Message: Help! I have just managed to get a form of household bleach on my black Nylon and Acrylic top and it has gone a reedy colour. If I were to dye this black again, would it work, and if so what dye would you recommend?

No, I'm sorry, this is not likely to work.

Uncoated nylon can be pretty easily dyed with acid dyes (the best black dye being the Lanaset Jet Black, which you can order from Paradise Fibers), but acrylic cannot be dyed black. If you try to dye acrylic with acid dye, or with all-purpose or fiber reactive dye, the dye will just wash out. You can dye both nylon and acrylic with a special polyester dye called disperse dye, but you can get only pale to medium shades on acrylic, which means that the best you could get would be a medium gray. That will not help your situation enough to be worth the trouble and expense. The only dyes that will work to dye acrylic black are a class of dyes called basic dyes, which are hard to get and which in some cases I consider too toxic for home use.

The one thing you can try to do, after washing the shirt thoroughly and possibly neutralizing the remaining bleach, is to use a fabric marker, or even a permanent black Sharpie pen, to try to color in the stain. Sometimes this gives surprisingly good results, depending on the fabric and on the bleach stain itself, and at least it doesn't cost much or require expensive equipment such as a non-aluminum dyeing kettle. Fabric pens work better and last longer than the marks from a Sharpie pen, but you can keep the pen and reapply it as needed.

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)