Name: Alicia
Message: Hi there,
Stumbled on your wonderful site!
 
Question! What dye should I use to dye fleece? It's polyester. Love the jacket, but the colour is fuchsia type pink!! Would like to change the colour to a wine, brown or even black. Plan on using my top load washing machine. What is your recommendation?

I'm afraid that my recommendation may disappoint you. You cannot dye polyester in the washing machine! You will have to buy a special dye called disperse dye, and buy a large non-aluminum cooking pot, and boil your garment in the dye for an hour, along with a toxic carrier chemical. Other dyes, which are made for cotton, silk, nylon, rayon, or wool, will NOT work on polyester, and "all purpose" dye does not include polyester among its purposes.

See my page on "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

The only reasonable option, as I see it, would be the pigment "dyes" which are really fabric paints. They will not give a smooth single color, and there's a risk that the binder in the fabric paint will make the fleece stiffer, less soft, but on the other hand the stuff will stick to polyester, and it doesn't require boiling, and the effects can be pretty interesting. The biggest problem with buying that expensive dyepot is that you should never use it for food afterwards, only for dyeing. It's too much of an investment for a casual dyer.

You cannot buy pigment "dyes" in stores. You'll have to purchase by mail-order. See the stuff at this link. Like dyes, the paints in pigment "dye" are transparent, so choose a color (or several colors) that will mix with your fuchsia to make a color you'll like. Try a dark color, since the fuchsia is very bright, perhaps their purple, blue, or black. Unfortunately, Dharma Trading Company does not ship to most countries outside of the US. Where are you located?

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