Is it possible to dye crimpoline with normal hand dye?

No. Crimplene is a brand of polyester. Polyester cannot be dyed with ordinary hand dyes. Instead, you must buy a special kind of polyester dye, called disperse dye, and boil the Crimplene garment in it for an hour, or follow the manufacturer's instructions. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

Disperse dye cannot be purchased in your local shops. You can buy it only by mail-order. There is no dye suitable for Crimplene that is made by Dylon or Rit. In the UK, you can mail-order disperse dye from Fibrecrafts; in Australia, you can order from Batik Oetoro; and in the US you can order it from PRO Chemical & Dye. There is a new brand of disperse dye that was recently introduced, iDye Poly, which is sold by Fibrecrafts in the UK and by Jacquard retailers such as Dick Blick or Dharma Trading Company in the US. Disperse dye will not work if you use it in hot tap water; only extensive boiling will enable the disperse dye to adhere to the fiber.

Note that the pot you dye your clothing in must never again be used for food preparation after you have dyed clothing in it, because clothing dyes will contaminate food. If you are planning to dye a number of items in hot water dyes, a dyeing pot is an excellent investment. It can be expensive, because the pot should be large enough for your fabric or fiber to move about in freely, as you boil it in the dye, and the pot must be made only of a non-reactive finish, either stainless steel or enamel. A good dyepot is generally too expensive if you are only going to dye this one thing ever, and never dye again. In that case, it would be more economical to buy a new garment, instead of dyeing.


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[This answer was first posted, by me, on August 4, 2008, on Yahoo Answers.]