Dying Suits

I have an old wool suit that is a tad faded, so I have a question to those of the material inclined nature (as opposed to my wood and nails nature)…

Has anyone ever tried dying this sort of fabric? And sucess? Any advice? Is this a totaly crazy idea?

Okay, there’s some information about what kinds of dye you can use here at Paula Burch’s Dying Site and the rest of the site tells you more than you probably ever wanted to know about the subject.

In general: you’ll need a lot of dye; you need to use a dye specifically made for protein fibre (wool); if the suit is faded in patches, they will almost certainly show up after dying.

Helpful?

yes helpful…

its a general all over fade…I was thinking that i could dye it to darken it a bit…but oh well

It should work then. Just use lots of dye, and use a machine-dye if you possibly can (last time I tried dying stuff in a tub it came out all patchy and nasty).

Or there is the ‘throw money at it’ solution - a drycleaners might be able to dye it for you, or know someone who could.

That solution always works the best as long as you have the cash, and we all know just how many people in the larping comunity have cash to burn.

That solution always works the best as long as you have the cash, and we all know just how many people in the larping comunity have cash to burn.[/quote]

If you don’t earn much money, consider investing in a suit and going for a job interview :wink:

Make sure you get a dye with a fixer, otherwise it will wash out in the wash for sure. bad experiences with dye

Oh yeah this doesn’t matter any more a few days after posting about not being able to find 3 peice suits in op shops, I was in an op shop and I found a sign from the gods…

Light Grey, English made, 3 peice wool suit which fits perfectly (ok the pants need to be shortened a bit) and the best thing it was $10 for the whole thing (because it was 3 peice it was one of the “expensive suits” there)

Oh which reminds me…If anyone is in new lynn at any point, there is an nice op shop right next to the new lynn warehouse round the side by the bike shop…

Suits from $5 to $10
Ties for 50 cents
I dont think I found ANYTHING over $10

Small shop but Great place for costuming and a nice selection of suits in particular…I may go back and get a summer weight LARPing suit.

Sounds lovely.