Message: Is there a possibility of being able to dye a wedding dress? I am going for a traditional Goth wedding and the dress I love comes in only Ivory or white. I want it to be purple or Red. They don't have a lot of goth dresses that I like. So is it a possibility? Are there places that can dye professionally, so I don't ruin the dress? Which most likely will happen. 

Dyeing a ready-made wedding dress is almost always impossible. For one thing, you can't dye anything that is not washable. You're likely to get uneven shrinkage, or perhaps the seams or trim may shred. The other problem is that most off-the-rack wedding dresses are made of polyester, which cannot be dyed except by boiling it for a long time in an enormous expensive cooking pot while stirring constantly. You can't always expect a ready-made dress to survive that kind of abuse.

You can get married in the dress of your dreams, however. There's no reason to wear a dress you don't like. Go to a fabric store and look at the patterns to try to find one you like. If your fabric store does not carry interesting patterns, look at Folkwear Patterns. House of Anoria carries Goth-inspired patterns from major pattern houses such as Butterick and Simplicity. Once you've found a pattern you like, find someone who sews well to make it for you, allowing plenty of extra time in case anything goes wrong. There are many tailors who do custom sewing, or you should be easily be able to find someone who sews at home. Ask at your local fabric store for a list of names of people who do sewing professionally, or try the local yellow pages or craigslist. In choosing your seamstress, ask to see pictures of earlier work, and consider asking for contact information for satisfied customers.

If you cannot find a local seamstress, there are some who show their work online. Try BCoole Designs for custom-sewn clothing, or try a web search for "gothic wedding gown"; for example, Plus Size and Pretty's Gothic Wedding Gowns page allows you to choose back, purple, red, or any other color. I don't know whether or not the latter is a good company to deal with; I'd rather use the work of a local seamstress. Even with mail-order, you may need to get a local professional seamstress to do some alterations.  Try to allow extra time in case of difficulties.

There are a few companies that will re-dye commercial clothing for you, but the results may not be as good as getting the dress you want sewn for you in the color you really want. See my page, "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?", which lists several companies that will redye appropriate clothing.


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