Backstory: I have a pair of jeans that are very comfortable, but they're nearing the end of their life and ripe for experimentation. Since I've seen other posts about overdyeing here, but no real comprehensive explanation, I figured I'd do it myself and post some pictures.
Prior to dyeing the jeans, I got out the sewing machine and stitched up a small run in the knee so that it wouldn't fray out and be ugly. I put some stitches on either side of the run. Did I mention that this is kind of a pain in the ass to do? I couldn't get the darning function on the machine to work for me so I had to position the fabric awkwardly. Anyway, excuse the blurriness:
It's black thread, but as you'll see, it turns out to be invisible.
I also put in a bit of research into what dyes to get and how to do it. I found this site to be very informative:
http://whatiwore2day.blogspot.com/20...ing-denim.html
I used Dylon dyes; they can be found at Jo Ann Fabrics and lots of other places. For reasons I can't grok completely, they're better than RIT because they can dye in warm water, not just boiling, like what RIT needs. I weighed my pants on a postal scale but if you don't have one, you can basically count on them being a pound. I used two packs of dye, as each one dyes 8oz of fabric. I used a blue and a black (which is actually very dark blue) for this pair.
Here's the before:
Here's a picture of the dyes so you know what to look for. Also note that there are rubber gloves. These are essential if you don't want to have gangrene-looking hands. These were latex gloves, but I'd go further and get those long yellow rubber ones that the mom on Dexter's Lab wore. They let you get more into the agitation without staining your skin.
I followed the steps on the site I linked to earlier. They do a better job of explaining it than I do. If you're doing this, make a paper funnel out of a sheet of paper to pour the dye powder into the 2L pop bottle, it makes a significantly smaller mess.
And speaking of mess, this is a subtly messy job. I got spatters of dark blue dye on the floor and countertops, but luckily it wiped up. If you're doing this, wear an old shift of clothes and make sure you are in an unstainable location.
The instructions say to agitate it continuously for the first fifteen minutes, but since The Office was on, I only agitated it during commercial breaks. This consisted of putting my hands into the bucket with the jeans and kneading it like bread, swishing it around, etc. The rest of the time, I occasionally stirred it with a stick.
For rinsing out, I was surprised at how much water it took to get mostly clear. I filled the bucket up with about a half gallon of water and swished the jeans in that, then dumped it out when it looked saturated. When it was mostly clear, I took it downstairs and put it in my washing machine, by itself. I ran it in cold water for a full cycle and then put it in the dryer. Neither piece of machinery was stained by the dye.
Final result inside:
I'd like to note that it's hard to get a good photo of exactly the color. This is the closest I came:
You can see that it's a really inky, consistent color. I'm very pleased with it. It lacks the high-chroma blue of indigo, and it's got kind of a matte finish to it. I'm interested in how these jeans wear.
The dye cost $3 and the gloves $1, so overall it was a pretty cheap project for an hour of my time.
Hope this is helpful, I'm happy to answer questions.
Prior to dyeing the jeans, I got out the sewing machine and stitched up a small run in the knee so that it wouldn't fray out and be ugly. I put some stitches on either side of the run. Did I mention that this is kind of a pain in the ass to do? I couldn't get the darning function on the machine to work for me so I had to position the fabric awkwardly. Anyway, excuse the blurriness:
It's black thread, but as you'll see, it turns out to be invisible.
I also put in a bit of research into what dyes to get and how to do it. I found this site to be very informative:
http://whatiwore2day.blogspot.com/20...ing-denim.html
I used Dylon dyes; they can be found at Jo Ann Fabrics and lots of other places. For reasons I can't grok completely, they're better than RIT because they can dye in warm water, not just boiling, like what RIT needs. I weighed my pants on a postal scale but if you don't have one, you can basically count on them being a pound. I used two packs of dye, as each one dyes 8oz of fabric. I used a blue and a black (which is actually very dark blue) for this pair.
Here's the before:
Here's a picture of the dyes so you know what to look for. Also note that there are rubber gloves. These are essential if you don't want to have gangrene-looking hands. These were latex gloves, but I'd go further and get those long yellow rubber ones that the mom on Dexter's Lab wore. They let you get more into the agitation without staining your skin.
I followed the steps on the site I linked to earlier. They do a better job of explaining it than I do. If you're doing this, make a paper funnel out of a sheet of paper to pour the dye powder into the 2L pop bottle, it makes a significantly smaller mess.
And speaking of mess, this is a subtly messy job. I got spatters of dark blue dye on the floor and countertops, but luckily it wiped up. If you're doing this, wear an old shift of clothes and make sure you are in an unstainable location.
The instructions say to agitate it continuously for the first fifteen minutes, but since The Office was on, I only agitated it during commercial breaks. This consisted of putting my hands into the bucket with the jeans and kneading it like bread, swishing it around, etc. The rest of the time, I occasionally stirred it with a stick.
For rinsing out, I was surprised at how much water it took to get mostly clear. I filled the bucket up with about a half gallon of water and swished the jeans in that, then dumped it out when it looked saturated. When it was mostly clear, I took it downstairs and put it in my washing machine, by itself. I ran it in cold water for a full cycle and then put it in the dryer. Neither piece of machinery was stained by the dye.
Final result inside:
I'd like to note that it's hard to get a good photo of exactly the color. This is the closest I came:
You can see that it's a really inky, consistent color. I'm very pleased with it. It lacks the high-chroma blue of indigo, and it's got kind of a matte finish to it. I'm interested in how these jeans wear.
The dye cost $3 and the gloves $1, so overall it was a pretty cheap project for an hour of my time.
Hope this is helpful, I'm happy to answer questions.
). I wonder how dark you can get the denim if you dyed it a few more times.
