Name: Amber

Country: US

Message: I looked through your website but could not find the answer to this question and was hoping you could help me. I just recently dyed a cotton shirt using the Dylon permanent dye in the olive green. Before I dyed the shirt (which was orange) I used a color remover. The shirt came out great, however, it was lighter than I wanted to it be. Can I make it darker by repeating the dye and leaving it in longer? Do I need to remove the color again before I re-dye the shirt? Or can I just re-dye it, since I will be using the same color? Or, do you have any resources for custom color, using Dylon? The Dylon website doesn't provide much information. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

To get the same green, only darker, just apply the same kind of green dye that you used before. There is no need to remove the green dye that you have already applied. A second layer of dye will combine with the earlier color to make the color more intense. You don't need to change the recipe you used in adding the dye. If you exactly repeat what you did the first time, the shirt will be a darker green.

The only change I would recommend would be to warm your dyebath up, if it was colder than the instructions on the package specified. You can always place your dyeing bucket into a sink or bathtub with a few inches of very hot water in it, to warm it up. Don't worry about this if your dyeing temperature was already as warm as you were directed to use, however. If I recall correctly, the Dylon Permanent Dyes are labeled with instructions to use hot tap water, at 140°F (that's 60°C), which puts them in the category of warm water fiber reactive dyes. Not everyone keeps their tap water heater set this high; if you keep yours set to 120°F to reduce the risk of burns, you can heat some water on the stove before adding it to either your dyebath or the sinkful of water you're using to warm it up.

In order to obtain the darker green you're aiming on your first try, you should have used more dye powder, not more time. Use more dye powder for more intense colors, and use less dye powder for colors that are paler than the package. It's best to allow the reaction between the dye and the fiber go to completion, and change the color intensity by using more or less dye powder, because the results are more predictable that way. It's better to start, as you did, by applying too little dye, because it's a lot easier to add more dye, by repeating the dyeing, than it is to remove the dye with a color remover. Some dyes won't discharge with the color remover, and some other dyes turn funny colors. It's very nice that the color remover did just what you wanted to the original orange of your shirt.

This will work, by the way, only for a 100% cotton shirt (or other natural fiber or 100% viscose rayon); it won't work if the reason why your shirt is pale is because it is a cotton/polyester blend. Cotton/poly blends always come out lighter in color. There are also problems in trying to dye anything that is wrinkle-resistant or stain-resistant, even if it is 100% cotton, because the Teflon coatings used to provide stain- and wrinkle-resistance will also resist the dye.

Dylon Permanent Dye is a line of good fiber reactive dyes, mostly Drimarine K type dyes, with some Remazol dyes in one or two of the colors. They are high-quality, long lasting fiber reactive dyes.  The main drawback of Dylon Permanent Dyes is that they are more expensive per garment than Procion MX dyes, but that is made up for by the fact that they are a little easier to find in local stores. Joann's fabric stores carry Dylon Permanent dye in the US. Since they have the soda ash or TSP used as helper chemicals already mixed with the dye powder, Dylon Permanent Dyes are less versatile for other forms of dyeing such as tie-dyeing, but this does make them very convenient to use for changing the color of clothing.


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