I have a polyester mosquito net that is black. Is there any way I could make this net unique by tie dyeing?

Name: Colette

Country or region: Australia

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Message: I have a polyester mosquito net that is black. Is there any way I could make this net unique by tie dyeing?

No, you cannot dye anything that is black. Since dye is transparent, it simply does not show up against a black background.

It's often difficult or impossible to remove color from commercially dyed black fabric. Do not try to do so with chlorine bleach, as the hypochlorite it contains will damage polyester. You can try to use a sulfur-based dye color remover, such as Tintex Color Remover or Jacquard Color Remover, heating it with the netting in a large pot on the stove, but good results are not guaranteed. You could tie the netting first, as you would for tie-dyeing, in order to make a dyeable light design on a black background. Sometimes it works well enough, sometimes it doesn't. Instead, I recommend that you seek out a white mosquito net. The white background will allow you to apply a polyester dye, or possibly a very thin fabric paint.

If you can find a white mosquito net, I think that your best choice would be to use transfer dyes. While you cannot use any ordinary fabric dye on polyester, you can use disperse dyes. Another option would be a fabric paint, but that would be less ideal.

Transfer dyes are a type of disperse dye, a special polyester dye, that you paint or draw designs with onto paper, then use a hot iron or t-shirt transfer press to iron the design onto white or light-colored fabric. With thin mosquito netting, you might be able to apply the design to several layers of the mesh at once. You can also reuse the same image repeatedly, applying more dye to the paper as necessary. Be sure to use plenty of padding underneath to prevent the dye from transferring to your ironing board cover.

The advantage of transfer dye is that it is a true dye, so you can't feel it on the fabric. Unlike fabric paint, it won't clog up the little holes in the netting, and it won't make the netting stiffer or more rough.

Transfer dyes are available in several forms, including fabric transfer crayons, liquid transfer dyes, and disperse dye powder that you can mix yourself into paint, using dye print paste thickener if you want a thicker texture of paint.

Fabric transfer crayons look just like ordinary wax crayons, but the ingredients are completely different: don't try this with children's crayons! To see an example, look at my page, "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".

Transprint Liquid Transfer Dyes are liquid inks that contain disperse dye. In Australia, you can order them online from Kraftkolour or The Thread Studio. Since they're already in liquid form, they're very easy to use. Here's a link to an instruction sheet for them: "Transprint Inks by Kraftkolour P/L" [PDF].

Powdered disperse dyes are more readily available to hand dyers everywhere. Kraftkolour and Batik Oetoro are two sources in Australia; they're also available from Aljo Mfg and PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, and from Kemtex, Rainbow Silks, and other suppliers in the UK. You can see instructions for using powder disperse dye for transfer printing at Batik Oetoro, and at PRO Chemical & Dye .

Keep in mind that none of these materials for dyeing polyester will work on black mosquito netting. You will have to find white or light-colored netting if you wish to color it.

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Posted: Tuesday - February 21, 2012 at 10:17 AM

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I have a polyester mosquito net that is black. Is there any way I could make this net unique by tie dyeing?

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