Is it possible to dye a poly/elastane bandage dress from orange to red?

Name: Eileen

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Country or region: Ireland

Message: Hi,

I have an orange bandage dress, and I want to dye it red. Is this possible? And if so, how do I do it, using your dye?

What is the fiber content of your bandage dress? Is it made of polyester, or cotton, or nylon? Does it have a metallic sparkle, or is it just regular fabric? Is it washable, or is it labeled "dry clean only"?

Thank you for getting back to me, It is 96% polyester and 4% elastane. It is machine washable. It does not have a metallic sparkle from it.

I did try to dye it with a Red dye but it did not take, I have been told I am using the wrong colour to change it to red.

No, I'm sorry, but this is an impossible fiber combination to dye. Polyester cannot be dyed without boiling it for some time, while elastane (also known as spandex) is very sensitive to heat and must never be boiled, not even briefly. The elastane will fall apart if you boil it for half an hour. Don't even try to dye this dress. Polyester/elastane blend fabric is made by dyeing the different fibers separately before they are woven or knitted together, since it is impossible to dye a polyester/elastane blend.

The reason why the dye you tried did not take is that it's not the right type of dye for polyester. Polyester cannot be dyed with any ordinary sort of dye; if a dye works on natural fibers, then it will not work at all on polyester. The only dye that works on polyester is a special type of dye called disperse dye.

For changing an orange dress to red, your color choice of red dye was correct. Red dye on an orange fabric will produce a red with an orangish tinge; the more red dye you use, the purer will be the resulting red. A pure fuchsia, which is a blueish red, would be even better for turning orange to a true red. Unfortunately, that does not matter in this case, given the problem of the fiber blend.

There is one possibility that might work, if you would be willing to have a mottled color, instead of a perfectly smooth solid color. You could use a high-quality thin fabric paint, instead of dye. (See Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers.) If you were to apply a slightly diluted bright red fabric fabric paint, such as Dye-Na-Flow, to the entire dress, it would mostly turn the dress red, with some relatively reddish-orange mottling. Check your local crafts shops for Dye-na-Flow fabric paint; if they don't carry it, you can order a one-liter bottle from George Weil in the UK.

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Posted: Thursday - May 26, 2011 at 08:01 AM All About Hand Dyeing Q&A Previous Next

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