Name: Malkie
Message: What an amazing site!

I have done search through your site, and have not seen this question: I have 100% cotton clothing that was once black, and is now heavily faded. I would like to use colored dyes (blue, purple) over the faded black to jazz the clothing back up. I'm not trying to make them black again-- I'm just going for an interesting & wearable effect. Will this work, or am I wasting good dye? 

I think the effect can be very nice. Where the clothing is still black, all you will see is the original black, but where it is lighter, the bright colors will show through. The result is much more subtle than dyeing white clothing for a single color all over. It works particularly well on denim, since the dyes usually used on denim are applied in such as way as to really show wear. It won't work as well if there are no very light, nearly white, areas on the clothing; in that case, the result might be too subtle. 

If you want to do several garments the same color, the washing machine would be easiest, but if you want each garment to be a different color, you could do each in a separate bucket, or use the squirt-bottle tie-dye technique without tying.

Since the clothing is cotton and well-worn, it should dye very nicely. As you will already know if you've spent time on my web site, I recommend that you use fiber reactive dye and soda ash for dyeing cotton. It's easier and much more permanent than all-purpose dye, and also costs less per pound of clothing to be dyed. I don't know of a retail source in Israel for fiber reactive dyes, but if you can't find one, most of the European dye supply retailers on my list of Sources for Supplies will ship internationally. Dylon Cold Water dye and Dylon Machine Dye are also fiber reactive dye, but avoid Dylon Multi Purpose dye, since it is an all-purpose dye.

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