r/dyeing • u/OneStepNext • 1d ago
How do I dye this? Changing color of cotton shirt
Hey. Thrift store shirt. Good fit, heavy weight, 100% cotton. The red is a bit intense and hard to match. Would like a softer orange, but nothing super definite in mind. I have bleach, peroxide, some RIT dyes on hand. Current plan was to soak in dilute bleach, stop with h2o2, maybe re-dye with that coral RIT… but this is a total experiment and I have no experience here. Suggestions? Thoughts?
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u/RGV4RCV 1d ago edited 1d ago
To bleach this enough to lift the color evenly, the fabric would likely disintegrate.
Best option for a more neutral color would be to use a burgundy and/or or dark blue dye and try to get it to a more muted burgundy color.
To make this more orange you could try using yellow and gray or black dye, I think it is unlikely to turn out well.
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u/draftgirl24 1d ago
I would try yellow, if you are going for orange. If you try to bleach it, you may (likely?) get an uneven color. And it most likely won’t go to white.
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u/shawlcat that’s the neat part, you don’t 1d ago
If you insist on attempting to lighten this, use color remover, NOT bleach. Bleach damages the fibers, and that can cause a subsequent dye attempt to take unevenly.
Once you have done the color remover, look at fiber reactive dye instead of Rit. Rit is not colorfast, is of poor quality, and needs more rinsing than is reasonable. Dharma Trading's website has good tutorials for dyeing cotton.
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u/ThePrimCrow 1d ago
You can use a product called Out White Brite to safely remove the color. Carhartt fabric is thick so you might need two rounds. It’s super noxious so def an outdoor project.
From red you won’t get to a true white, it’ll probably be a yellowish color, which is fine if you’re aiming for orange. There’s a good chance the thread is polyester and will remain red.
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u/pinndu 22h ago
Whoah. There’s a match for wearing red and if you want to experiment with that, you’re going ruin the shirt and the fabric with bleach no matter how diluted it is. Unless maybe you have flat tub for even saturation I wouldn’t do it especially if it’s 8-10oz canvas cotton. You may end up with a tie dye looking worse than just, I don’t know not buy it in the first place
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u/OneStepNext 19h ago
Yeah, it’s red as hell. Lighting in the store was a bit muted. Took it into daylight, and damn. Gonna heed all the advice on here and dye darker, go into the purple territory.
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u/OneStepNext 10h ago
Followed through on this, wanted to share the output. Thank you for steering me away from bleach, I didn’t destroy the fabric and went darker. Also planned out a process with the Dharma Trading dye. It ended up being about $35 in supplies, at which point I conceded to trying the RIT already on hand. I know it’s not the best quality and very much appreciate the viewpoint because it comes from experience and makes sense chemically… but it is what it is.
This was the process:
4 oz RIT all purpose, cocoa brown
1 oz RIT all purpose, black
1 tsp RIT all purpose, neon green
1 cup salt
1 tsp Dawn
3 gallons water, 80 C to start, cooling over process
10 minutes continuous stirring
20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes
Drain
20 minutes RIT color fixative, 80-100 C
Drain and rinse
Washed with regular laundry detergent, dried
Ended with a burgundy or wine color, which I’m happy with, easy to match into the wardrobe. Red stitching remained, which I also like.
Oh, and the staining is even in the fabric. The camera is picking up the lighting angles in the bathroom.
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u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Our wiki is currently under construction however: there's a good chance your question has been answered in a previous post.
If you are dyeing cellulose fibres (cotton, hemp, linen, ramie, flax, nettle, rayon, bamboo, tencel, plants generally, etc.), you will need a fiber reactive dye.
If you are dyeing a protein fiber (wool, alpaca, llama, Angora, mohair, feathers, animal stuff generally, etc.), you will need an acid dye.
Leather is dyed with leather specific dyes such as those from Angelus.
Silk will dye with either acid or fiber reactive dyes but will yield different results depending on which you use.
Polyester can sometimes be dyed. It can only be dyed with synthetic specific dyes such as iDye Poly or RIT Dyemore. It usually cannot achieve a dark or rich colour at home. Acrylic usually cannot be dyed at all.
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