Dyeing Tyvek painters suit - edited - added pics post #2

[greylocke]

I'm trying to dye some tyvek painters suits. I'm trying to get a Camouflage/DPM ish pattern. I know that using the washing machine with warm water on the prewash setting I can get the Tyvek to take the dye. But how would I be able to get a multi color camo type pattern? I don't want to have a tie-dye look to the suits when done. I want them to look respectable but different from each other.

Thanks

 

[greylocke]

Re: Dyeing Tyvek painters suit

Well I've started. I'm using the RIT liquid Kelly Green to start with. First thing I did wash to run my washing machine empty with vinegar using hot water to make sure there was nothing in the machine to mess up my dye job. Then setting the machine to small load warm water with gentle cycle I started the machine set to prewash. As soon as it had about 2 inches of water I added half the bottle of the dye. Once the water turned off I shut down the machine and added the 3 painters suits. I made sure they were all dipped in then started the machine. I found that on the gentle cycle the agitator can't pull the clothes through properly. I tried the delicate cycle and then went to the fast cycle. On the fast cycle the suits are agitating properly. However after 20 minutes the suits had taken no color at all, so I re-read the bottle. It recommends addings alt to the mix for synthetic fibers. Well Tyvek is a synthetic so I added 1/4 cup of iodized salt and restarted the machine. Within about 5 minutes the suits started to take the dye. They are soaking currently and I go back in a few minutes to run them through the agitation cycle again, I'm stopping and resetting the dial for that. The instructions say to let them soak for 30 minutes past the regular cycle, however I'm probably going to let these do the soak/agitation back and forth for at least an hour and see where I'm at.

Ok Here are the pics

View attachment 104274

View attachment 104275

The dye used was Kelly green, and for awhile they were a bit greenish. But with following the directions on the dye I washed the suits and it became a little bluish. It looks like a pale blue/green. I'm going to try the black later to see if it has any effect.