Attempting to customize a golf club headcover....how to dye a darker color to a lighter one?

Name: Janet

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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: Canada

Message: hello, I love your site...it's just plain awesome!! I'm attempting to customize a golf club headcover, the body of the headcover is composed of a PU leather...it has 3 bright red circles/dots that I want to re-dye/color over, composed of a kind of "corduroy" fabric...the dots are about 2" in diameter each. I've tried using a product called "Dye Na Flow" but it doesn't seem to be great when dyeing lighter colors over a darker color...I also do not want to change the feel/touch of the fabric. If you do a google search for a "scotty cameron studio select headcover" you will find the pictures to get a better idea (I don't think that I can attach photos here)...thank you so much for any advice, it's greatly appreciated.

It was a good idea to try the Dye-Na-Flow. I'm sorry it didn't work out. Often the best solution for difficult-to-dye materials is a fabric paint, such as Dye-Na-Flow. However, most fabric paints, and all dyes, absolutely fail when it comes to putting a lighter color over a darker color. All dyes are transparent, and so are most fabric paints; this means that the color underneath will inevitably show through. When dyeing, or when using transparent fabric paints, you can only go from lighter colors to darker colors, never the other way around.

There is only one exception to the light-to-dark rule. If you use an opaque fabric paint, it will cover the color underneath, if you apply a thick enough coating of the opaque fabric paint. Unfortunately, this means applying a thick enough layer of paint that you can definitely feel it. It will invariably change the feel of the fabric. Using fabric paint instead of other sorts of paints (such as artists' acrylic paints or house paint) will help, because fabric paint is much softer than the others, but you can still feel it. Sometimes that's a big problem, and sometimes it is not. The softest and nicest opaque fabric paint available is probably Jacquard Products' Neopaque, which is sold in some of the better arts and crafts stores such as Texas Art Supply, and is always available from mail-order suppliers such as Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. Mail-order sources within Canada for Neopaque include The Paint Spot, in Edmonton, Alberta, Opus Framing & Art Supplies, in Vancouver, Artists Emporium in Winnipeg, and Shades of Clay and Wyndham Art Supplies in Ontario.

Artificial leather made of polyurethane might be dyeable, if it is absorbent enough for the dye to easily penetrate, instead of being in any way water-resistant. (Check by sprinkling a few drops of water across the surface; if the water beads up, the material is too water-resistant to dye.) The same rule applies about changing a lighter color to a darker color, never a darker color to a lighter one. Polyurethane is best dyed with acid dyes, preferably a type of acid dye called 1:2 metal complex acid dye, at temperatures of around 140°F (60°C), along with the auxiliary chemicals recommended by the dye's manufacturer; unfortunately, this dyeing temperature will probably distort and change the shape of pre-sewn items. It is best to dye polyurethane before sewing it into a product such as your golf club headcovers.

I believe that the best approach would be to take an old golf club headcover, one that has become too old and worn to be of value, and disassemble it by removing all stitching. Using the pieces of the old disassembled headcover as a pattern (allowing extra material for the widths of the seams), cut out new pieces from fabric or leather of the color that you want (possibly custom dyeing or painting the material first), and assemble them into a new headcover. If water resistance or stain resistance is needed, apply the treatments only after you have fully completed assembling the headcover.

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Posted: Wednesday - August 25, 2010 at 07:53 AM

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Attempting to customize a golf club headcover....how to dye a darker color to a lighter one?

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