Message: I have been asked to dye a white parachute that children play under. It is for our Little Mermaid show, for one of our dances in the program. It will be our octopus in the Octopus Garden song. Anyway, it is made of a silky polyester fabric. I don't have the particulars. I would like to know if you have any suggestions on how to do something so large, so that it doesn't come out in different shades of black. Oh and yes, I need to dye it black.
Thank you.

I have a bad feeling about this project. Polyester can be dyed only with disperse dye, which must be boiled for some time with the fabric. This requires a huge cooking pot, one that is large enough for the fabric to move in freely, as otherwise you will get variations in color intensity, different shades of black and gray. A cooking pot that is large enough to dye a small parachute in will be very big, and very expensive, and should not be reused afterwards for food. I recommend against taking on the project of dyeing this parachute. I would not even try it, myself.

Instead, I recommend that you get some lightweight silk yardage or silk veils and dye them in the washing machine. You cannot dye polyester in the washing machine successfully, but you can dye cotton, rayon, or silk. Dharma Trading Company and SilkConnection.com are the most economical sources for silk veils and silk yardage. (Look under 'silk scarves'.) Alternatively, go to a local fabric store and see if you can find a lightweight polyester or nylon of a suitable color. Not only black would be suitable. You could have a very nice octopus made of purple or dark green. If you do an image search for octopus in google, you see more beige, pink, or brown than darker colors, though octopuses are known for their ability to suddenly change color to match their backgrounds.

If you buy very thin, sheer silk veils, such as the 5 momme weight silk veils sold by Dharma Trading Company, it may be difficult to get a very dark color, because very fine, sheer fabrics cannot hold on to as much dye. They are very nice, though. Thicker fabric weights hold more dye.

Another alternative would be to use a fabric paint, instead of dye. The two fabric paints I recommend for this purpose are Dharma Pigment Dyes, sold by Dharma Trading Company, or Jacquard Products's Dye-Na-Flow. These are both fabric paints instead of dye, but they are very thin and can be used like a dye. You will not be able to get a perfectly smooth solid color using any fabric paint, however.

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