Name: Bruce

Message: I am interested in tie dying some doctor white coats, but they are 80% polyester/20% cotton. Will that work? THANKS


No. You cannot use ordinary dyes on polyester, and 20% cotton is not a large enough proportion to allow the use of cotton dyes. For more information on the difficulties of dyeing polyester, see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

Alternative one, my favorite, would be to buy some 100% cotton doctor's coats, or at least 80% cotton. You can even dye 50% cotton if you will be satisfied with pale pastels, but 100% cotton will produce much brighter colors. A good source for dyeable doctor's coats is Dharma Trading Company. They also sell dyeable scrubs, if you're interested.

I strongly advise you to use only fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes. Do not use "all purpose" dyes, such as Rit® Tint and Dye or Tintex® Easy Fabric Dye, for tie-dyeing. You can buy Procion MX dyes by mail-order from the dye suppliers listed on my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

Alternative two: if you already have the 80% polyester lab coats, and don't wish to buy new ones, I advise you to tie-PAINT them, instead of tie-dyeing. For the differences between fabric dyes and fabric paints, see "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers". Good choices for mimicking tie-dye with fabric paints would be Jacquard Products's Dye-Na-Flow and Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dye.

A third alternative would be to use disperse dye crayons to make iron-ons to decorate your lab coats with. This can be great fun, but the results are different from tie-dyeing.


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