Homeowner Forum / Cleaning / December 2005

erm, i recommend hot-water dye (where you essentially simmer your items in
dye, on the stove) as best. you can get cold-water dye but ime it's just not
as effective, particularly for strong colours & does seem to come out much
too easily & it takes too long anyway. either way you _have_ to make sure
you set it properly, (generally instructions say to use strong salt water
for setting, they also sell setting products) and make sure you follow the
procedure properly (but as i say, it's quite easy).

again ime, the colour's not as good & not as long-lasting as
professionally-dyed items, & should ever after be washed cold (but i do that
anyway). also ime, some things dye well & others don't - nylon dyes
absolutely fantastically, but that's not much help cos most people dislike
nylon, of course :-) cotton dyes but polyester doesn't, so if you're dying a
cotton-polyester mix, only the cotton fibres will dye. if you're dyeing
cotton sewn with polyester thread (very common) the stitching won't dye.
it's very easy but because of all these factors, you might not get the
_exact_ result you were looking for, merely a better outcome than what you
had to start with (ie your shirts will be wearable again).

you can have things dyed professionally, too, i understand the result is
often better than doing it oneself, & it's not terribly expensive either -
this might be the way to go for you if you're not sure about dyeing them
yourself. at any rate, it's the sort of solution where you're just trying to
extend useable life for something that you wouldn't otherwise use at all, so
that has to be kept in mind. one of my friends has things dyed
professionally all the time,  & always gets an excellent & cost-effective
result, but she's in a big city & i'm not sure if you are. it's worth
investigating though if they're nice shirts you really don't want to waste &
you simply can't get the stains out.

oh! lastly remember that with dyeing, you need to consider the original
colour mixed with the dye colour. if you try to dye a yellow shirt blue, it
WILL come out green. :-) it can be fun to see what you end up with! (not
everyone thinks that is "fun", though ;-)
kylie

Not one minute ago I was voicing my concerns as to his wellbeing. I do hope
nothing is amiss.
How are you today Choreboy? Plenty to do on the cleaning front?
I intend to empty my airing cupboard and give it a thorough clean, I may
even give it a lick of paint before recycling old sheets tablecloths and tea
towels that lurk at the back. I also intend to saw part of the wooden slats
away thereby gaining a hanging space.
Anyway that will come later in the day when I am feeling more industrious.
The weather here is atrocious so there will be no going out for me today.