all, have seen lovely French Lavender colour that would go with accent tiles. I've not dyed anything since original tie-dying era (!), how easy is it to do nowadays and anyone got any tips? Am concerned also, does it ruin your washing machine to dye stuff in there, do you get colour on your next wash, how fixed will the new coloured towels be, bleed every time I wash them afterwards? Etc, etc ......... Thanks folks.

curlytop12

have just done same here!works brilliantly.dylon machine dye(seems cheapest in morrisons)less than a fiver.no salt needed.just run empty machine once after,to clean.job done(packet tells you all anyway)
have also done my bedding,really chuffed.

curlytop12

P.S wash the towels by themselves the first time,after that they'll be fine.