Name: Lance

Message: I have a faded cotton shirt with a monogram sewn directly onto the shirt. is it possible for me to redye but keep the monogram?

It depends on what fiber the thread used to stitch the monogram is made of. A monogram stitched with cotton or rayon thread will take whatever dye your shirt would, but this would be unusual. More commonly monograms are stitched with nylon or polyester thread. If the thread is polyester, no cotton dye will permanently color it. However, if it is nylon, you must be careful to avoid all-purpose dye mixtures, such as Rit® dye, Tintex Hot Water dye (which is called Tintex® Easy Fabric Dye in the US), or Dylon® Multi-Purpose dye, any of which which will dye both nylon and cotton at the same time. 

I recommend that you use a cool water fiber reactive dye, along with a high-pH dye fixative such as soda ash. You can use Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye. Since you are in Australia, you will want to mail order this dye from either Batik Oetoro or Kraftkolour, both of which are located in Australia. They can also sell you all needed dye auxiliaries. For contact information for these and other dye sellers, see my page of "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".


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