dying curtains?

travel_freak

Hi

I have a beautiful pair of Habitat 100% linen curtains (unlined). They are beige, some parts are faded so I'm wondering how well they might dye - either a similar beige colour or chocolate brown?

Please can anyone offer any advice as to whether the dye would take evenly, any makes of dye you might recommend and methods - best in machine or in bucket or the like?

Many thanks.

Regards,

fishing-girl

as linen is a natural fabric is should take up the dye ok.most dyes should work ok,but i use the machine dyes for ease and more even .
i would try the lighter dye 1st it may be ok.you can always dye it darker.
do weigh the items properly and ensure they are damp when they go in the machine.dont stimp on the dye use what they reccomend on the packet.
good luck

skim

to be honest you are unlikely to get a good result from it so I wouldn't bother.

If the fabric has faded unevenly then it's likely that the dye uptake will be uneven.

The other thing is if you do go for it then make sure it has plenty of room to move about & do it in a machine. The more water you use the more likely you are to get it even but then you get less dye uptake. Normally you'd use about 20x the amount of water to weight of fabric e.g. fabric weighs 2kg then you need 40 litres of water.

Shoey1610

We are decorating DD's room and rather than buying whole new curtains to match I was wondering if I could dye her green curtains pink? They are a mid green at the moment and I would like them to be mid pink or abit darker if I need to. But I haven't dyed anything before, will I be able to do this or will I just get a sludgy colour?

thriftlady_2

I'm afraid you will get a brown rather than pink. You could trying 'stripping' the green out first -I think Dylon do a product that does this. Even if some of the green was left, if it were pale enough you should be able to get a good pink over it. Check out the Dylon website.

squeaky

Hmm... it might help if you can bleach some of the colour out first - but my first port of call for anything to do with dyeing is here:-

http://www.dylon.co.uk/main.htm

Check through the links on the left.

HTH

squeaky

Darn! Crossed with thriftlady!

Note to self: learn to type faster!

mary43

I wouldn''t try and dye them as they are. Get some 'dye remover' - Dylon do it. I used it some years ago and it worked for me.
Can't remember what you do but I think you put the curtains in the washing machine with the dye remover.............that should take out the existing colour thats been used to dye them green and leave you with a sort of 'blank canvas' to dye them whatever colour you like.
Then its a case of getting dylon in the colour you want and repeat the washing machine process. Instructions are on the tins.

Used to dye a lot of stuff years ago and some colours with take even on top of another if they're a darker colour (drk.brown and a very dark green) but if you try and put light over dark it wouldnt work.

I'm only basing this on what I did some years back. Whether any new products have emerged since then I don't know.

Shoey1610

Thank you for your replies, I have checked the dylon website and it says that the colour stripper is not suitable for bright greens Oh well, rather than try it and ruin a perfectly good pair of curtains, I'll put them on ebay or something. Thanks again!

mouseymousey99

Hello Just thought I'd share this and it may help someone? I had my curtains made when I got the house (sigh had dosh then) almost 10 yrs ago. They are heavy cotton (lined) and cream. For a while I thought they look tierd (but loathe to dump them). So I finally took the plunge and dyed one pair yesterday - Wow - they look fab!! Sent the little man to buy some dye and he chose a deep red colour. Honestly if you are thinking of taking the plunge go for it.