Message: I read you can dye polyester by mixing the dye with rubbing alcohol, letting it dry and then ironing the item. Is it true? I don't want to ruin my skirt. I need to do this by Friday (it's Wednesday now!) Help!!

No, I'm sorry. That's not true at all. You'll have to use Crayola or Dritz Fabric Crayons, instead.

The only way you can dye polyester a solid color is by boiling it with a special polyester dye called disperse dye. You cannot dye it with any dye that works on cotton or other natural fibers. You can't use any dye powder or liquid dye that your local stores carry, such as Rit dye or a tie-dye kit. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

Polyester is just too different, chemically, from natural fibers. Any dye that will work on cotton or wool will just wash out of polyester, and any dye that will work on polyester will just wash out of natural fibers. Rubbing alcohol won't make any difference at all, if you use Rit dye. As soon as any water hits the garment, Rit dye will bleed right out. It's not a good idea to wear anything you've dyed without rinsing out the unattached dye afterwards, because the unrinsed dye can caused allergic reactions or rashes, in addition to ruining any light-colored furniture or other clothing that you brush against while wearing it.

There is one way you can color your polyester skirt, using locally-available materials. Go to a crafts store or a fabric store and look for "Fabric Crayons" or "Transfer Crayons". Do NOT use ordinary crayons such as are intended for use on paper. Although fabric crayons look just like regular crayons, they are made of completely different stuff. Fabric crayons are made of disperse dye, which is the right kind of dye to use for polyester. Do not color them directly onto your skirt. Instead, color them onto paper, place the crayoned side of the paper against your skirt, and iron with a medium-to-hot iron. The dye will be vaporized and transferred to the polyester in your skirt. This will also work on nylon or acrylic, but not on any natural fiber. Look at the following page for an example of how I used fabric crayons to color fabric: "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".

For a more-or-less solid color on a whole skirt, you will have to use several packs of crayons and color several sheets of paper repeatedly. You can reuse the same piece of paper many times, as long as you are using the same color. Look at the links at the in the left margin of this message for pictures of some packages of fabric crayons, then go to your local crafts store or fabric store to look for them.

Alternatively, you could use some sort of spray paint, but that will certainly ruin your skirt.

To do a good job of dyeing a polyester skirt another color, you must boil it in a very large stainless steel or enamel pot with disperse dye, which you can mail order from Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company under the brand name "iDye Poly", or from PRO Chemical & Dye or Aljo Dye.

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