community of dyers

I'm glad to see that the jackets are not terribly expensive! That makes it a lot easier to do what may turn out to be a difficult project.

You've got two issues here: making them lighter in color, and changing their color to a rusty brownish color.

Changing the jackets to brown should not be at all difficult. The light parts of the pattern can easily be dyed brown or dark red. Lightening the color is much more difficult, and should be avoided if it's not necessary. How would you feel about having the jackets end up a darker brown?

You can use a color remover on wool. The safest one is Formosul [PDF link], because it's the only one that can be used at an acidic pH. The others are all used at high pHs, which are bad for wool. Using Formosul will be a lot more trouble than simply dyeing. You (and anyone nearby at the time) will need to wear a cartridge respirator fitted with an acid gas cartridge, in addition to having good ventilation.

You will need a very large cooking pot, twelve quarts or bigger, to hold one jacket, for both the dyeing step and for using the Formosul to lighten the color. The pot should not be made of aluminum, and you should not plan on reusing it for cooking, so don't use your good soup pot. You can get a 33-quart canner pot, made of enameled steel.

-Paula

The colors don't have to be exact, just less gray and more red. I'm guessing it's red. Thanks!