Dying a leotard

[munchkin16]

My uniform leotard for grade 6 is supposed to be black for my exam in November but I was wondering if anyone knows if it would be possible to dye my grade 5 burgundy one? It's a plain nylon tank one with a matching belt. I normally wear any black leotard for class so I don't really want to buy a new uniform one just for my exam! Thank you for your help.

[Anna C]

Never tried this but if it's shiny lycra/nylon as opposed to cotton lycra, I do believe you need special dye. I will google and see what I can come up with.

[Anna C]

According to the dylon website, you can't dye nylon with their regular fabric dyes: http://www.dylon.co.uk/help.html

 

It seems you need a special dye for nylon/polyester/lycra and the one which seems to be most freely available is iDye Poly: http://www.jacquardproducts.com/idye.html

 

Depending on the cost and time intensity of dyeing, it could well be worth either asking if you could borrow a black leotard for your exam, or looking on Porselli or Dance Direct to see if they have any bargain black tank leos! :-)

[Circe]

I don't have much experience of dying clothes but I know it can be diificult to get right. I'd have thought you would be better off borrowing or buying v. cheap as suggested by S&P as you could run the risk of ruining your  burgundy one and be no further forward!

[LinMM]

Ive only tried dyeing a couple of times and not leotards hasten to add but in the end it seemed a bit hit and miss the exact colour you wanted actually turning up!! It's very messy too and as its for an exam you want the colour to be black!! You could go to the trouble and if it comes out a sort of dark navy instead may still end up having to buy one......though if you've a friend who can lend you one that could be good if you're short of money....could you put up an advert at your Dance School?

[spooky]

I have dyed quite a lot of different materials in the past but the biggest problem is not the fabric itself but the cotton used to sew it together. Several times I have had an item take the dye beautifully but the stitching remain the original colour!  The dye itself can also be quite expensive so I would also recommend seeing if someone from your dance school could lend you one if its just for one exam.

[t_rose]

Have you tried ebay, might be cheaper than the dye

[munchkin16]

Thank you for all your advice, think the easiest thing will probably just be borrowing one by the sounds of it! The leotard has to be the one through the school so I don't think I will find it online, cechetti is very fussy. Not too bothered if I ruin my burgundy one, it is really horrible to wear, I don't know why the school chose them of all the leotards! but dying it is probably too much effort anyway.

[Moomin]

The cechetti leotards are not great are they (presuming they are a standard style). The rad ones are much nicer! I wouldn't attempt dying tbh, very messy and the standard shop bought dyes would not take on that material so I imagine not cheap either. Do your school sell second hand uniform? Or might be worth just buying one and then selling it on?

[Interested Parent]

Hi Munchkin16, I have done exactly what you are doing  and the results weren't great.  The dye isn't cheap and you need lots of salt too.  The results were patchy and the stitching sort of stayed burgundy rather than black (as mentioned above).  If you can get a simple black leo from say Dance Direct for a tenner that might be better but I know you do have to pay P&P with that.