I need to dye a white dress that says dry clean only. It is crocheted lace. The shell is 92% polyester an 8% lycra. The lining is 100% polyester. Can this be done?


Name: Jett
Message: I need to dye a white dress that says dry
clean only. It is crocheted lace. The shell is 92%
polyester an 8% lycra. The lining is 100% polyester.
Can this be done?

No. you cannot dye anything that cannot be washed. It can't be done professionally, either. "Dry clean only" also means "you can't dye this."

Some garments that are marked "dry clean only" can actually be washed, but never if it has a separate outside and lining. The lining and the outside layer will shrink at different rates, ruining the shape of the dress.

Furthermore, polyester can only be dyed with a special type of dye called Disperse Dye, which requires that you boil the dress in it for an hour, but even a minute of boiling will ruin the lycra, which is a thermoplastic polyurethane. See http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dispersedye.shtml.

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Posted: Tuesday - June 20, 2006 at 06:51 AM          

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