Custom Clothing with Jacquard iDye

Dye clothing, couch covers, bedding and more with Jacquard iDye and iDye Poly!

Jacquard iDye for Natural Fabrics and Jacquard iDye Poly for Synthetics give you the tools to customize colors for your favorite natural and synthetic fabric pieces. iDye for Natural Fabrics produces brilliant colors, and iDye Poly is virtually the only dye that will color polyester!

Both come in dissolvable packets, so there are never any messy powders to handle. Simply drop the packets into your dye bath or washer, add your natural fabric and/or synthetic fabric or objects and bring to a boil. For this blog, we mixed iDye and iDye Poly and dyed different blends of natural and synthetic fibers.

What You’ll Need (for stove-top method):

Stainless steel or enamel pot

Tongs

1 Packet of Jacquard iDye Poly

1 Packet of Jacquard iDye for Natural Fabrics

T-shirts, socks, denim, etc.

Rubber Gloves

1 Cup of Non-Iodized Salt

Drying Rack

We also put down a plastic tarp for dripping and used a clean bucket to hold the damp fabric after it’s finished in the dye bath.

Note: utensils and pot used for dyeing should not be used for food.

Non-iodized salt, Jacquard iDye Poly, Jacquard iDye for Natural Fabrics, and Jacquard Synthrapol.

Helpful hints, tips and tricks before we get started:

iDye is best for over-dyeing and is great for getting solid colors; salt and vinegar helps keep the dye permanent—silk needs vinegar. iDye Poly needs a boiling heat for the dye to fix permanently to the fibers, and the dye works best if it gets to 212 degrees.

Heating the iDye over a pot on the stove gets you much brighter colors than putting it in the washing machine. You can also use the Jacquard iDye Fixative.

It's a pretty common misconception that the washing machine is the best way to use iDye because the washing machine method is listed on the back of the product to make it sound super easy. In reality, that will get you lighter colors because the dye is quickly drained from the machine and the fabric is only exposed to it for so long.

The water in the washing machine doesn’t get hot enough for iDye Poly to work, so iDye Poly must always be used on the stovetop.

iDye Poly can also dye most synthetics like polyester and nylon. You can mix color packets to get something custom and also vary the intensity of the color by keeping it in the dye bath for a longer or shorter amount of time.

Instructions:

1. Fill your pot with water until it’s about halfway full. Pre-soak the fabric for a few minutes to remove any size, remove and wring dry, set aside. Add one cup of salt to dye bath as a fixative for the iDye Natural and bring water to a boil. We’re dyeing a 100% cotton t-shirt, a cotton/poly blend shirt, a cotton/poly blend socks, and a synthetic wig.
2. Add a full packet of iDye, iDye Poly and color fixer to the boiling water. Not all dyes will work on all fibers, so we added the white cotton/poly shirt and socks to the bath with 2 different colors of iDye and iDye Poly in it. The iDye color will stick to the cotton fibers and the Poly will only stick to the polyester fibers making them two different colors. You want to make sure there is enough room for the fabric to circulate the pot so that the dye can circulate around the clothing.
3. Jacquard Synthrapol is a very concentrated soap that will dissolve water-based products like dye and keep them from adhering to other garments. This way, if you wash your newly dyed clothing with other items in the washing machine after dyeing them, your clothing won’t be ruined! It’s also good for use as a wetting agent, preparing clothing for being dyed, and cleaning up.

Results:

The iDye color sticks to the cotton fibers, and the iDye Poly only sticks to the polyester fibers!