Name: Anne
Message: First off, great site!  Second, I have a pair of jeans that I bought a while ago and they still fit, but they have a really awful dye job (that trendy whiskering business and they are lighter in the middle of the leg going to dark).  Is it possible to even out the colour so that it's all dark? Thanks so much.

If you overdye the jeans in their current state, the parts that are dark now will still be darker than the rest, when you are finished. Dye is transparent, so it adds right on top of the existing colors. Perhaps you should remove some of the dye from your jeans first. You can do this, with care, by using chlorine bleach, or by using a product manufactured for this purpose which is called Rit Fast Fade for Jeans, or Dylon Easy Bleach for jeans. If you use chlorine bleach (hypochlorite), follow it up with a washing with a strong color-safe "oxygen bleach" which will help to chemically neutralize the corrosive effects of the chlorine bleach.

You may like the jeans much better when they are lighter in color. If not, you can then dye them. Do not use all-purpose dye, which is never very washfast, and which requires very hot water to attach to the fabric; instead, you should use a cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. See my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies to find a nearby company from which to mail-order your dye and other supplies. If you are in the UK, you will probably want to use Dylon Machine Dye. The easiest way to get a solid color is to use a washing machine; see "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".

When dyeing denim, you will never get the denim "look" in which the threads in the weave that go in one direction are white, while the threads that cross them are blue. Instead, your results will be a uniform solid color.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on your goals.

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