Message: Hi.
I have a dress which is embroided on the hem and a different colour from the rest of the dress. How can I dye the dress without it affecting the colour of the embroidery? and also wash it without it running into the embroidery? 

The answer depends on what fiber the dress is made of, and on what fiber the embroidery thread is made of. If they are made of different fibers, then all you have to do choose the right dye. If they are made of similar fibers, then it will be very difficult to do, very possibly more trouble than it is worth.

If the embroidery is made with nylon thread, but the dress is made of cotton or viscose rayon, then the answer is to dye with a cool water fiber reactive dye, using soda ash as the fixative. Nylon will not take fiber reactive dye at a high pH, which is what soda ash produces. A good fiber reactive dye to use is Procion MX dye; one good mail-order source for this dye in the UK, where you are, is Fibrecrafts. Another dye that will work well for this is Dylon Hand Dye, which is a fiber reactive dye; in the US, use Dylon Permanent Dye, instead. See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

If the dress is made of polyester and the embroidery is made of viscose rayon, then you will need to use disperse dye. Fibrecrafts sells the "iDye Poly" brand of disperse dye, which dyes synthetic fibers such as nylon, polyester, and acrylic, without dyeing natural fibers such as cotton and viscose.

To retain a color contrast between the fabric and the embroidery, you must not use an all-purpose dye such as Rit all-purpose dye or Dylon Multi Purpose dye, unless the embroidery floss is polyester. All-purpose dyes will color silk, cotton, viscose rayon, nylon, and many other fibers; the only fibers they will not color at all are polyester, acrylic, and polypropylene.

If there is not a convenient contrast in fiber content between the embroidery and the dress fabric, then you will not be able to color the dress without also coloring the embroidery. You can protect the embroidery thread by painting it with molten wax or another dye resist before dyeing the dress, but, if there is much embroidery, this will be a great deal of trouble and will take a long time. If you use batik wax, you will need to remove the wax after you have completed your dyeing. See "How to Batik".

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