Message: I'm a complete novice to dyeing and found your site to be an exceptionally valuable resource. I looked through the FAQ section and did not see anything that I could identify with what I am looking for, so I hope you won't mind my question?

I just bought a floor-length silk chiffon Grecian/Goddess gown from BCBG (over the internet) in the colour they called "glade." When I received the gown, I found to my disapointment that the colour was quite a bit lighter than the picture on the web and was closest to the colour swatch for Procion MX dye called Avocado.

I want to dye it the same colour but a quite a few shades deeper. The colour I want is not found in Procion MX; it seems to fall between their Forest and Olive Greens, but a couple of shades darker than either.

How do I go about tub-dyeing this gown a very deep warm green without a hint of blue, but yet not too brown? 

I do not have any swatches of this material to experiment with, and would hate to ruin this gorgeous and expensive item due to my inexperience.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


I'm afraid I can't really recommend that you try to dye anything that you can't bear to ruin. Sometimes one panel of a commercial garment, although identical in color before you dye it, will be darker or lighter than the rest after you dye it, due to its having been cut from a different bolt of fabric with slightly different affinity for the dye.

If you do dye this dress, I recommend against using Procion MX dyes. Although Procion MX dyes work extremely well on silk, the colors on the swatches you looked at were derived from testing on cotton fabric. Since silk is composed of an entirely different material than cotton (silk is made of a protein from insects, while cotton is made from cellulose from plants), all premixed colors will tend to produce a completely different hue than you expect. This includes all greens, since there is no single-hue green dye in the Procion MX line. What will probably happen is that your green dye will produce a more olive or chartreuse shade on your silk. The results will not be good unless you don't really mind exactly what color you get.

Instead of using Procion MX dye, or another dye packaged for use on cotton, it would be better to use an acid dye. This class of dyes gets its name from the mild acid, such as vinegar, that provides the low pH required for the dye to bond to the fiber. As a general rule, acid dyes require heat to set and bond to the silk. Jacquard Products does provided a washing machine recipe for their acid dyes, to be used with hot tap water in a top-loading washing machine. Alternatively, you would need a very large, non-aluminum cooking pot to do your dyeing in, on top of the stove, but such pots are very expensive, and it is best to plan never to reuse a dyeing pot for food preparation. The need for a dyeing pot makes hot-water dyeing of clothing impractical.

A good source in Canada for dyes is G & S Dye, in Toronto, which sell dyes, including Jacquard Acid Dyes, by mail order. Their page on acid dyes includes instruction for both the washing machine method and the stovetop method for dyeing silk with acid dye. Do not use a front-loading washing machine with a recipe that has been worked out for top-loading washing machines.

A major risk of hand-dyeing, for a novice in particular, is that the color may not end up even. In order to get a smooth solid color, you must do a great deal of stirring, using a large volume of water, and following the manufacturer's recipe carefully. Garment-dyeing in a solid color is best done in a top-loading washing machine, because the automatic agitation helps considerably with avoiding unevenness. It is often possible to get a good solid color by hand-stirring, if you are careful enough, but there can be no guarantee. Sometimes there may be an uneven application of fabric finishing chemicals which will prevent completely smooth penetration of the fabric by the dye.

A possible alternative would be for you to send your dress to a professional dyer to redye for you. There are only a few companies that will do this sort of work, but I do know of one in Canada, Dye Pro Services Inc, in Calgary, Alberta. (See their listing on my page of "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?".) Since they have professional dyeing equipment and a huge amount of experience, they are more likely to be able to produce the results that you want. This would be the best choice for a novice to change the color of a beautiful, expensive dress. The other best choice would be to return the dress where you bought it.

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