Name: Mark

Message: I have a ski coat that is too funky in colour for me to wear.  It is made of 49% wool, 26% polyester, 13% nylon, 12% polyurethane.  I am not looking for perfection just the ability to wear a $400.00 coat.  What would be the best compromise.  Thanks

Is the ski jacket coated to be water-repellent? If so, you cannot dye it. Water-repellent means dye-repellent.

If the coat quickly absorbs water that is dropped on it, rather than causing it to bead up or run off, then it might be possible to dye it. A material that easily absorbs water would make a poor ski coat, though, so this seems unlikely.

The polyester will not accept any dye except when boiled for an hour with a special kind of dye called disperse dye. Forget about trying to dye the 26% of the fabric that is polyester, and concentrate on the rest. This means that you can get, at most, only 74% of the full intensity of any dye you use, but that can work out okay.

Wool, nylon, and polyurethane (spandex is made of polyurethane) can all be dyed at a temperature of 160°F with 1:2 metal complex dyes in the Lanaset series of dyes, or (with lower resistance to washing out) many other acid dyes. Unfortunately, the different fibers have different affinities for these dyes and will therefore dye to different shades when dyed in the same bath; in order to dye a solid color, you would have to use chemical reserve agents which are not available to the home dyer.

A very large drawback to using a metal complex dye or an acid dye to change the color of your coat is that it would require buying a very large cooking pot, minimum of five gallons, large enough to allow the coat to move freely in the dye water; the pot should not be made of aluminum, or if made of enamel must not be chipped on the inside, and it should never again be used for food after you have used it for dye. This one detail in itself probably dooms your project. Is it worth spending the money to buy such a large pot? If you are not going to be dyeing anything else, it would make far more sense to forget about dyeing this coat, sell the coat in a local consignment shop (or on eBay) and buy another coat; perhaps the consignment shop will have one more to your liking, at a price that would be less than the cost of a new coat. 

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