Name: Connor
Message: I am looking to buy a cheap suit out of a charity shop to tie dye, so my question is, what is the best method of going about this? Should I first bleach the suit?

Bleaching is unlikely to be helpful to you in this project. Bleach will destroy most synthetic fibers, as well as silk and wool. Some cotton or linen fabrics can be bleached, but sometimes the dye will not bleach out at all, or will turn a funny color when bleached. Even if the fabric lightens in color in response to bleach, the stitching will often remain the original dark unbleached color.

By far the most important step in your project will be finding a suit made of an easily dyeable fiber. It's easy to dye cotton, or linen, or white silk, or white wool; see About Dyes to select the right type of dye for the fiber content of your suit. It's very difficult to dye most synthetics other than nylon or rayon. Polyester, acetate, and acrylic are extremely difficult for a novice to dye, and they cannot be bleached at all. I don't think that you should even try dyeing polyester, since it's unlikely a ready-made garment would take well to the hour of boiling which is required. A cotton, linen, rayon, or silk suit can be easily tie-dyed using cool-water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye.

You can use fabric paint, such as pigment "dye" , on synthetic fibers such as polyester, or on fabrics of unknown fiber type, but only on light colors.  Fabric paints are transparent, so they will not work at all well on a dark fabric. Using paints, instead of dyes, for tie-dyeing is the technique I most recommend for  materials that are not easily dyed, such as polyester. A good choice of paint for 'tie-dyeing' with fabric paint would be Dye-Na-Flow. If your local crafts store does not sell suitable fabric paints, try mail-ordering them from one of the various companies listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page.

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