Message: I got a very expensive bathing suit online. The design is sort of like tie dyes but the colors fade into each other more profoundly. But when it arrived it was much darker than I expected. I tried to bleach it but it only got a few blotches on it. They aren't white but they're like a couple shades lighter then the material. I washed out all the bleach left in the material, and I want to dye it black or fabric paint it. Here's the materials the bathingsuit consists of: Fabric: 80% nylon/20% spandex; Liner (think that's the inside of the bathing suit): 91% polyester/9% spandex. So what brand and and material should I use, and how should I wash it?

I looked all over the website but couldn't find a question informative enough to answer the question. Hopefuly you can answermy question soon. And also, I really like your site and am going to donate $100+ to it. My whole family uses it! Thanks.

I hope that your bathing suit has not been ruined by the bleach. The hypochlorite in household leach is a surprisingly damaging chemical. It can cause nylon and spandex to completely disintegrate; it turns out that it should be used only on 100% cotton, linen, or hemp, which are, chemically, much sturdier than synthetic fibers. If your bathing suit develops holes in the fabric, it will be due to damage from the bleach.

It is much safer for the fabric to use a different kind of dye removal chemical. There are several that work in very much the same way, chemically. The easiest to find in the US is Rit Color Remover, or you can mail-order Jacquard Color Remover, which contains a different chemical but works in very much the same way. 

There is no guarantee that Rit Color Remover or similar chemicals will remove any of the dye in your bathing suit. It's the only thing you can try that might actually remove the color, but it works on only some dyes and not others. It is always impossible to know whether the dye in a commercially-dyed garment will be possible to remove. The only thing you can do is try it. Some dyes will respond well, while others will remain completely unchanged. You won't know which you have until you try it.

Rit Color Remover can be used in hot tap water. It will work better in hotter water still, up to 185°F, but you should try it in cooler water first to see if it will work. Use hotter water only if the cooler water does not work, because high temperatures can damage spandex. Hot water may cause your bathing suit to lose its shape.

If you find that the Rit Color Remover (or Jacquard Color Remover) removes more of the color than you want, then you can use an acid dye to recolor the nylon. It will not work to recolor the polyester, but since that is only in the lining, and in the seams holding the bathing suit together, that will probably be okay. Don't worry about dyeing until after you have tried the Color Remover, because there is a good chance that the Color Remover might not work.

Instead of acid dye, you could use a fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-na-Flow, or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment "Dyes". If you choose a fabric paint that is labeled "white", and dilute it no more than recommended, it will appear to lighten the color of the fabric. This might be a better answer for you than using Rit Color Remover or a similar chemical. Dharma Pigment Dyes do not require heat-setting on nylon. Some nylons have a dye- and paint-resistant surface treatment, however, so this is yet another idea that is not 100% guaranteed to work.

If Rit Color Remover does not work, even in hotter water than is safe for spandex, then there is no other chemical likely to lighten the color of your bathing suit. There's no reason to then get another color remover, such as Tintex Color Remover or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper, because all of the sulfur-based color removing chemicals produce similar results to Rit Color Remover. They are completely different from bleach, but similar to each other.

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For more information, see the following pages:
• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?
• How can I dye nylon?
• How can I dye spandex?

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