Hey there, Kathleen or others that have had experience with this.
I have a pair of the white rufflies and I want to do something like a tea
dye. I want them to be a more antiquey white. Any thoughts?
Does this fabric like to be dyed, what about the lace?


shanks
posted by:
DeLacey
Tennessee
  • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

    Mon, March 31, 2008 - 11:15 AM
    Hi - some of it may dye, but much of it is undyeable. The upper body will surely dye. But most of the ruffle wont.
    Sorry
    :(
    You can try, though. I just cant guarantee any success.
    • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

      Mon, March 31, 2008 - 1:18 PM
      thanks Kathleen! I love them just the way they are anyway!
      • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

        Wed, April 2, 2008 - 7:04 PM
        I'll add this:

        There are dyes out there that will dye synthetics, but I cannot guarantee how that will come out as most of the materials I use in these pants are all different from each other usually!

        I think Dylon is a brand that will work sometimes.
        There are also the Jacquard dyes. They all can be pretty messy - so make sure you read the directions and know that there is no guarantee of the results!
        X
  • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

    Wed, April 2, 2008 - 10:23 PM
    I do alot of dyeing. It really depends on the fiber content of the fabric used. Plant fibers (cottons, linens, soy, etc.) & plant based manmade fibers (rayons) are best dyed in an alkaline environment with a fiber reactive dye. Animal fibers (wool, silk, alpaca, etc.) and nylons are best dyed with acid dyes or fiber reactive dyes in an acid environment. Silk is the one that will dye under both acidic or alkaline environments but must be kept in alkaline environments as minimal as possible. Natural dyes require the use of a mordant in order to make the dye adhere to the fiber, except dyes with lots of tannic acid (tea or black walnut hulls for example). Natural dyes do not dye synthetics (nylons, polyesters, lycra, metallics).

    Polyester is the fabric that is the most difficult to dye with readily available dye. Many try with a union dye like Rit but that stuff really does not work very well on synthetics.

    So, if your fiber content is mostly cotton, a steep in a strong tea would be fine. If it is cotton with nylon lace, then you would have tea stained pants with white lace. And if there is any polyester content or lycra, your will get highly unpredictable results.

    I personally would not ruin them and order another pair in the color that you want from Kathleen.
    • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

      Thu, April 3, 2008 - 3:58 PM
      Hey Michaeline! Thanks for going into greater depth with this - I dont do a whole lot of dyeing, so its hard for me to talk much about it !
      • Re: what if I wanted to dye my rufflies?

        Fri, April 11, 2008 - 9:04 AM
        Just wanted to update you and let you know how it went.
        I was going for only a slight change so I opted to use black tea.
        I soaked my (white) rufflies in a sink with 6 family sized tea bags
        overnight.
        In the morning I washed them on delicate and hung them to dry.

        The result is pretty cool! Overall they are a pale brownish ivory.
        Each layer of lace took the tea to a different degree,
        which is what I hoped for, and it looks really great.
        The body of the pants didn't take the dye evenly but
        it's only noticeable up close. I'm really happy they turned out well.

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