Overdyeing Prints
Elaine

>Has anyone ever dyed something that has become faded after much wear? I have several items that are in good shape otherwise, but the color is faded, or they have clorox spots, etc. The fabrics involved are chambray

Deborah,

You can definitely overdye prints. If you put dark green over your floral prints the flowers will be visible, but fairly close to the base color. Overdyeing with a lighter color should just deepen all the colors slightly.  Its usually best to start with a lighter wash because you can always dye it darker. When overdyeing any print its important to choose a color that will be compatible with the colors in the print. You do need to have a basic understanding about how colors affect each other to avoid disasters, e.g.dyeing red over green will most likely give you a ugly, muddy brown. But even then you get surprises because different fabrics pick up dye differently. For instance, when dyeing something purple (which is made of red and blue) the fabric might pick up more of the red than the blue. Factors such as the fiber type, surface treatments, the strength of the dye mixture, etc.. all affect this outcome. The chambray may not look much like chambray after dyeing. Chambray normally has warp and weft yarns of different colors (the classic being blue warp with white weft). If you dye it the yarns will be close to the same color (assuming they have the same fiber content). It will probably still look nice, just less chambray-like. The only pre-treatment I recommend is a good washing with no softener(not in the wash or dryer). Procion MX fiber-reactive dyes are my favorite typeof dye for celulose fibers (cotton, rayon, linen, ramie). It will give rich, vibrant colors. Rit-type, "household" dyes will usually be a dissapointment, particularly as they are not very light-fast and will fade quickly. Fiber reactive dyes can be obtained from most larger craft stores (e.g. Perl's) or online from a supplier. I like both Dharma Trading (www.dharmatrading.com) and Pro-Chem (www.prochemical.com). While they aren't quite as easy to use as Rit dye the results are definitely worth it.  I have some basic instructions for using fiber reactive dyes on mywebsite,i n the dyeing section.   Elaine