I want to dye my dark grey jeans black—not navy blue, purple, brown, forest green, or some other color

Name: Liz

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Country or region: USA

Message: Hi Dr. Burch,

I want to dye my dark grey jeans black. I don't want them to come out navy blue, purple, brown, forest green, or some other color that is not black (and thus too uncool to wear. :-)

What I've gotten from your site is to try to find

"Dylon Permanent black dye, a Remazol dye, which is Color Index reactive black 5."

I hope I can find this stuff. I think there are a lot of "Goth" people hoping for dead black. These are not people who normally dye, but those, like me, who hope that dyeing their not-quite-black clothes will save us from having to discard them and shop for new clothes.

I like the Dylon Permanent Jet Black, but it's not your only good option, although it is a very good option for dyeing a single cotton garment. The individual packets do not go very far. You need to use two packets to dye a single pound of fabric, but a pair of jeans might weigh more than a pound.

If you have several natural-fiber items that need to be re-dyed black, the best and cheapest method is to use a top-loading washing machine with Procion MX black dye, or use a large plastic bucket and do a lot of stirring. Although the Procion MX blacks are all mixed from different colors, they do not separate out into the constituent colors when used with plenty of water and stirring or agitation. The fact that the Remazol black dye is a single-color unmixed dye is important only if you are dyeing without stirring, as in the case of low water immersion dyeing (which is good for mottled or multicolor effects, but not for a single solid color). It doesn't matter whether the dye you used is pre-mixed from other dyes, if you are only dyeing a single smooth solid color anyway.

You may already have found that all-purpose dyes, such as Rit or Tintex, are not very satisfactory for dyeing clothes black. All-purpose dyes tend to wash out and fade quickly, and people often complain about getting a dark purple or a dark green instead of black when they use poor quality dye. All of the fiber reactive dyes, including both the Dylon Permanent brand and the Procion MX dyes, perform much better on cotton clothing, and last much longer.

The secret to dyeing anything black is always is to use a large amount of dye. No matter what sort of dye you are using, you will generally need to use two to four times as much dye to get a good dark black as you would use for any other color. It takes less to redarken a black garment, though, if there's still a good amount of the original black color present. If you use Procion MX dyes, which are very highly concentrated compared to Dylon or Rit dye, I would recommend 30 grams of dye to color one pound of fabric (weighed while dry) when you're starting from white, or 15 grams of dye powder per pound of fabric if you're starting with something that's a faded black. When in doubt, use more dye, though never more than a total of one-tenth of the weight of the dry fabric. (See my page "How much Procion MX type dye should I use?".) You can use a five-gallon bucket to dye one or two garments, or the washing machine to dye up to eight pounds of garments at a time (weighing them while they are still dry). See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".

A two-ounce jar of Procion MX dye will dye as much clothing as eight to sixteen packets of Dylon dye. Since a two-ounce jar of Procion MX dyes costs $3 to $6 at ProChem or Dharma, this is much more economical than buying Dylon dyes at $3 per packet, even though the Dylon dye is complete with auxiliary chemicals mixed in, while the Procion dye requires the additional purchase of inexpensive soda ash (or washing soda) and salt. Procion dye must be purchased online if you're not near a particularly good arts supply store. The 20-gram jars of Procion MX dye are less economical than the larger ones, but still cheaper than Dylon. If you are going to be making a habit of dyeing clothing black, as seems logical, you should buy an eight-ounce or larger jar for even more cost savings.

Which of the several black Procion dyes should you buy? They are a little different from each of the different suppliers, but all work well if you use enough dye. For solid black on cotton, I personally prefer black MX-CWNA, which is ProChem's Procion black 608, Dharma's New Black, or Jacquard's Warm Black.

Note that both Procion MX dye and Dylon Permanent dye are good only for natural fibers, such as cotton or rayon. (Rayon is a reprocessed fiber, but it contains cellulose that dyes just like cotton.) If you will be dyeing anything that contains polyester, you will see that the dyes that work on cotton and other natural fibers don't work at all. The dyes for natural fibers will wash out of the polyester fibers. The special dyes that work on polyester require extensive boiling, so you would have to buy a dyeing pot, a much bigger investment than anything you will need for dyeing cotton. There's more information available on my web site, if you decide to go into dyeing polyester.

Another important detail to note is that the stitching that holds your jeans together will stay the original color, since almost all clothing is sewn together with polyester thread. The cotton in your dark gray jeans will dye black, while the polyester seams will stay dark gray. That's probably going to be much more satisfactory than the orange thread on blue jeans, though. (See "Dyeing thread in pre-sewn clothing".)

Be sure to wash clothing very thoroughly before you try to dye it, in the hottest water it can tolerate, to remove finishes and invisible stains that can prevent the dye from reaching the fabric evenly.

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Posted: Wednesday - December 28, 2011 at 10:00 AM

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I want to dye my dark grey jeans black—not navy blue, purple, brown, forest green, or some other color

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