One-Dollar Wonders

Sharing a dye failure! Jacquard iDye Blended Fabric Review

April 23, 2012

Oof. Ouch, this one hurts.

I dyed my beige trench last night, and the color did not come out right at ALL. Having seen the strength of the colors I'd used before, I was sure they would overpower the beige of the fabric, but the citron *barely* made a dent in it at all - what I'm left with is now a warm beige that looks terrible against my skin. BOO!

I used iDye Poly in yellow and iDye for natural fibers in chartreuse on a poly/cotton blend. The weird thing is that the chartreuse didn't seem to take at all, even though the lining color (100% poly) appears unchanged. I threw a cotton dress into the dye bath afterward, and it came out yellow, even though the cotton *should* have only picked up the charteuse color. Maybe my charteuse dye packet was a dud?

The good news is that I've only spent $40 so far, but now I'm in foreign territory. I'm not at all confident about using color remover, since the coat is too large to simmer stovetop. I'm now researching soft-touch, opaque fabric paints too see if I can still save it. :(

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20 Comments

  • christieanne replied 12 years ago

    Bummer. Is there another brand of dye possibly?

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Maybe, but that had been the only one I knew of that had an option for polyester. :T I'm looking!

  • ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

    Oh that SUCKS! I had a similar situation this weekend with my Nili Lotan trench! Label says all cotton, but the dye WOULD NOT take evenly. And it was the UGLIEST color! I gave up and threw it in a bleach bath. It's back to tan. I'm with you in dye-ing pain, sistah!

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Ah, Dana, I'm sorry your experience was bad, too! I feel partially responsible, after going on about how easy it is. :T Now I feel very lucky that my last 3 projects turned out so well!

  • Freckles replied 12 years ago

    Poor you Rae. Good luck with finding a fix...

  • Sarah A replied 12 years ago

    i am an amatuer dye-er with nothing helpful to add but am hoping it turns out well for you. I was doing some painting with acrylic paint and go some (red) on a nylon/poly blend (khaki colored) short and it never came out with repeated efforts even, so depending on how time consuming/even you can be with a brush... I am hesitant to try to dye larger things as well.

  • jayne replied 12 years ago

    ooo, that is tough. I was so looking forward to see it dyed! I am sure you will find a solution!

  • CocoLion replied 12 years ago

    Oh No! I am sorry that it dyed on you! :-(

  • Meredith1953 replied 12 years ago

    Sorry the dye job died!\
    Whoops! Just realized CocoLion beat me to the pun. Sorry. :(

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Hehe, thanks for cheering me up - always room for a good pun!

    Sarah, that is actually heartening about the acrylic paint - sorry your shorts weren't saved, of course, but it gives me hope.

    I am trying to decide between two fabric paints with great reviews for leaving the fabric with a soft hand. I will probably go with the one that has best mixability and opacity, but I also have to do some photoshop mockups of color combos to see which brand can give me the shade I want.
    http://www.dharmatrading.com/h.....ml#reviews
    http://www.dharmatrading.com/h.....ml#reviews

  • replied 12 years ago

    Ugh, that stinks! I feel your pain. I tried to dye (with tea) my optic white laboratory-esque trench and it came out horrible! It just looked really dingy and old, not mellow and creamy like I'd hoped. And it was 100% cotton, too! I eventually threw it out because it was gut-wrenching to look at it.

    Maybe you can turn this into an amazingly cool artistic project, like your galaxy dress! Necessity is the mother of invention, after all!

  • replied 12 years ago

    Wow, I am so shocked by this. I was actually thinking of dyeing my SS beige trench with this brand of dye. Could this be a fluke? I mean, the reviews are amazing on the stuff. Is there a customer service number you can call, either per the package or vendor you got it from?

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Zap, I only paid $5 for the dye on Ebay, and it was probably my fault for thinking I did not have to remove the previous color first. I went back and compared before pics of all my projects, and this was the darkest beige of them all.

    Claire, I like where you're going with this! I still think I can get it to be citron but, if not, the craft site shows some awesome fabric painting, tie dye, and ombre examples. I definitely won't toss it - it is too nice.

  • christieanne replied 12 years ago

    My DH used an acrylic fabric paint to paint a chair for a friend - it worked really well. He had previously used a non-fabric paint and then a non-fabric paint with fabric sizer additive but the specialty paint was so much better. He recommends the heat fixative - he put that on the chair in case someone actually sits on it (which is intended but you never know with art type pieces).

  • ironkurtin replied 12 years ago

    I've dyed many things in the past and had good luck, but there's always the one heartbreaking garment. These days I'm having better luck with bleaching than dying.

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Christieanne, do you know if the fixative was the kind you add to the paint before application? The ones I've looked at seem to give you the option to either heat set with an iron or buy an additive.

  • Angie replied 12 years ago

    Which beige trench did you try to dye?

    Sorry that the process was a mare :(

  • rae replied 12 years ago

    Angie, I bought a long, black Norma Kamali for Walmart trench off Ebay for $30 - and I liked it so much that I got another in beige hoping to dye it citron a la my utility jacket. :T

  • lyn* replied 12 years ago

    Aww, poor Rae. :( *hugs*

  • nancylee replied 12 years ago

    So sorry it went badly, Rae. But I give you a lot of credit for being brave enough to try dying in the first place.

    Something tells me you may find a solution to this yet.....

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I'm just your average working stiff who loves nice things and hates to pay for them. This blog outlines my efforts to navigate that treacherous shopping/saving divide through swappin', thriftin', and even a little resellin'. Many of the pieces in my wardrobe cost me just $1! We've heard a lot about people "living above their means" in recent years; I'm championing the concept of living large *below* your means - whatever that means for you. :)