Message: Hello. I hope you can help me.  I made a dress out of vintage polyester fabric. The woman on set stained it.  I took it to cleaners the stain is still on it.  I know and I have read up on the process of dyeing polyester.  I am wondering if you could do some work on it - if I can't re-dye the entire dress maybe we can put some transfers on it.  It is  a very pretty dress and i would like to keep it.... I look forward to your solution.

If your dress will survive boiling, you can dye it by boiling it for half an hour or longer with a special kind of polyester dye called disperse dye. You can't dye it with any dye that works on natural fibers, such as Procion MX dye, or all-purpose dyes, such as Rit.

However, since dye is transparent, it will usually fail to cover up a stain. The areas that are darker than the rest, before dyeing, will continue to be darker than the rest, after dyeing. It's the same problem as trying to cover up a bleach stain; see "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?". 

Don't try to bleach out your stains using a Clorox Bleach pen, or any other sort of chlorine bleach, because it will permanently damage polyester. Some stains can be removed from polyester using Rit Dye Remover, but the chance of success is low enough that I won't recommend it, not knowing the source of the stain. In fact, if the stain you are complaining of is yellow, household bleach is the most likely cause of it; there is nothing that can be done to remove hypochlorite stains from polyester. (See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".)

It's surprisingly easy to make transfers for polyester. Disperse dyes are available in crayon form, sold at the fabric store as Crayola Fabric Crayons or Dritz Fabric Crayons. (See "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".) You can also paint your designs onto paper with a brush, for a very different effect, if you buy disperse dyes in powder form and use them to make transfer paint. You can mail-order powdered disperse dyes from Aljo Mfg in New York or PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts; sources for dyers in other countries may be found on my page of "Sources of Dyeing Supplies Around the World". Whether you use fabric crayons or disperse dye paint, the designs can be transferred to the fabric using a heat press or a dry iron. 

I'm afraid that I am not available for custom dye work myself, and most custom dyers are not interested in working on polyester. The only custom dyer I know who will work on polyester is Manhatten Dyeing Service, but they will do solid colors only, and they say that they work only on undyed garments. See "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?".

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