How do I crackle dye a single color? I am removing color from four gauze dresses for my wedding....

Name: Ann

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Message: How do I crackle dye a single color? I am removing color from four gauze dresses for my wedding...never done this before...I just want pastel varigated. One lavender, one blue, one moss green, might try one with blue and purple and green. If I ruin them, I'm up a creek ! LOL I know, I'm nuts...I'm terrified....I love your work.

Oh, dear. I can't recommend that you dye any commercial dress that you can't afford to ruin. What are you going to do if the results come out wrong? What if the dresses turn out to take up dye unevenly, with one panel of the fabric coming out a much darker color than any of the others? That's happened to me. What if there's a big splotch, currently invisible, of some sort of fabric finish, that prevents the dye from taking in that area? These problems are not uncommon in garments that are not specifically sold to be dyed. It's safer to buy garments labeled PFD (for Prepared For Dyeing) or RTD (for Ready To Dye).

Next problem: are your gauze dresses washable? You can't dye anything that isn't washable. Very few dresses that people buy to wear in weddings are washable.

Third problem: can you remove the color from the dresses as they are now? Some clothing is colored with dyes that cannot be removed, no matter what you do. It's impossible to tell whether or not this is true of your dresses until you try. What color are the dresses now, that is, what color are you trying to remove?

If the dresses are 100% cotton or linen, you can try ordinary chlorine-type household bleach, but you'd better not do this if they contain any spandex or nylon or silk. Chlorine bleach is death to synthetic fibers, except for viscose rayon. You can use a sulfur-based dye discharge chemical, such as Rit Color Remover, but only if your dresses can tolerate hot water. All sulfur-based color removers require heat, the hotter the better. It's easiest to try several boxes of Rit Color Remover in a washing machine with very hot tap water; if that doesn't work, sometimes the hotter temperatures you can reach in a cooking pot on the stovetop work better, but it's much less convenient. See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?"

Fourth problem: if everything else has gone well up to this point, and you've washed the dresses and successfully removed their color - if all of that turns out to be possible and to have worked well for you - then you can ask how to crackle dye them with one color. It's not difficult to do, but you must know what the fiber content of the dresses is, so that you can choose the right kind of dye. Cotton cannot be dyed with dyes that work on polyester, and wool requires completely different dyes than either. Some fiber blends, such as poly/spandex, simply cannot be dyed, because the high heat required to dye polyester will destroy the spandex. Crackle dyeing is done, using whatever type of dye is required for your fiber, according to the instructions on my page of How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing. However, it is very important to choose a dye that contains only one color of dye molecule, because dyes that are premixed from more than one color will separate out into multiple colors when you do the crackle dyeing. The results can be beautiful, but it doesn't sound like what you want at all. This means that you need to find a single-hue, unmixed dye color to use, for each color you want. If you get to this point, email me with the exact fiber content of your dresses, and I might be able to help you find appropriate dye choices.

Alternatively, if the dye in the dresses is easily removed, you could do a sort of crackle dyeing in reverse, by cramming each dress into a small cooking pot before applying Rit Color Remover. This would require a serious amount of trial and error first, however. You cannot expect to get good results without extensive testing. The Rit Color Remover or other dye removal chemical might work as desired, turning the original color into white, wherever it can reach the fabric, but it's just as likely to turn the colors to some new and unexpected color, possibly one that you think is ugly. Green can turn orange, violet can turn yellow, black can turn brown; it's unpredictable, since you don't know what dyes have been used already in your dresses.

Good luck. Although each of the things you want to do can be easy and fun and rewarding, being required to have it come out perfectly the very first time you try it makes the whole project nearly impossible.

Another way to get the dresses you want would be to buy some PFD dresses that are made of cotton or rayon, and dye them (the best site for clothing blanks is Dharma Trading Company, but they don't carry formal attire), or to dye some PFD fabric and dye it, or buy some fabric whose colors and patterns you like already, and get a local seamstress to sew them into dresses for you. This last would probably be the wisest choice.

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Posted: Tuesday - February 15, 2011 at 09:42 AM

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How do I crackle dye a single color? I am removing color from four gauze dresses for my wedding....

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