How do you dye a cotton shirt??

[Tony Miles]

Have you had success doing that?? I've got a shirt that I love that's off white but over time is a bit "grungy" and I thought I'd try to dye it blue or red to match the tartan and to get more life out of it

[JimB]

Use RIT dye sold in grocery stores. It's going to be pretty chancy to get the exact shade though.
RIT dye goes a long way. try some old t-shirts scraps for time soaked to see what you get.

[Pleater]

Cotton is easy to dye as it can be heated up without damage and will take colour easily, but you need to start with an item that is not stained and which has been washed several times to remove all trace of sweat and grease, otherwise the dye will be absorbed unevenly.

Getting a particular colour can, however, be tricky - you really need to be familiar with the dye method, and the brand of dye as well if you want to get a particular colour.

There are - or there were, dyes which you can use in the washing machine and which will dye a particular weight of garments or fabric to a particular shade of a colour. I am thinking in particular of Dylon, but there might be others on the market.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Tony Miles]

it's a beige/natural shirt with the neck and armpits discolored from sweat - but no really strong stains - I'm leaning towards deep/dark red since it wouldn't look bad if it wasn't a perfect match to the stripe.

I've been trying to read up on the topic but the differing opinions seem to be vast

[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.)