How to dye clothes at home

Check the fabric before you buy dye

Look at the care label for the fiber content. Natural and semi natural fibers dye well at home: cotton, linen, hemp, rayon, viscose and modal on the plant side, and silk and wool on the animal side. Nylon also takes dye easily, often faster and darker than anything else. Polyester, acrylic and acetate resist ordinary dyes. Rit's guidance is that anything with more than about 35% synthetic content needs a dye made for synthetics, and those need water close to boiling, around 200°F (93°C), held on a stove, so they cannot be done in a sink or a washing machine.

Two further details matter. Most garments are sewn with polyester thread, so seams and topstitching often stay their original color, which can look deliberate on jeans and odd on a dress. And dye is transparent: it mixes with the existing color rather than covering it. White and off white fabric gives you the color on the bottle; a yellow shirt dyed blue turns green; and you can only go darker, not lighter, unless you strip the color first with a color remover. Faded or bleach damaged areas take dye differently too, so a sun bleached patch may still show.

Choose the right dye

All purpose dyes, the kind sold in supermarkets and craft stores, are the easiest for beginners. They mix several dye types so they work on many fibers, with salt added for cotton and linen and vinegar for silk, wool and nylon. Their drawback is fastness: on cotton they tend to bleed and fade over repeated washing, which a dye fixative after dyeing helps reduce.

For permanent color on cotton, linen and rayon, fiber reactive dyes (often sold as Procion MX types) are the better choice. They bond chemically with plant fibers in warm water with soda ash as the fixer, need no heating, and hold their color through countless washes. Acid dyes, used with vinegar and heat, give the most lasting color on wool, silk and nylon. Disperse dyes are the only kind that truly color polyester. Natural dyes from onion skins, avocado pits or turmeric can be lovely, but they generally need a mordant to fix them and give softer, less predictable results; treat them as a craft project rather than a quick fix.

How to dye clothes at home, step by step

This sink or bucket method uses all purpose dye and suits one or two garments. Work in a well ventilated space, cover nearby surfaces, and wear rubber gloves. Use a plastic tub, a bucket or a stainless steel sink, and never use pots, spoons or containers that will go back to food use. If your dye is a powder, wear a dust mask while measuring it.

1. 01

   Weigh and prewash the garment

   Weigh the dry garment on a kitchen scale; as a rule of thumb, one bottle of liquid dye or two packets of powder colors about 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of fabric, and you double it for very deep shades. Wash the garment in warm soapy water without fabric softener to remove finishes that block dye, and treat any stains first, because dye will not hide them.

2. 02

   Prepare the dyebath

   Fill the tub with enough hot water for the garment to move freely, about 3 gallons per pound of fabric (roughly 25 liters per kg), at around 140°F (60°C). Add 1 cup of salt for cotton, linen or rayon, or 1 cup of white vinegar for silk, wool or nylon, plus a teaspoon of dish detergent to help the dye spread evenly. Stir in the dissolved dye.

3. 03

   Test the color

   Dip a paper towel or a scrap of the same fabric into the bath. Add dye if it is too light or water if it is too dark. Remember that wet fabric always looks darker than it will when dry.

4. 04

   Add the wet garment and stir

   Wet the garment and squeeze it out, then submerge it. Dry fabric absorbs unevenly and leaves blotches. Stir slowly and constantly, especially for the first 10 minutes, opening folds and moving the fabric around so every part meets the same dye.

5. 05

   Leave it in the bath

   Keep it in the dyebath for 10 minutes to an hour, stirring often. Around 30 to 60 minutes gives the color shown on the package; polyester blends need at least 30 minutes, and nylon darkens quickly. Take it out when it is a shade or two darker than your goal.

6. 06

   Rinse, fix and wash

   Apply a dye fixative now if you are using one. Then rinse in cool water, gradually getting cooler, until the water runs almost clear. Wash the garment on its own in warm water with a mild detergent for its first wash, and dry as the care label says.

Dyeing in a washing machine or on the stove

A washing machine is convenient for large or several items, because it keeps the fabric moving evenly. Follow the dye maker's instructions for your machine type, since front loaders use much less water and some need the dye added through the detergent drawer. Rit states that its dyes will not permanently stain the metal parts of a washer, but it recommends cleaning up straight away: wipe the lid and seals, then run a hot cycle on the largest load setting with detergent, a couple of cups of chlorine bleach and a few old towels. If you used vinegar in the dyebath, run a plain rinse cycle first so no acid meets the bleach. Our guide to cleaning a washing machine covers routine maintenance.

The stove method keeps the dyebath hot throughout, which helps deep colors take with all purpose dyes and is the only way to dye polyester with a synthetics dye. Use a large stainless steel or enamel pot kept only for dyeing, keep the water at a low simmer, stir constantly, and never leave the pot unattended. Anything that does not fit in the pot cannot be done this way.

How to dye clothes black

Black is the most requested color and the hardest to get right. It often comes out charcoal, navy or purple black, because black dye is a blend of several colors and fibers take them up at different rates. Use double the usual amount of dye, keep the water as hot as the fabric allows, leave it in for the full hour with frequent stirring, and add a dye fixative afterward. A fiber reactive black on cotton gives a deeper and more lasting result than an all purpose dye.

For faded black jeans and T shirts, a dedicated black dye kit or a fiber reactive black restores the color well. Remember the polyester thread, which will stay its faded color, and any polyester in stretch denim, which will take less dye than the cotton. Our guide to washing jeans helps keep the refreshed color from fading again.

Washing newly dyed clothes, and fixing mistakes

Even well fixed dye can release some color at first, so wash newly dyed pieces alone or with similar dark colors for the first few washes, in cool water. Our guide to separating laundry explains why, and if another garment does pick up color, see removing dye transfer.

If the result is blotchy, you can usually redye it darker with more stirring and more water. If the color is wrong, a color remover can strip much of an all purpose dye from natural fibers, after which you can start again, though it may not work on every fabric and will not work on synthetics. Uneven spots from bleach or sun damage are the hardest to fix, and sometimes the practical answer is a deeper color or a deliberate technique such as tie dye or ombré.