I would like to dye my faux suede boots from brown to black

Name: Christina

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Neopaque is an opaque fabric paint, so white and light colors can cover a dark or colored background.

Country or region: Greece

Message: Hello!

I would like to dye my faux suede boots from brown to black. The problem is that I am not quite sure what material the faux suede is made of.

Do you know by any chance what dye and method I could use for my boots?

Faux suede is usually made of 100% polyester, which has been spun into microfiber form (in which the fibers are thinner and finer than ordinary fibers). Sometimes nylon microfibers are also included in the blend.

The only type of true dye that works on polyester is called disperse dye. Unfortunately, since disperse dye requires high heat to penetrate into the polyester fiber, you would have to boil your boots in the dye, for half an hour or longer; this harsh treatment is certain to ruin any pair of shoes or boots, because it will dissolve the glue used to hold some of the parts of the boot together. This means that you cannot truly dye faux suede boots to another color.

Fortunately for you, there is an alternative to dye. Instead of a dye, which bonds directly to the fibers to which you apply it, you can use a good fabric paint, which contains insoluble pigments which have been mixed with a binder to glue them to your fiber.
See my page, "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers"
.

Fabric paint will work well only if your boots have not been treated to make them water-repellent or stain-resistant, as such treatments will also repel paint, preventing good penetration of your artificial suede. You can test for water repellency by sprinkling a few drops of water across the surface of your boots. If the water sinks in and wets the fabric, you'll be fine, but if it beads up and refuses to soak in at all, you're probably stuck with the original color of the boots.

I don't recommend that you use any sort of paint that is not labeled as fabric paint. Fabric paint is designed to penetrate better into fabrics, and, after it dries, it remains soft, unlike other paints, which become stiff and scratchy. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that I don't know anything about the availability of fabric paints for sale in Greece, though you can buy products from Jacquard by mail-order from a number of retailers in Europe. You can often buy a good fabric paint at a craft and hobby store, or sometimes at a fabric store; if you don't have a good source nearby, use mail-order to buy a good fabric paint from an art supplier or dye supplier; in the US, good sources would be an art supplier such as Blick Art Materials or a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company. Use only a brand of paint whose manufacturer specifies that it can be used on synthetic fibers; some fabric paints work well only on natural fibers and are therefore not suitable for your project. All of the fabric paints made by Jacquard Products are claimed to work well on both natural and synthetic fibers, including Jacquard Textile Colors, Lumiere, Neopaque, and Dye-Na-Flow. Your best choice among these would be Dye-Na-Flow, because it is a very thin fabric paint, which has been formulated to mimic a dye. Dye-Na-Flow is often labeled as a silk paint, but it is also supposed to be suitable for synthetic fibers. Another good alternative would be Dharma Pigment Dyes, which, in spite of their name, are fabric paints, not true dyes, but they may be obtained only from Dharma Trading Company, in the US. Although Jacquard Products does not appear to have any retail stores in Greece, there are many in other countries in Europe, including several that sell by mail-order; see the Jacquard Products Store Locator.

Dye-Na-Flow fabric paint is supposed to be heat-set, after it dries, to make it permanent and resistant to washing. You can do this by use of a heat gun, or you can obtain a paint additive, Jacquard Air Fix, which is made by Jacquard Products, that allows these fabric paints to be set permanently by drying at room temperature. Using AirFix would be wise, since high heat can cause damage to some boots and shoes. The Dharma Pigment Dyes are not supposed to require heat-setting when used on synthetic fibers. Jacquard Air Fix can be mail-ordered in Europe from retailers in the UK, Iceland, and the Netherlands; as with other Jacquard Products, see the Jacquard Products Store Locator to find a source for it
. Even without heat-setting, acrylic fabric paints like the Jacquard paints tend to become more permanent if allowed to dry for weeks.

If, for some reason, you cannot mail-order Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow and Jacquard Air Fix from elsewhere in Europe, you can consider using diluted artists' acrylic paints. (Don't dilute with too much water, or the color will be too light and the binder less permanent.) They will make the fake leather material stiffer and much scratchier, but this is less important for shoes than for other clothing. Like all paints and dyes, they will refuse to work well on water-repellent shoes. The feel of the artist's acrylic paints will be improved by mixing them with a product called Fabric Medium, but that tends to be even harder to find than good fabric paint. I recommend that you find a scrap of somewhat similar fabric and test paint that before deciding whether these stiffer and scratchier paints will be at all acceptable. Try to keep the painted items dry for as long as possible, several weeks, or preferably a full month, before washing them or otherwise getting them wet; place them in a warm place during this time period, not, say, an unheated porch. (The top of a refrigerator is often a nice warm place.)

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Posted: Thursday - December 02, 2010 at 07:22 AM

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I would like to dye my faux suede boots from brown to black

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