dying curtains?

richardc1983

I have a pair of quite dark green curtains in my lounge and we are redecorating the lounge soon. The curtains are in good nick but we want a different colour.

What are my options for dyein the curtains at home in the washer etc.

Am I going to have to go black or would I be able to get a brown colour out of them.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

valk_scot

First up, what are the curtains made of?

richardc1983

Not sure... they were made for us by a friend when we first moved in. They match the green carpet but we are buying a rug to cover the carpet.

THey are perhaps a bit of nylon in them.

Margaret52129

Dylon do lots of colours and it's quite easy to do in the washing machine. Try to get a box to read for extra info. You do need to know the material and also the weight of the curtains. You may need to do them separately depending on the weights. I've just done my daughters setee cover and it's come out good - except the zip hasn't changed colour!

A word of warning though, check that they can be washed at 60degrees as the covers I did seem to have shrunk somewhat!

richardc1983

Yeh I reckon they will be ok.

tHANK you

valk_scot

Natural or natural based fibres can be dyed easily at home with washing machine dyes. Polyester fibres or mixes don't take dye so well, so need extra. Sometimes an item can be made of a dyeable fibre but the stitching won't dye, so you can end up with non-matching seams.

However if the alternative is to dump the curtains in the charity shop then really, you're only risking the price of the dye. Weigh the curtains carefully then follow the instructions on the dye box re the amounts for different fabrics. Yes, you should be able to overdye green to brown, as long as it's a darker brown. You can't dye forest green to cafe-au-lait, for example, but you could dye it to chocolate brown.

richardc1983

chocolate brown is what i want!

Dusty_Moth

I posted this earlier in the DIY bit but got no response so I wondered if anyone here might be able to help - apologies if you've seen this before.

We have a number of very large windows in our house, which require very large curtains! We have, currently, cream coloured jobbies that came with the house in all of the windows. Rather than buying new ones which are extortionate, I wondered if it would be possible to dye them. The fabric is cotton, so this shouldn’t be too much of an issue in theory.

My biggest problem is that one particular pair are HUGE. Each one is approximately 3m by 3m. I seriously doubt that I can get one in the washing machine - let alone two.

Any ideas of how to dye it? Do you think I could do it in the bath? I had a look at the dylon website which seemed to suggest that you could do small items by hand – I think I might need so many packets of hand dye though it might not be worth it!

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

SallyForth_2

I'd say if you have that much fabric, you would really stuggle to get a nice even dye result.

You would still need an awful lot of dye as the items needs to be completely submerge and uncrumpled to stop crease and tide marks appearing. This is really difficult as air gets trapped in the fabric and it will continuously rise to the surface. The weight of it will make it difficult to stir around, and if you do it in the bath, you will be bound to pull the plug out (unless you have one of those modern ones which pop up, rather than one on a chain). Then you have the problem of rincing out the excess dye afterwards as if you don't get it all out, it could dry patchy.

Otherwise, if you are going for a tie-die effect, then it may work well.

I think if I wanted to revamp my look, I would consider sewing a boarder of different coloured fabric onto the existing curtains instead, add matching tie-backs and or a pelmet and a few cushions.

champys

I have a similar dilemma with a cotton bedspread I bought - in natural/cream colour so I could dye it later when the colours for the room had been decided upon. I had already concluded that it is going to be too big to dye in one go in the w/m. So now I am trying the following: I am making several 'entre-deux' in crochet - so strips in a crochet pattern - and then I will cut the beadspread into 3 or 4 parts (depending how much crochet I get done before I'm bored with it), dye the bedspread parts and crochet strips in batches and then sew it all together into a bedspread again.
Maybe you could do something similar with your curtains - in which case not in crochet, but strips of a different fabric, which could also be nice for the overall texture of the curtains?