Name: Rosemary
Message: I am in a mess! I am a maid of honour in a wedding and have run out of time. the dress I ordered is not wine burgundy but cherry chinese red! It is made of a stiff chiffon type taffetta and satin underneath skirt fabric. I wanted to know which dye would you bes recommend as I am doomed anyway and if I do not try to make this dress the right color, I will not be able to find someone who can make me another dress in time for this wedding!
I hope you can help me! Is there a way I can spray dye this dress in the places I need like the satin underneath the chiffon? I can always send you a picture.

I am sorry to say that dyeing is not always the answer.

Is your dress washable? You cannot dye a dress that is dry clean only. Linings will either shrink or fail to shrink as much as the outer layer of fabric, zippers and trim will pucker, and the whole dress will be ruined.

Is your dress made of a dyeable fiber, such as silk, or is it made of undyeable polyester? You did not mention what the dress is made of. Chiffon and satin are merely descriptions of the way the fabric is woven. Chiffon, taffeta, and satin are all fabrics that can be made of many different fibers. The highest quality chiffon, taffeta, and chiffon are woven from silk, not synthetics, but since you did not mention their fiber content we must assume that the fabrics are of a lower cost material such as polyester or nylon. 

A novice dyer cannot dye even a washable dress, if it is made of polyester. Dyeing polyester is a difficult matter, requiring boiling for an hour with a special kind of dye, Disperse dye, which is made for dyeing synthetic fibers, but you must use a cooking pot that is large enough for the garment to move freely, and the pot should not be aluminum, and it should never again be used for food. Such a pot is likely to  cost a large sum of money. And, even so, one cannot expect the first thing one dyes to work out nearly as desired.

You can change the color of polyester in a different way, using fabric paint instead of dye. Unfortunately, fabric paints will not leave the fabric as smooth, soft, and shiny as it currently is, and it is impossible to get a perfectly smooth, solid color. You can do this only if you will be satisfied with a relatively splotchy coloring; of course this can be very pretty, but it depends on what you want. I cannot really recommend that you make your first fabric painting project be changing the color of a formal dress. However, if you want to try it, you must buy a high quality fabric paint that will flow smoothly on the fabric and not make it rough in appearance and feel. Do not use a paint that is not labeled for use on fabrics, and do not use a paint that is expected to leave anything you can feel on the fabric, such as slick fabric paint, textured fabric paint, or puffy fabric paint. One of the best paints to try for this sort of project would be Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow, which is available from some local crafts stores. You will probably need to use several jars for one dress; the effect is best if you turn the unevenness into a virtue, by sponging or spraying on splotches of different colors, possibly including a metallic gold or silver as one of the colors.

If you can dye just the underskirt, leaving the overskirt its current color, that could help a lot with how perfect your job of painting has to be. How would you keep the paint from bleeding from one section of the skirt onto the other, though, when the paint is wet? It will tend to bleed over onto any fabric that is touching it. It would be best to pick out the stitching and color one piece of fabric when it is not touching the dress, then sew it back together. Obviously this will require some real skill (or courage) in sewing.

It is always important to run tests before undertaking any big or important job of fabric dyeing or painting. You should always obtains at least scraps of the identical material and test the method you think will work, before ever touching the material to be used in the final project. If you cannot get scraps of your material from your dress maker, you will have to attempt to test the fabric paint on the inside of a seam. However, often the paint will wick right into the fabric and quickly appear on the outside of the garment, so this is a fairly dangerous undertaking.  If you can wear the dress in its current color, that would certainly be better. What will you do if the results of the dyeing or painting turn out to be a disaster? This is something that one must always consider before starting any project.

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