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

zippychick

Welcome to Old Style

Ive merged this with an older thread on dying clothes so you can read back on others experience

Do let us know how it goes

Zip

kittycatface

Hi
I have a couple of pairs of white jeans that I would like to dye, 1 pair orange and one pair black/grey or dark red.
I have looked at wilcos and dyeshop.co.uk and found the colours but don't know if I need salt/fixative etc?
I am planning to dye by hand ideally but could do it in a machine at a push and would like to do it with the least chemicals and as cheap as possible, but without the dye running into my other clothes.
Are there any dye brands that are best for being true to the colour on the packet?
And how much dye would I need for a pair of jeans - they sell 50 or 500g.
Any help with any/all of these questions much appreciated.

zippychick

I would love to hear how you got on. There is an ongoing thread - to dye or not to dye where you can read various stories!

if it all goes wrong there is this thread

let us know how it goes and we will merge this later

Zip

kittycatface

Thank you I was sure there would be loads of info on it somewhere knowing MSEs! I'll let you know..and look up that thread.:)

LittleBrownFrog

I've dyed jeans in the past using Dylon in the washing machine - you need 500g of salt + however many packets of dye you need for the weight of fabric (it tells you on the packet). Less sure about hand dying - would think it would be difficult to get an even result.

kittycatface

For those who want to experiment with natural dyeing there is loads of info on this lady's site.
http://www.jennydean.co.uk/wordpress/?cat=11
I went on one of her courses a year ago and the colours were gorgeous.
The only problem was fixing them and I've unfortunately not had the confidence to do it since.
I'm going to have a go at 2 pairs of jeans the artificial way for the first time and would like to use the old dylon tins - will one be enough per pair and do they give a strong enough colour? thanks.x

craftynutters

We managed to get some machine dye for our daughters sofa covers from the bootsale this morning for 50p each But I need to know can i use ordinary salt to do this or so i have to buy the dylon one

Molly41

I just use normal cheappo salt

Butterfly_Brain

I use cheap cooking salt

meritaten

cheapest cooking salt you can find!