Name: Kasey
Country: USA

Message: I know on your website you say to do dye a polyester/cotton like cotton, but what about a polyester/cotton/spandex garment? 

Don't even try. The dyes required for polyester must be boiled with the fabric, but spandex must be kept cool. You can't do both at the same time. The hight heat required for polyester dye will ruin the spandex.

If the garment contains more than 50% cotton, you can dye it with cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes. These can be used at room temperature, so that the spandex doesn't get twisted up. When you use these dyes, the polyester and the spandex will remain white, so there's no point unless the fabric is mostly cotton. Even 50% cotton will be considerably paler than 100% cotton.

See also:
"How to Dye Spandex"

"Dyeing Polyester/Spandex Blend Clothing"

"Finding a Dye for Polyester/Spandex Blend Shirts"

The only way to recolor clothing made from polyester and spandex is to use fabric paints such as Dye-na-Flow or Dharma Pigment Dye. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers".

Follow-up: Thank you so much for your response. The garment is 62% cotton so I will try for the Procion MX dyes. We are looking for a maroon color, so hopefully it will work. Your website is extremely helpful :)

That sounds good. Maroon dye on a 62% cotton garment will obviously be much lighter in color than on a 100% cotton garment, but, if the lighter color will meet your needs, it's an easy way to do the dyeing, and there will be no danger of damaging the spandex as long as you use room-temperature water.

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