dyeing clothes.

[newwavepop]

i was just curious if anyone has any good dyeing experience or advice?
i have a shirt i really like that i want to dye, it has a small checker pattern to it so ill probably just do it black.
but i have tried rit dye twice in the past and it hasnt worked well for me.
so i was wondering if there is better dye out there and where i can get it.
and should i hand dye it in a bucket or something or washing machine dye it.

it is a 50/50 cotton poly fabric, will that matter?

thank you.

[WolverineSyr]

I used to try to dye shirts. I would always find a really cool shirt, but the only one in my size would be yellow or some other putrid color - of course I always wanted black...

I always had bad luck with it. They would come out grey or with uneven color. The only time it sort of worked well was putting the dye in a bucket and letting the shirt soak for a day in it. Let it dry then wash it. I think I had to repeat it a couple more times after washing.

Fabric can only absorb so much, so 24 hours might be excessive, but I wanted to be sure the dye was in there. About the only dye I ever saw was RIT. I used to see it in a liquid form - that might work better.

[manekineko]

Two things will help you get better dye results. First is dying only natural fibers--cotton, linen, silk, wool, etc. Synthetics don't absorb dye well and won't get much color saturation. So don't bother dying anything that has any polyester or nylon in it.

Second is the right kind of dye. Rit, although it's cheap and readily available, isn't the best quality dye. It doesn't dye very deeply and it fades after a few washes. It's not worth the effort unless all you need is temporary color on a cheap item. Much better are the cold water dyes. Dylon and Procion MX are a couple brands. You can find them at craft stores or online. To get the best results you'll need to use a mordant or fixative, which locks in the color. But be prepared to spend some money for these better quality dyes. They're quite a bit more expensive than the $3 bottle of Rit at the supermarket.

Now go dye already!

<a href="http://photobucket.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v706/maneki_neko_kawaii/manekineko4.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

[KYYX4ever]

I used to dye clothes with Rit. I had varying results. Black never worked too well--and faded very quickly. But strong, bold colors like reds or oranges or greens always created fantastic results.

But manekineko is right--synthetic fabrics do not take dye well. That's where you get streaking, splotching, faded-ness, etc. That's why tie-dye shirts, the ever-present hippie Deadhead gear--usually looked so brilliant. Those were 100% cotton t-shirts that took the color well. That, and they used better dyes than Rit. Liquid Rit, btw, produces better results than the powders for some reason.

Definately use a bucket to soak your items in. The washing machine will get horrible stains and possibly leech those colors onto your next load of laundry. And a fixative works wonders, you won't believe the difference.

[stella]

Well I've sold my share of home made tye die and Procion dyes have always given great results. You can dye a solid color in the washing machine but you have to keep it agatating for 2 hours plus which means you have to not keep setting it back on the wash cycle over and over and if you miss, oops mess. To dye something black you need black dye 5$ A lot of salt 2$ and soda ash fixer 1.50$ The dye will do a lot of fabric in separate batches, 8 lbs to a batch. These dyes bind with the fabric but they will not cover another color all the way. If you dye red pants blue you will get kind of purple. Stains will always stand out unless you use a surface paint. You could mix same black dye and paint it on and use afterfix but you will never get it even without an air gun, trust me. Google Dharma, San Rafael, Ca