I had to buy scrubs for a cosmetology class & they only had a white shirt. I have used 2 whole bottles of the RIT black dye [on the stove] & each time it just washes out & leaves it a gray/purple/brown color. Is there anything that I can use or do to make it stay black?

What is the fiber content of the shirt? If it is 100% cotton, you can dye it a good dark black that will stay black by using Procion MX dye, but if the shirt is a polyester blend, that won't work.

Polyester will not take any ordinary sort of dye such as Rit dye or Procion dye. The only dye that will work on polyester is a special polyester dye called disperse dye. You can't buy disperse dye locally. Instead, you must buy it by mail-order from a dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye. There is a brand of disperse dye called "iDye Poly" that you can mail-order from Dick Blick or Dharma Trading Company. (Don't get regular "iDye", only "iDye Poly".) See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

Of course, if you're going to the trouble of ordering by mail, you might as well just mail-order a scrubs top that is black already, or order an easy-to-dye 100% cotton scrubs top from Dharma Trading Company. Cotton is much easier to dye than polyester.

Update:
Thanks, it was made out of polyester so I ordered some idye poly for it. Thank you so much!


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[This answer was first posted, by me, on August 9, 2008, on Yahoo Answers.]