Name: Mary
Message: I have some denim dresses with embroidery on them. Over time they have faded and some have little white spots much lighter than the rest of the fabric. I want to color them navy or denim blue but I dont want to mess uup my embroidered designs. What are my options?

Denim often shows lighter spots like these because of ring dyeing, in which only the outer layer of each fiber has been dyed at all. Once the surface layer wears off, the white fiber underneath shows through. It is impossible to completely correct this, as dyeing or painting the fabric a solid color cannot reproduce the effect of the twill weave of denim, in which a white warp is woven with a blue weft.

You may do best to cover up the light spots with a fabric marker. If you dye the dress, the white spots will still remain lighter than the rest of the fabric. See, in the FAQ section of my web site, the answer to "Help! I ruined clothing by spattering bleach. How can I fix it?".

If the embroidery thread is polyester, you can safely dye the dress with cotton dye, such as fiber reactive dye (I do not recommend the use of all-purpose dye on cotton), without dyeing the embroidery. However, cotton embroidery thread should take up the dye as well.