Can I use fabric paint to change a cream-colored top to a pure white?

Name: Georgia

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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: Australia

Message: Hello

I bought a 100% polyester top online which I thought was going to be white, but it's cream. I was wondering about your opinion on my best option to get it white. I've researched a bit that using fabric paint will work.

Thank you!

No, I don't think you will want to use a fabric paint to turn a cream-colored polyester top to white.

You are correct in preferring to use a fabric paint instead of bleach. It is extremely common for the hypochlorite in household chlorine bleach to permanently turn polyester a dingy ugly yellowish color. There is no way to remove bleach stains from polyester.

However, most fabric paints will not allow you to go from a darker color (cream) to a lighter color (white); all of the very thin fabric paints that don't disrupt the "hand" of the fabric are transparent, so they can change lighter colors to darker ones, but never the reverse. Transparent fabric paints, like true dyes, lack the ability to turn a darker color lighter. Covering a darker color with a lighter one requires a heavy application of a fabric paint that is specifically labeled as being "opaque". The results are far less soft and subtle than those you will get by coloring a lighter color with a darker one; it's better to go from cream to purple, say, than from cream to white.

Another problem is that fabric paints, especially opaque fabric paints, are not very good at producing a smooth single solid color. They are much better at producing the slightly mottled or uneven look of "instant age", especially after a few washes. Fabric paints also leave a small but perceptible change in the "feel" of the fabric; opaque fabric paints are the worst, leaving a much greater change in the feel of the fabric than a transparent fabric paint will. The blouse will not feel as soft, nor lie as smoothly, once you have saturated it with an opaque white fabric paint.

The best way to get your top to be a true white would be to return it for a refund and buy a shirt that is white. If that is impossible, I recommend that you change the color in a different way, to a darker color, rather than white. For a smooth solid color, boil the top in a very large cooking pot with disperse dye in a color that you like, a color other than white. (You can mail-order the disperse dye in Australia from Batik Oetoro or Kraftkolour; see "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".) For a more mottled color, you can "pigment dye" by dipping the top in a thin fabric paint, such as Dye-Na-Flow or Dharma Pigment Dyes. While it is possible to buy Dye-Na-Flow in white, I believe that its purpose is only for color mixing; I don't think that it will produce good results in lightening the color of your blouse.

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Posted: Thursday - March 10, 2011 at 07:41 AM

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Can I use fabric paint to change a cream-colored top to a pure white?

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