Name: Amanda
Message: I am pretty sure your answer will be no.  I just want to check.  I have a wedding dress (nothing expensive) that I would like to reuse.  The labels says: 100% silk bodice; 60% rayon, 40% nylon (skirt) and then there is a lining: 100% polyester.

Is there any chance this COULD work out, if I was ok with taking a risk and losing the dress?

The biggest problem is in washing, which is an inevitable part of dyeing. The silk and the rayon are likely to shrink significantly, while the polyester is not. I had a dry-clean-only skirt once that I washed, only to find that, after washing, the synthetic lining was much longer than the skirt. (I've had much better luck with unlined garments.) Much worse, the seams and the darts of your wedding dress are likely to pucker when the inside shrinks less than the outside. If that happens, the only solution is to throw the dress away.

If you wash your dress, and it survives, then perhaps you can dye it. Don't even consider dyeing the polyester lining, as it is impossible to dye without extensive boiling that would shred the dress. Silk and rayon can be both dyed with cotton dyes; silk and nylon can be dyed with acid dyes. An all-purpose dye would dye all three, the silk, the rayon, and the nylon, at once, though the different fibers are apt to become slightly different colors. All-purpose dyes are noted for extremely poor washfastness, but could work out for an occasional wearing followed by dry cleaning. They work best when used with heat, but there are instructions for washing machine dyeing. The cooler water available in a washing machine (unless you have one of the European self-heating washing machines) will not work as well for all-purpose dye, causing it to be even less washfast than if the most appropriate temperature were used, but will damage the dress less. You will need to add some vinegar, for an acid to help dye the silk and the nylon, though it will have no effect on the cotton.

I don't think that this will work, since your dress is unlikely to survive washing; however, if it does survive washing, you can consider trying all-purpose dye, such as Rit, Tintex Hi-temp, DEKA "L", or Dylon Multi-Purpose dye, keeping in mind that the dye will run badly if the dress is laundered.

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