To Dye or Not to Dye

[zagethe]

I was hoping someone could offer some suggestions... I purchased a wonderful, long, floor length dress (I assume it was a dress tho it does open all the way in the front). I bought it to be a coat. It has gold military trim including the military style buttons all down the front and a mandarin collar with eplets... the problem? The dress/coat is

Comments

[eithni]

Synthetics can be difficult to dye. Make sure you are using a dye made for synthetics or you will be sad.

Dyeing anything to a true black is hard and any brown over a fire engine red is going to end up with red undertones. If that's ok with you, go for it.

Some tricks:
* Consider over dyeing with GREEN - it will probably give you a deep brown
* If you decide to go for black or if you want to try for a true brown, use an extra packet of green or dark blue in addition to the black/brown to pull it away from the red undertones.
* Over dyeing with navy might give you a stunning purple...
* Read the instructions on the dye. Realize that they lie. If you're going for a darker shade, use 150-200% of the recommended amount of dye.

[zagethe]

That's a really good thought.. don't fight the color but use it to advantage. Thanks!

[jackie_faye]

Yeah, if it's polyester, you can pretty much forget about seriously changing the color. Even with a strong dyebath and overprocessing, you're likely to only change it from bright fire-engine red to a more drab dirty-fire-engine color.

Synthetic fabrics don't really dye, they stain.

I dyed the polyester satin ribbon for my BFF's wedding dress, and even after letting it simmer in a 3x concentration of navy blue dye for an hour, it never got any darker than periwinkle.

[kat1031]

Agree with the above. I've had fairly good luck dying thriftstore finds but they're difficult to dye "true" - my best was a really hideous 1970s pseudo-victorian wedding gown that I dyed with plain old RIT black. It's nowhere near black, but it did come out a really pretty platinum.

[zagethe]

Yikes! Thanks for the response.

[inaurolillium]

Polyester basically has to be made in the color it's intended to be, just like plastic, which it essentially is, for these purposes. It can be painted (with some difficulty, and usually not very good effect), but cannot really be dyed, because the fibers are nonporous.

Seriously, about the best you can do is take it apart and use it to make a pattern.

[zagethe]

Thanks for your response:)

[saraquill]

Since you say it's floor length, you have the added complication of making sure it dyes evenly. You would need a great big tub or machine and stir like nobody's business to make sure it dyes consistently.

Are there any tags on the dress specifying the material? You said "seems to be" polyester. If you're lucky, it might be something like rayon instead, which is much easier to color. I recommend taking some threads from inside a seam and giving it a burn test.

If it drips, it's petroleum based. If it smells like marshmallows or burning paper, it's derived from plants. If it smells like burning hair, it came from an animal. IN the latter two, you can dye with relatively few complications.

[nebulia]

Since you say it's floor length, you have the added complication of making sure it dyes evenly. You would need a great big tub or machine and stir like nobody's business to make sure it dyes consistently.

This. I made a late-medieval dress this summer that I dyed the fabric for in a 20-quart pot, because I COULD NOT find anything bigger. But really, I wish it had been bigger. I got away with it being a little uneven because it was natural fibers and a simple peasant/middle class kirtle, but if I'd been doing anything fancy it wouldn't have looked that nice. You may be able to find a dye that works by being put in a washing machine, but I'm always a little sketched out by those for unknown reasons.

[curucar]

Maybe go out and get one of those giant storage bins? They can hold 20+ gallons...

[zagethe]

I was thinking of one of those long plastic bins that you slide under your bed. I would say that the coat is a good sixty inches or so (about 5 ft) but I don't have anything that would allow me to soak it flat. Thanks for your response:)

[rowangolightly]

In addition to the polyester-not-dying issue (and the advice given just above is EXCELLent) my first thought was what the dying process might do to the gold braid and the epaulets. Frankly, dying it sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

I'd leave it red if you like it as it is and then mod it in a different way. Perhaps add piping around the edges or something.

[mokosh_perun]

Agreed. The trim could do something really nasty when dyed. Not to mention most fancy trims are a dry-clean only situation, so color issues aside, think what is going to happen when you add that to a near boiling dye vat. Yikes!

[zagethe]

I bought it thrifty a year ago loving the steampunk(esque) style but then cringed at the brightness... and haven't worn it. I don't do bright colors well but its time to do something about this coat. Thank you for your response.