Message: Hi Paula,

I am making a pigeon costume for my son (from the book Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus) and needed 1.5 yards of light blue plush felt.  It doesn't come in that color, so I bought some white and am now trying to figure out how to dye it.  The felt is 100% polyester.

After reading several posts on your blog, I have decided to try the iDye poly dye in Blue.  I see that you recommend boiling instead of just using hot water in the washing machine.  My question is since I want a very pale blue, do you think the washing machine would be good enough?  The iDye Poly Blue looks very dark, so I don't want it to completely saturate.

Also, is this going to ruin my washing machine?  I've never dyed anything before.

Dyeing in the washing machine will not ruin it, but I'm not at all convinced that it will give you acceptable results on 100% polyester. (Pigment dyes and basic dyes are likely to permanently stain a washing machine, but not acid dyes, reactive dyes, or disperse dyes.)

I have not used the iDye Poly yet myself, so I don't know yet whether or not using 140°F water will produce enough color, rather than none at all. Normally, polyester dye requires extensive boiling (or an iron-on heat transfer) to do a good job at all. Most tap water is heated to less than 140°F; you can check your washing machine water temperature in a hot cycle with a thermometer to see how hot it gets.

The instructions in the iDye Poly package say to simmer one packet (14 grams) of dye for 2 to 3 pounds of fabric in just enough water for the fabric to move freely, for half an hour to one hour. Using a larger amount of cooler water — a typical washing machine load is 20 gallons — might result in a blue so pale that it's difficult to see. There are instructions inside the package for dyeing natural fiber/polyester blends by combining a packet of iDye for cotton in the washing machine with a packet of iDye Poly for polyester, but there are no instructions at all for dyeing pure polyester in the washing machine, which suggests to me that it will most probably give poor results.

What I would recommend instead is that you use a good fabric paint. The advantage of fabric paint is that you can use it at room temperature, in a cheap bucket. You don't have to boil it. The results will be more predictable. Some fabric paints require heat-setting, but that's just ironing the fabric on high for 2 to 3 minutes, or, if the amount of fabric is too large for that to be practical, putting it (already dry) in a commercial clothes drying machine for half an hour. (Don't rely on a home clothes dryer, because they do not get hot enough.) Not all fabric paints require heat setting at all.

Take a look at Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment "Dye" system. This is a fabric paint that can be used for pigment dyeing or tie-dyeing. It will not produce a perfectly crisp solid color, but instead a slightly aged look, like the "pigment dyed" clothing you sometimes see being sold. For your costume, I think this effect should be perfect. A very nice detail about the Dharma Pigment Dye is that the manufacturers do not think that heat setting is necessary at all on polyester. You can dilute these fabric paints with a white pigment dye base (on the same page) in order to lighten the color. They are more economical than many fabric paints, because they can be diluted with up to four times as much water and still bond to the fabric.

There are also other brands of fabric paints that will work. They will all give a pigment-dyed effect, rather than a crisp perfect solid color. Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow Fabric Color is a fabric paint designed to flow like a dye; you can dilute it with up to one-third as much water. All of Jacquard's fabric paints, including Dye-Na-Flow , Jacquard Textile Colors, Lumiere , and Neopaque , are supposed to work fine on polyester, unlike some brands. They do require heat-setting. Ordinary artist's acrylic paints can also be diluted and used, though they will produce a stiffer, scratchier feeling on the fabric than a good fabric paint will. You can even turn acrylic paints into fabric paint by mixing them with a product called Fabric Medium, but it's easier to find fabric paint than fabric medium in the stores.

If you really wanted to use dye on felt, I would recommend buying 100% wool felt and acid dyes, but for your purposes I think that pigment dyeing with fabric paint will be easier and produce just the right effect. You can also, of course, paint details on the fabric using fabric paint, which will be very handy in giving a costume the perfect final touches.

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