Message: I have a t-shirt -- color light blue.  It got some Biz detergent on it and some of the blue area is now white. The detergent took some of the color out of those places.

It is a vineyard vines shirt with a screen on about half of the back.  The screen was not affected by it.

Can this shirt be dyed back blue with the screen not being touched?

A cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, will not change the color of the screen printed design. It is very common to use brilliant colors to tie-dye shirts that have black screen printed designs. The only concern is choosing colors that are light or bright enough to allow a significant contrast between the screen printing ink and the dye, so that the design is still easy to see.

If the screen printed design is made with opaque screen printing ink, then it does not matter what color you dye it. Again, the dye will not change the color of the ink. If there is any background color in the screenprinted design, it may show up unexpectedly light when a darker color is used to dye the fabric.

The problem is when the screen printed design is printed with transparent ink, or with true dyes. The fabric behind the screenprint will necessarily pick up the dye. If the screenprinting ink is transparent, it will show through the ink. Depending on the design, and how light its colors are, the results might not look as good.

There should not be any problem for the screen print if you are just restoring the original color of the fabric.

However, you will want to consider a separate question, which is how well the dye will cover up the difference between the bleached spots and the original color. Since dye is transparent, the bleached spots will always be a little lighter than the rest, even after dyeing. This shouldn't be too much of a problem if the original light blue is pale enough, but it's something to consider. See the page "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?".

I recommend the use of fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or a good tie-dye kit, rather than any all-purpose dye such as Rit or Tintex, because fiber reactive dyes give better results on cotton.

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