Name: Lin

Message: I would like to dye some new fabric shoes that are ivory in color to dark purple or eggplant color. I am assuming the fabric on the shoe is polyester satin. I have been doing some investigating and have not found much in the way of permanent fabric shoe dye. Most all shoe dye say will run, can you not add vinegar or citric acid, what about uniodized salt - to help the running factor or even some soda ash and do you need a swelling agent to help penetrate the polyster!! Please help as you can see I am a novice!!! 

I think that your best bet would be to use a permanent fabric paint. Some fabric paints are specifically claimed by their manufacturers to work on polyester. For an effect similar to dye, use a thin, dye-like fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-na-Flow or Dharma Pigment Dyes.

Adding chemicals such as vinegar, salt, or soda ash will not make shoe dyes permanent on polyester. The only dyes that work on polyester are disperse dyes, which must be boiled extensively with the material to be dyed. Obviously, you cannot boil your shoes without their falling apart.

Many fabric paints require heat-setting. This can be done with a heat gun, which is like a hair dyer without the blower, or you can add an acrylic catalyst to the paint before use, instead of heat-setting. Unlike dye, fabric paints can be set with completely dry heat, in the absence of steam or any other moisture. Jacquard Dye-na-flow is one of the paints that requires heat-setting for maximum colorfastness; the additive that can be substituted for the heat-setting step is called Jacquard Airfix. Even without heat-setting, the paint will be more wash-resistant after drying for a few weeks than when it is freshly applied, but you can be more certain of the paint's water resistance if you either use the catalyst or heat-set the paint. Dharma Trading Company sells a similar catalyst called Versatex "No Heat" Fixative. The instructions for Dharma Pigment Dyes (which are actually paints, not dyes) do not say that they require heat-setting on polyester. They will not make a perfectly smooth and even solid color, but instead a color with some variation in darkness, like pigment dyed clothing.

All of the Jacquard fabric paints are supposed to work on polyester, so you have the option of metallic or pearlescent effects, by using their Lumiere fabric paints.

Before you do anything to alter the color of your shoes, check to be sure that they are not water-resistant. Water-resistant shoes cannot be dyed. To test this, sprinkle a drop of two of water onto the shoe. If the water beads up, the shoe is water-resistant and cannot be colored, but if the water soaks in, it will probably accept the paint reasonably well.

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