Name: Katie
Message: Hello, I'm curious if you would consider dyeing an item for me and I will ship it to you and would pay you?  If not, what dye would you recommend for the following garment:  South American made jumpsuit with the following "espanol" materials - 60% algodao, 30% poliester, 10% elastano.  This garment is unworn, the color is winter white, and has a large number of studs/rivets that have bled a greenish color onto the white.  This is why I am looking to color it.  Thank you for your time...I look forward to your reply.

I'm afraid that I can't take on that project myself, but you could find another dyer to do it, if you look at the 'Find a Custom Dyer' list on my website, under the 'More' item on the menubar. (Try this link.)

Algodao is cotton. Cotton is an easily dyeable fiber, as long as there is no surface finish such as stain resistance or permanent press to interfere with the dye.

Poliester is polyester. Unfortunately, polyester cannot be dyed except at high temperatures that would destroy your garment, due to its sensitive spandex contents. You will have to leave the polyester undyed. Your garment will end up only 60% as bright or intense in color as a 100% cotton garment would.

Elastano is elastane, or spandex, often known by the brand name Lycra. Spandex is very heat-sensitive. When dyeing a garment that is 10% spandex, we normally do not attempt to dye the spandex itself, because it is impractical to do so after the spandex has been woven or knitted into a fabric blend.

You must avoid the use of all-purpose dye, such as Rit dye, when dyeing this garment. All-purpose dye requires hot water, which should never be used on a garment that contains spandex.

The best dye to use would be a cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. You can dye your jumpsuit a solid color in the washing machine, but the stains may show through. In fact, the copper in the studs which is the source of the problem may even interact with a dye to create a new color. I would recommend that you dye the jumpsuit in multiple colors, as in the technique known as low water immersion dyeing. This method of dyeing is very easy, and creates beautiful mixtures of colors which may help to disguise the problem with the reactive metal used in the garment.

When you say dye the suit in multiple colors...do you mean putting multiple colors into the washing machine ... or just one color and see how it looks then try another?  I would worry that multiple colors used together would look greyish or putrid when it was all done?  Is this really a project that is so easy?  If so, I'm willing to do it myself.  thanks so much
That's a very important point. No, you do not use multiple colors in the washing machine, as you're right, they will mix together. Instead, for multiple colors, use low water immersion dyeing, which involves just stuffing the garment into a bucket, tightly, and pouring dyes and then soda ash over it. You must use a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, for this recipe. It's extremely easy, easier than any other dye method, because you don't have to stir or heat-set or anything like that. Check out this page of instructions:

How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing

The interesting thing is that even clashing colors work very well together in this technique, because they blend at the edges to make subtler colors. I like to use colors that mix well together, such as blue with yellow, which will produce a garment with blue, yellow, and green.

You'll get better results on 100% cotton than on your 60% cotton jumpsuit. It will be interesting it you put a cotton t-shirt in with the jumpsuit and dye them at the same time; you will end up with a much brighter though coordinating version of the same colors.

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