Dyeing clothes - what colour will it actually turn out?

[9GreenBottles]

I’ve got a bunch of clothes that I want to dye. I’ve had success with Dylon in the past to freshen things up but I’d like to make some radical changes. Theoretically I know how the colour wheel works so red and blue should make purple - but does it?

Does anyone know if there is a web page or Facebook group that shows actual results using dye in the washing machine? I found one page (that I’ve lost now) which showed a series of photos of different items of clothing before and after they had been treated with the same home dye and it was really useful. I know it’s dependent on the item and the first shade but they showed orange dyed with teal coming out in lovely shades of green and I’d never have thought that would happen.

🤞one of you may have come across something like this.

Have a look at Rit Dye. Their website has loads of information about their products and how to go about it. You will need to check what the clothes are made of… cotton or a mix? They have mixing charts to get certain colours too.

it’s quite a rabbit hole! …and the results can be pretty interesting too…

I quite often dye things, I always use the Dylon washing machine pods. You have to take the fibre content into account - natural fibres take dye well, man made fibres sometimes don't. If it's a blend, you might find the item comes out a lighter shade, or mottled. A pale grey hoodie dyed red came out a really nice mottled red. A very pale grey top dyed with navy dye came out a really nice blue-grey, and is now one of my favourite items. Apply the rules of colour mixing, but accept there's always an element of surprise 🙂

Also remember that the stitching is often 100% polyester thread, so you might end up with contrast stitching. Same applies to any trim - might dye, might not.