How do you dye a cotton shirt??

[jgcunningham]

You might try a bridal shop. They have to dye things to match quite often. If you insist on doing it yourself, be sure to follow the instructions to the letter. I'll add that whenever I dye muslin for one of my stage sets, I usually add some salt to the water. I was told a long time ago that you must have salted water (not much, a teaspoon for a large pot) to make the cotton fibers open up to take the dye. YMMV.

[Dall_Piobaire]

Funny, I was just at the hobby store this weekend looking at this very thing. The other thing is that, I think, you have to prewaash the material to be dyed in sodaash! It gives pretty explicit instructions on the box. There should be some good tips on some crafting sites on the net. I would start out with some old t's as well. Wear gloves!!!!

[MacKay71 Wife]

You might try a bridal shop. They have to dye things to match quite often. If you insist on doing it yourself, be sure to follow the instructions to the letter. I'll add that whenever I dye muslin for one of my stage sets, I usually add some salt to the water. I was told a long time ago that you must have salted water (not much, a teaspoon for a large pot) to make the cotton fibers open up to take the dye. YMMV.

Absolutely essential to use salt!
Also absolutely essential to wear gloves - unless you just fancy a pair of red hands to match your outfit!
Oh, also from experience, do NOT use the dye available for tie dying! It will fade like crazy and very quickly. Great for craft projects, lousy for nicer items that need a more solid dye! Good luck!

[Tony Miles]

I wouldn't want to be caught red handed

[Dall_Piobaire]

Absolutely essential to use salt!
Also absolutely essential to wear gloves - unless you just fancy a pair of red hands to match your outfit!
Oh, also from experience, do NOT use the dye available for tie dying! It will fade like crazy and very quickly. Great for craft projects, lousy for nicer items that need a more solid dye! Good luck!

Oh, I thought the soda ash kept the dye from fading. Glad you said that Lady MacKay!

[vorpallemur]

Oh, I thought the soda ash kept the dye from fading. Glad you said that Lady MacKay!

Soda ash (sodium carbonate) is used as a fixative for fiber reactive dyes. It won't do a thing to make an "all-purpose" dye like Rit permanent.

(There are different sorts of dyes to dye different sorts of fiber. Protein fibers (wool, hair, nylon) require an acid dye. Cellulose fibers (cotton, linen, rayon) require a different sort (fiber reactive). Silk can be dyed with many dyes; Polyesters and many other synthetics require special dyes, and aren't generally dyed by hobbyists. Rit (at least the sort sold in grocery stores; they make others, I don't know.) is an all-purpose dye that's a mixture of an acid dye for wool and a direct dye for cottons. Soda ash might fix the direct dye (I don't know what Rit uses these days; and it probably varies from color to color), or it might not. But it sure won't do anything for the acid dye. And if you're dying wool, you've got the opposite problem. If the thing you're trying to dye is a single fiber, it's worth the effort to track down a suitable dye for the fiber. Rit's popular because it works on lots of stuff, not because it actually works well.)

[Pleater]

There is also a substance used to remove dyes - at least it was sold by Dylon for that purpose, as a pre dye process, so that items could be dyed lighter than originally - it also removed the evidence of bad dyeing, stains from splashes and quite a few everyday stains.

It also makes a memorable story - way back in my hippy daysI introduced someone to the joys of dyeing garments and they had just made a large pot of dye remover when their boyfriend came in with just about every item of clothing he posessed and thinking she was doing some washing, tossed them in.

Personally, I thought it was an improvement.

If it is still available it is probably going to help achieve an even result - it reads as though the shirt has picked up loose dye when in the wash.

You do need to have a large container for good dyeing, so that the dye can reach all parts of the item and not be absorbed by the parts which happen to be outermost in the ball of fabric.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Dall_Piobaire]

It also makes a memorable story - way back in my hippy days....
Anne the Pleater :ootd:

I had to read this again, thought you had said happy days! Then I realized hippie days and happy days are somewhat synonymous aren't they!

[Tony Miles]

It also makes a memorable story - way back in my hippy daysI introduced someone to the joys of dyeing garments and they had just made a large pot of dye remover when their boyfriend came in with just about every item of clothing he posessed and thinking she was doing some washing, tossed them in.

Personally, I thought it was an improvement.

That's funny - that is so something I'd do - I wonder if that dye remover could remove the grunge. then i could just buy a red shirt and keep the grungy one

[vorpallemur]

That's funny - that is so something I'd do - I wonder if that dye remover could remove the grunge. then i could just buy a red shirt and keep the grungy one

Soak it in oxygen bleach.