Name: lotsahairlisa

Message: Hi there! I have a pair of blue denim jeans that are 87% cotton, 11% polyester, 2% spandex (there is also some suede ribbon down the leg that can be removed). I would like to tie dye it like this shirt.

Can you tell/show me illustrations on how? And, can I just use bleach? (I really just want to bleach out the design and then possibly add color, if I mess it up =)

Should I leave these jeans alone or ? They don't have to be perfect. I play fiddle in a band and want to look a little wild.

This is a problem. You cannot use bleach on anything that contains polyester or especially spandex, because bleach destroys spandex (it eats holes) and damages polyester (it makes permanent yellow stains).

On the other hand, you can't use a color remover, such as Rit Color Remover or Thiox, that would work great on almost any other kind of garment, because the indigo dye in denim is different from all other dyes. Instead of losing its color when confronted with a sulfur-based color remover, it temporarily turns yellow, but then it turns back to blue when oxygen gets to it again.

These two factors combined mean that I can't recommend that you try this streaky discharge dyeing on this particular garment.

Can you find some white or beige jeans that you could dye black? It's okay to have spandex in the fiber blend if you are just going to dye, not bleach, though the polyester will not take the dye. Or, can you find some black jeans to do this to? Most black dyes are chemically different from blue indigo, and some of them will discharge wonderfully with Rit Color Remover. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know whether the manufacturer used a removable dye until you try it.

I can tell you how to do this with 100% cotton clothing of any color, or with cotton/spandex jeans that are a light color to begin with. I can't tell you how to do this with a synthetic fiber blend that is dyed with the blue indigo normally used for blue denim.

What you could do is dye your jeans black with a cool water fiber reactive dye, on top of the blue, and then use a slightly diluted opaque white fabric paint to make the streaky lines. It won't look quite the same. Do you think this would work for you? I think it would be better to start with a different pair of jeans.

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