How can I dye orange t-shirts red?

Name: Renee

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Country or region: USA

Message: Bought t-shirts for my kids that are orange but I thought they were red. How can I dye the shirts red? Do you have a red dye that I could purchase for the process? Thanks

What are the t-shirts made of? The answer on how to dye them is different for 100% cotton than for 50% cotton/50% polyester.

Do the shirts have any sort of stain-resistant or water-resistant finish? Those will interfere badly with any attempts to dye them. Don't bother trying to dye anything that is stain-resistant, as the results will not be worth the trouble.

If the shirts are made of 100% cotton, the best dye to use is fiber reactive dye. The most popular brand of fiber reactive dye is Procion MX dye. You can buy it through one of the affiliate links on my site, or you can order from a specialty dye supplier. See my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

Some crafts and hobby stores sell Procion MX dyes. Others do not. Most serious dyers buy their dyes by mail-order, but you might be able to find a decent dye in a local shop. Dylon Permanent dye works well and is carried in our local fabric store. Our local Michael's crafts store carries Tulip Permanent dye, which I have not tried, but I expect it to be similar to Dylon Permanent dye. Both contain fiber reactive dyes of a different type than Procion MX. For a very bright red, it is best to use more dye than the package indicates, since red is such an intense color. A light red will appear to be pink.

All brands of fiber reactive dye are superior to any brand of all-purpose dye, such as Rit dye, because fiber reactive dyes stay bright on your clothes years longer, and can be applied at room temperature, and will not run onto other clothing in the laundry. You should avoid all-purpose dye unless you have mail-ordered a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne, to improve the washfastness. If you are going to the trouble of mail-ordering a dye fixative, however, you may as well go ahead and mail-order the good fiber reactive dye, instead of using all-purpose dye.

Unfortunately, 50% polyester shirts will not dye well with fiber reactive dyes OR all-purpose dyes. All-purpose dyes, like fiber reactive dyes, do not stick to polyester at all. Only a special polyester dye, known as disperse dye, will work at all on polyester. You can buy this dye in the form of iDye Poly, made by Jacquard Products. If you have a large enough dyeing pot, made of stainless steel or enamel, which you don't plan to ever reuse for food, you can dye both the polyester and the cotton in a cotton/poly blend shirt at the same time, by combining iDye for natural fibers with iDye Poly for synthetic fibers. These two dyes can be applied at the same time. Unfortunately, merely hot water will not work at all to dye polyester; it requires a full boil for at least half an hour. iDye for natural fibers will require an after-treatment with Retayne or a similar commercial dye fixative, to keep the color bright longer, just like all-purpose dyes.

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Posted: Thursday - August 12, 2010 at 10:51 AM

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How can I dye orange t-shirts red?

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