Fabric Dyeing for Beginners: An Easy Way to Customise Your Wardrobe

Dyeing garments is a great way to refresh and inject new life into items in your wardrobe. The first thing to consider is whether the fit and the style are worth the effort. Dyeing clothes isn’t without cost; time, money and environmental. Assess the long term value of the item to you, will it bring you more joy, and outfit possibilities, in a new shade?

1. Use the right dye for your fabric

Dylon machine and hand-wash dyes work well on natural (eg cotton) or naturally derived (eg viscose) type fibres. Rit Dye is a better choice for synthetics. Natural Dyes offer a sustainable choice, but there is a lot to learn about mordents etc and some online recipes are actually stains.

2. It’s important to consider the base colour before dying

The original colour of the garment will remain, the dye will build the colour on top. Consider fundamental colour mixing principles. If the base colour has some warmth in it eg. a mustard, it would take a brown dye well, but if you tried to turn it blue, it would end up brownish! Stick with cool + cool and warm + warm. The exceptions being adding blue + green = turquoise red + blue = purple.

3. Dyeing plain fabrics will give the best results

4. Synthetic thread won’t take the colour

If you are dyeing a patterned fabric, the definition may be lost as all the fibres will absorb some dye.

You may end up with contrast top stitching. To identify what fibre your thread is, try pulling a small piece from the garment and hold it close to a flame. If it melts or smells like plastic it is synthetic, if it frazzles and smells like hair burning it is natural.

5. For more drastic colour changes, consider a pre-dye

To remove the original colour from the garment before you dye it try Pre-dye from Dylon.

6. It’s important to know the dry weight of the garment

Follow the instructions that come with the dye and use the correct amount of dye to get the optimal results. If you’re looking for a more intense colour, use two boxes of Dylon dye.

7. Prepare your ingredients 

Just like baking a cake, to accurately weigh the garment I recommend using your kitchen scales and a bowl. For hand dyeing, you need to add salt as a fixative, weigh this out before you open the dye and measure the volume and temperature of the water accurately.

8. Start with a clean washing machine and garments

9. Safety first! 

Be sure to start with a clean washing machine for optimal results.

Your clothes need to be clean and wet before you start the dye cycle in the machine. Pre-treat any stains you are trying to cover first. I advise using gloves when handling dye and newly dyed clothes, wear old and/or dark clothes, as just one speck of dye can cause lasting damage if it falls in the wrong place. Be careful not to get any dye in your eyes or mouth and read the instructions before you begin.

10. Some dye may remain

Some dye may remain and it is wise to wash your newly dyed garments separately the first few times. If you have used machine dye don’t skip the step of putting the machine on a hot wash to ensure all residue is gone, and check the door seal for lurking colour too!