Can you please tell me if you can tiedye "Chiffon" and what would be the BEST dye to use?

Name: Tye

—ADVERTISEMENTS—

Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Ann Milner's book
The Ashford Book of Dyeing

includes directions for dyeing with disperse dyes

Country or region: Australia

Message: Hi, Can you please tell me if you can tiedye "Chiffon" and what would be the BEST dye to use?? It's my 30th Birthday in October and I'm having a T party (come dressed as something starting with a T) and I would like to wear my wedding dress again but tie-dye it :) also can I buy the dyes from you ?? Thanks again for your time and looking forward to hearing from you. - Tye

Instead of dyeing, I think you should consider tie-painting, that is, tie-dyeing with a fabric paint, one that works on both natural and synthetic fibers. It's not as good as using the best dye on the most dyeable fabrics, but it's often the best option if you are working with synthetic-fiber fabrics.

Can you dye chiffon? The problem is that this depends on what kind of chiffon you have. Silk chiffon is easy to dye, but polyester chiffon is a big pain. Nylon chiffon is in between the two. Chiffon is a word used to describe a light, fine weave; the word contains no information about what the fiber content of that weave may be. The fact that it is so thin and sheer means that it can't be dyed really dark colors; since light shines right through the fabric, it produces paler-looking colors, unless you have many layers of it.

Is your wedding dress made of silk or of polyester? Silk feels nicer and is more beautiful, but polyester is cheaper. Sadly, if you have no idea what fiber your dress is made of, it is probably made from the cheaper and more difficult-to-dye material. Before you buy dye for your project, you will need to figure out what the fiber content is. Look inside the dress for a seam where there is a little extra fabric, in a place where you can snip a little bit out without its showing. You can do a burn test with this snippet to get an idea of the fiber content. The smell of the burning fiber is an important clue, as is the kind of ash produced, and whether the fabric melts or burns. See the Ditzy Prints Fiber Burn Chart for full details.

If your chiffon is made of silk, you can dye it with acid dyes or fiber reactive dyes. If it's made of nylon, you can dye it with acid dyes or disperse dyes. If it's made of polyester, your only choices are disperse dye or fabric paint. Boiling a wedding dress in disperse dye is a bad idea, but there is a fun and less-damaging way to apply disperse dye by making disperse dye iron-ons. Check out the following pages on this site:

• "How to Dye Silk"

• "How to Dye Nylon"

• "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes"

• "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers"

• "Can we tie-dye a white polyester shirt without using dangerous chemicals?"

• "What is the easiest way to tie-dye a pair of 100% polyester fleece pants?" [The processes described are the same for polyester chiffon as for polyester fleece.]

I don't have any affiliate links for Australian companies, but I doubt that you'll want to use any of the links for US dye sources on my site because of the cost of shipping. Kraftkolour is an excellent source in Australia for ordering acid dyes, reactive dyes, disperse dyes, Transprint inks for polyester iron-ons, and fabric paints.

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)

Posted: Wednesday - August 22, 2012 at 11:41 AM

Follow this blog on twitter here.
Tweet

getBlogName(); > getCategoryName("<$EntryCategoryFolder$>"); >

Can you please tell me if you can tiedye "Chiffon" and what would be the BEST dye to use?

> >