Message: Hi there.

I have recently designed a rather unique slip cover lounge suite which required custom coloured fabric. Frustratingly, the couch manufacturers as well as their fabric suppliers can't provide me with colours even close to what I want. I am now toying with the idea of having the slips done in white and then having them dyed professionally. They are 100% cotton with a durability of 25000 rubs.

When I asked the couch retailers if it was possible to have the white version dyed, they said it was "not recommended". I thought I would get another opinion and judging by other parts of your site, it would seem that there's no problem with it. What do you think their concerns might've been if not just down to salesmanship?

They probably don't understand that there are differences in dye quality and that experts in dyeing can easily do an excellent job. They may have encountered poorly dyed items that were dyed incorrectly. Or, they may be concerned about shrinkage when slipcovers have been made with fabric that is not preshrunk.

There's no reason why you can't get your slip covers dyed, if the fabric has been preshrunk. You can do this by prewashing the fabric in hot water before sewing them into slipcovers, or by dyeing the fabric before sewing. There are excellent, long-lasting dyes that are easy to use, if you follow the correct technique.

It would obviously be a terrible thing to have perfectly-fitting slipcovers made of shrinkable fabric. What fits perfectly before shrinkage will be unusable after shrinkage. This is probably the most important point. Will you be able to get the fabric preshrunk before sewing?

Another issue is that some upholstery fabrics are treated with stain-resistant surface finishes, such as Teflon or Scotchguard; these will make the fabric impossible to dye. Starch used as a sizing can also be a problem.

Your choice of 100% cotton is an excellent one for dyeing. You will need to choose the right dye for your fiber content; there are excellent dyes available for cotton.

I recommend against the idea of using direct dye, or all-purpose dye, such as Rit, DEKA L, or Dylon Multi Purpose. Their notoriously poor washfastness may be countered by the use of a cationic dye fixative (see my page on Retayne), but unfortunately lightfastness is often impaired by these treatments. Upholstery is often faded by light coming through windows, so any treatment that reduces lightfastness is to be avoided, in my opinion.

The class of dye I recommend for use on cotton is fiber reactive dye. It's easy to use, available in in a full range of brilliant or subtle colors, and has high washfastness properties. Brands of fiber reactive dye that work well include Procion MX dye, Remazol dye, and Cibacron F dye. Hot water fiber reactive dyes include Procion H-E and Drimarene X. All fiber reactive dyes are highly washfast when applied as recommended, and many of them are also very lightfast, depending on the specific dye molecule. If you were dyeing one slipcover at a time yourself, I would recommend that you use Dylon Machine dye, if you're located in Europe or Australia, and Procion MX dye in North America, dyeing in a washing machine. I can recommend several companies that would professionally dye your slipcovers in large machines to your exact color preferences, but unfortunately they are all in North America. One is in Canada. I don't happen to have listings for such companies elsewhere in the world, because dyers elsewhere have not registered with me.

For truly unique slipcovers, you can also have 100% cotton slipcovers dyed by custom dyers who work with dye painting, low water immersion dyeing, or even tie-dyeing. A page layout showing your lounge suite design in several solid colors plus one option that is multi-colored would look good.

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