Name: Geni
Message: I have a black jumpsuit that had a little bleach spilled on it. I have tried to machine dye it and no luck. It is 50% cotton, 35% Polyester & 10% Lycra.... Can you give me any suggestions on how to dye it. I am leaving on a trip next week and really would like to take it with me.... Help!!!! Thank you for your time and consideration! 

There are several big problems here. One is that polyester is not a suitable fiber for you to dye at home. Polyester cannot be dyed with all-purpose dye; it can only be dyed with the use of a special polyester dye, which requires that you boil it with the dye for an hour. That would destroy the Lycra in your garment!

If you try to dye your cotton with a high quality fiber reactive dye, you won't get more than half the darkness of the true black that you want, since your garment is only 50% cotton, and the other fibers in your blend will not take the dye. You can't use a lower quality all-purpose dye at all on a 10% Lycra garment, because all-purpose dye requires high temperatures, which would damage the Lycra.

Your only real hope for this jumpsuit is to try to cover up the bleach stains with a fabric marking pen. See "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?".

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