Dyeing black blacker

[BarTopDancer]

Ok fashionistas.

I have several solid black things that I want to die black(er) since they are fading. I have me a pack of RIT dye in black and a washer/dryer ready to go.

Is it that simple?

Good.

Now for the harder question.

I have a sweatshirt. I'm sure many of you have seen it. It's black with white letters embroidered on the front. You know my KROQ one. I want to dye it but not ruin the letters. Is that possible? How?

[wendybeth]

Unless they've improved it in the past few years, the dye will not be enough to restore your clothes to their former glory. You may want to check out a fabrics store to see what they would recommend, just in case there is something out there that would work. Short from not immersing the logo in the dye, I can't imagine what you could do to prevent it from getting stained. If you do find something that works let me know- as someone who only wears black, I would be very interested in finding something that actually worked besides tossing out the clothes and buying new!

[Drince88]

It MIGHT work (on the sweatshirt) if the thread used in the embroidery is enough of a different material than the shirt. I've seen t-shirts dyed where the thread was different enough composition that it didn't 'take' very well, and it looked like the shirt was top-stitched in white.

However, I wouldn't risk it if it's important to you. If the shirt was a high percent of cotton AND the thread used in the letters was really shiny, then there's a decent chance that there's enough artificial fibers in the thread that it wouldn't take. But it's still is a risk.

In general, if the attire is very heavy in cotton percentage, you have a better shot of the dye working - though I've never tried dyeing black blacker.

Make sure to run a cycle (or two) in the washing machine after you're done (plus the dryer, too!) to get the dye out!