Dyeing an overcoat?

[goldpendant]

Hello,

I have a lovely black cotton overcoat, it's cotton with a polyester lining (cream). It's not very old but has worn badly, faded shoulders and arms, and I'd like to restore it to its glory.

How can I dye it? I am prepared for the lining to go black, but I just have no idea how!

Any tips much appreciated.

I did once dye a black coat, mostly because I wanted to dye the lining. The coat took fine, they shiny green pattern on the lining didn’t but the cream background did. It was 30 years ago so I’m a bit sketchy on the details or how good it looked, maybe do a patch test first?

This has a how to video
www.dylon.co.uk/en/home.html

If you can machine wash it it's easy. Just buy a pack of dylon and follow the instructions. The lining won't go black, possibly grey.

You might need salt too. I think they do dye that doesn't need salt now though.

Thanks! Coat is cotton, lining is polyester/viscose. Happy with grey lining I just want to wear the coat again!

It does say dry cleaning only but I'm minded to give it a go on a gentle 30 wash and see what happens

I tend to give things a go in the washing machine if they've got old enough that I'm not too bothered if it goes wrong. Dylon do a hand dye too but I've never used it. The machine one is easy though. Dyeing clothes black again is exactly what I've it for.

I've done a lot of machine dyeing, 30 works ok, you might need to do it twice at that temp. Also the size of your coat could mean it doesn't dye evenly - the coat needs room to move in the dye bath.

Brilliant, thanks all. It's quite a thin garment and I'll make sure I get enough dye for the job.

Question, once I have machine dyed it can it then be dry cleaned (if say it creases on drying and I can't get them out)?

Be aware that the thread may not dye too. Polyester thread doesn't generally.
Bit go for it!

A polyester/viscose lining won’t take the dye . Is the coat washable because not all viscose likes water.

I'm not really fussed what colour the lining ends up! The lining is a viscose/poly mix

I've never tried with a coat but I regularly re-dye black jeans just to pep them up. I use washing machine Dylon at 30 degrees and and it's always worked fine. My only criticism is that the effect never lasts as long as I expect. For a coat I'd probably use two packs of dye.

I think the cream lining is harder to call. Polyester normally doesn't take the new colour at all but I find viscose normally dyes well. So you might get no change or you might get a less intense black / grey but also, with cream in my experience, there's the chance you might get something else entirely. I've had some of my most unexpected colour results after dyeing cream which I've always put down to yellow undertones - any colour experts please chip in if that's wrong but whatever the reason, I find it hard to predict.

As a previous poster has said, the thread probably won't take the dye either. This shouldn't be a problem for the coat itself as I assume the thread is already black but if they've used a cream thread for the lining then you might end up with a mismatch, depending on what happens to the lining itself.

The other thing to be aware of is shrinkage and the possibility that the coat and the lining might shrink at different rates - which I would guess is why it's dry clean only. On the other hand, it might well be absolutely fine!

Update! Coat looks fabulous! Slight shrinkage I think but not an issue, I'm hoping it'll give a little!

The cream lining went a gorgeous rust colour, and the satin went grey. It looks very cool!

Thanks to all for your advice!

Yay!

How funny. I was reading your thread just now thinking, "this seems familiar..." and then saw I'd posted! Glad to have an update. I'm a big fan of dying things.

Can I ask, after you use washing machine to dye, do you need to run an empty cycle before using as normal? Thanks

@corkina, I don't BUT I wouldn't feel comfortable following with a load of special things. The directions tell you to follow the dye wash with a regular wash with detergent, so this cleans the drum. I also wipe down the rubber rim thing before that second wash.