Name: Rachel

Region: California

Message: My question is:  I have a pair of special boots. The toe box, sides, and heel areas are true suede. The upper part with zipper is polyester fleece.  I spilled grease on one toe box a year ago. I finally after much trial and error removed it with a product for artist's oil paint brushes. BUT here's the kicker, I had been experimenting with covering it and now have brown lower boots instead of totally red.  I tried to use the suede dye to cover the upper portion, but it did not work.  I cannot put these in hot water. I was told Rit dye might work, but after speaking with a colleague who is a fiber artist she said to ask you or rather this website.  I love these boots and they are only 1 year old and in excellent shape besides the color mess. What can I do to dye the upper portion dark brown and how should I do it?  I so appreciate your site and will donate as I can. Thank you. 

Rit all-purpose dye will not work on polyester. All-purpose dye contains a mixture of leveling acid dye, which works on wool, silk, or nylon, plus direct dye, which works on cotton and other plant fibers. Both of these types of dyes lack any affinity to polyester and will wash out when the fabric gets wet; if you don't rinse out the loose dye, it will rub off on anything that touches it, such as your clothing, carpets, or furniture.

The only kind of dye that works on polyester is disperse dye. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes". Obviously, you will not be able to boil your boots in a pot of disperse dye for an hour; the glue holding the boots together will fail quickly under those circumstances. Disperse dye can also be used to make iron-on transfers, which work very well for drawings, but I doubt it will be possible to use this method to reach every bit of visible polyester.

This means that you cannot dye your boot-tops, but don't worry, the situation is not hopeless. Instead of using dye, you can use fabric paint. There are some fabric paints that work on polyester. Fabric paint consists of an insoluble pigment with a glue-like binder that holds the pigment on the material. Unlike house paints or artists' acrylic paints, fabric paints are designed to be soft after they dry.

The fabric paints will also work on real suede, as long as there is no longer any grease remaining to repel the paint. If you can't get a great color match, or if you accidentally spill some of the fabric paint on the suede, you might paint the suede as well as the polyester, to get the colors of the suede and polyester fleece closer to matching. Like dyes, fabric paints are generally transparent, so paint applied over brown suede will appear a slightly different color than the same fabric paint applied over red polyester. I think it might be better to protect the suede with tape and aluminum foil, or whatever seems easiest to cover the suede with, and avoid painting the suede, in case enough of the grease remains to repel the paint. You will need to figure out some way to hold the boot tops up while the fabric paint on them is drying.

You should test the fabric paint you buy on the inside of the boot first, choosing a spot where there's extra thickness to help keep the paint from bleeding through, in case you don't like the color. Note that not all fabric paints are recommended for use on polyester; some work only on natural fibers. Jacquard Products says that all of their fabric paints will work on polyester; their products include Dye-Na-Flow, a very thin fabric paint; its thinness helps it to mimic dye better than other fabric paints. That would be a good choice. Another thin fabric paint that works on polyester is Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dyes. Fabric markers might also work pretty well. Jacquard Products' Tee Juice Markers include a large size that's more free-flowing than other fabric markers, so they might be suitable for coloring small areas of polyester fleece.

Check the label or manufacturers' instructions for whatever fabric paint you buy. Most require heat-setting, after they dry, to make the paints resist water, though in many cases the paint will become permanent after a month or two of drying. For heat setting fabric paint, you can buy a heat gun, which is like hair dryer with less air flow, available from crafts stores or Dharma Trading Company, or you can use a regular hair dryer, if you can consistantly get the fabric very hot with it. Alternatively, you can order a product called Jacquard Airfix from Jerry's Artarama; adding Jacquard Airfix to Jacquard Fabric paints, immediately before use, allows the paint to cure very effectively at room temperature, so that you can be certain that the paint will not dissolve in rainwater, with no need for heat-setting at all.

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