Dyeing 30% cotton/70% polyester blend jumper.

April O Neill

As per the thread title, is this possible?

I got a jumper online, and it's a different pink in reality than how it appeared online, and I don't really like. However, I have the jumper in grey and LOVE it, it is very practical and warm, so I'd like to keep the pink one.

Anything I've looked up says that there should be 50% cotton or more for effective dyeing, my jumper is 30% cotton. Has anyone ever dyed cotton/poly blend with a lower than 50% cotton content?

dee_mc

I think the best course of action here is to use a mixture of (1) a dye for cotton and (2) a dye for polyester, in the same proportions as the fabric blend, so you would need to buy a pack of cotton dye such as dylon or idye, and a pack of polyester dye such as idye poly. The colours should be as similar as possible but needn't be exactly the same.

You can either dye your jumper in a pot on the hob (in which case you'll have a lovely pink wooden spoon) or in the washing machine (in which case you'll probably end up with a pink rubber seal in the washing machine, maybe not great if you live in a rented house!); the pot on the hob will give you a stronger, more vibrant and more fade-proof colour result, because of the higher temperatures used when dyeing.

Technically you should use a 70:30 ratio of polyester dye:cotton dye, so you should weigh the dye before you begin. Alternatively you could use the full amount of both packs and just dye something else pink too!

If you use cotton dye be prepared for a very underwhelming result as you will only get 30% colour intensity, that's why cotton dyes such as dylon will only guarantee a result on 50% + cotton fabrics.

Also bear in mind that some types of polyester just won't pick up dye, and there's no way of knowing before you begin (unless you can test-dye a bit of fabric clipped from the seam allowance, usually impossible with jumpers), so be prepared for a less vibrant colour than you want (the result still shouldn't be patchy).

When choosing the colour of your dye stick to the same undertones present in your jumper right now, e.g. if it's a blue-toned pink, go for a stronger blue-toned pink shade of dye. If you go for a different tone you could end up with a strange colour, as dyes are really only designed to work on white fabric or on fabric with similar tones

Final note, cotton dye always calls for salt to be added as salt helps to fix the dye in place. Dylon sells branded packages of 'dye salt': don't bother with it! Use ordinary table salt, it work's just as well and costs maybe a tenth of the price of the dylon stuff!
Good luck!