To dye or not to dye - that is the question.

Mariel

The thread used to sew garments together doesn't usually take dye so you would have to make sure you dye your coat a complimentary colour - coffee sounds fine.

wishingonastar_3

i've done this with a white cord jacket, as mariel said the thread didn't take, but i did it chocolate brown, and the stitching makes a nice contrast as a detail. the polyester lining didn't take at all, but that doesn't matter as no one really sees it anyways.

oldandhappy

I have done ok with dyeing all Cotton Clothing and Towels and the stitching must have been cotton as well because that took perfectly. Often these days they use polyester for stitching and that is the trouble and you will for sure get different shades..if your lucky though the shading can look good.

kittiwoz

I think if it is only the stiching that doesn't take it is OK as it normally looks like a deliberate contrast. Do make sure the jacket itself is natural fibre or a high content mix or it is likely to be a bit of a disaster. I have to say I love Dylon though. I've had great results using it. Do remember for a heavy garment like a jacket you will need several packs. One pack of cold water dye is to dye up to 250g/ 8oz of fabric and you will need their cold water dye fix too to make it permanent. I think for something large like a coat I would tend to use Dylon machine dye rather than cold water dye. One pack of that should dye up to 600g/ 1lb of fabric. Also I think it could be a bit messy and laborious trying to dye a large, heavy garment by hand.

Elliesmum

I agree with kittiwoz that for a coat I would use a machine dye. Really safe and easy to use in the washing machine. Your garment really needs to be cotton for you to get the best result and no the stitching will not dye as most stitching these days is made from polyester rather than cotton as poly is cheaper.

If you opt for the machine method you need salt to fix the dye during the dyeing process and apart from the dye that is all you need.

Just another point to remember, if your coat is pretty heavy you may need 2 boxes of dye to get the deeper colour. But as I remember Dylon dyes are about £5.00 a box so if you got 2, that would be a new (well style anyway) winter coat for £10.00 - not bad.

I'm not having a new coat this year, might look at my old coat and see if that will dye!

HTH'S

oystercatcher

Has anyone had any success with dying 'grey' whites to brighten them up.

I'd quite like to recolour some of my old underwear and I also have a large pile of old terry nappies I'd like to make into colourful hand towels.

The trouble is I remember tie dying stuff as a kid and it used to bleed whenever washed afterwards and I don't want this to happen if I'm dying stuff washed very frequently as I'm bound to get a disaster and ruin something nice and new.

If anyone has experience I'd love to know what to do or avoid. I couldn't find a similar thread on search so hope I'm not duplicating a frequent query.

thanks

Oystercatcher

Pink.

Hi oystercatcher,

I have used dylon's machine dyes in the past with great success and haven't had any problems with colour running. You need to add the correct amount of salt and then fix the colour at the highest temperature the item can be washed at, then run the machine on an empty wash aftewards to clear it of all the dye.

These earlier threads might help:

To dye or not to dye - that is the question

How Do I Dye?

To dye for...?

For help with whitening grey whites this thread may help:

OS way to brighter whites?

Pink

craftyfox

i use that vanish stuff or the supermarkets own brand whichever is cheapest or on offer in my white wash all the time and have always had brilliant whites (oh uses white shirts for work and the boys white polo shirts for school) mum always would steep her whites in daz or ariel before washing but then she was using a twintub washing machine up till 4 years ago!!!!:eek:

kippers

I've used the same dyes as pink-winged and they worked brilliantly. I did wash the items separate for the first few washes though, but the towels i dyed came out like new!

oystercatcher

Many thanks. Have just spent ages perusing old threads.
I don't know why my search didn't come up with anything usful but never mind.

I have got some brown Tesco's dye that I got from their reduced shelf so I think I will have a go at some funky tie dye hand towels made from old terry squares. I do love my terry squares I've had them 18 years they nappied three babies and now make brilliant hand towels kitchen towels, foot towels for the swimming pool.

I'm not sure that bras and lacy pants will take dye but I might give it a go just to try as they are near to being chucked but I HATE throwing things away .

Thanks all

Oystercatcher