#272409
Okay, I finally finished with my GB2 suit (I mentioned it in another thread I started, but obviously this is the place to continue to convo).

I used a Navy colored uniform, bought from AJ in the GB shop. The first thing I did was run it through the laundry (warm/cold, "non-cotton wear" just in case) with bleach. When done, it was stripped down to the brown we've all been talking about.

I then used a utility sink for my dye bath, using only hot water and about 1/2 a bottle of Black RIT dye. Submerged, would move it around every few minutes, and took it out at roughly the 15 min mark. I rinsed until the water was clear. I then washed it, using a small amount of detergent, once again using warm/cold, etc. When it was done, it was spotty....it was a mix of brown and purple hues. I put it in the dryer for about 5 mins as I prepared the next dye bath (to agitate a bit, not so much to dry).

Next dye bath, used hot water and just under 1/2 a bottle of the dye. I let this sit for nearly 30 mins, and when I took it out (rinsed until water was clear), I ran it through the machine, this time on cold/cold, water only. I didn't want to wash out too much of the color, I just wanted to even things out. When I took it out, I noticed it was definitely all one color, and nearly at the point I wanted. I put it in the dryer, setting it to air dry for roughly 20 mins, and then standard heat drying for 5-10.

The color I had was definitely a shade or so lighter than I wanted, and in certain light had too much of a purple hue to it. I did one more bath, this time using 1/2 - 3/4 a bottle of Black and about half a packet of Navy powder dye, mixing it together. I let the uniform sit for 20-30 mins, rinsed, put in the washer (once again, cold/cold, water only), same air dry as before, and presto! Now the uniform looks like a faded navy in some light, and gray in other.....exactly the effect I wanted.

It really is about building up the color. You won't know what you have until you take it out of the washer. As I was dyeing, before it went into the machine, it looked pitch black--remember, a lot of the color washes away instantly.

Instead of pics here, I put up the uniform in progress in my prop section. I still need to sew on my patches, etc.

So there you go! Thanks for the tips!
#373913
Normally I don't beat a dead horse like this, but I wanted to contribute pictures of the in-between steps for all the first-timers. All pics are taken in natural light unless otherwise noted.

Starting with a Black Rothco that has been washed and dried twice, both times with two drier sheets.

Then I took it through being washed twice with bleach and no detergent:
Image

Then after soaking it in the sink with RIT Color Remover for 30 minutes of constant agitation:
Image

After being soaked (again and always with constant agitation) for 10 minutes with 1/4 cup salt and the water as hot as I could get it as per Jarius' original post. I chickened out and washed it without going a second 10 minutes because I was concerned about it being too blue. Also, don't be alarmed by the "Navy Blue" dye looking purple, this is normal:
Image

It wasn't, so I put it in for another 10 minutes of fresh dye, hot water, and 1/4 cup of salt; machine washed and dried it and achieved this:
Image

And here it is in with the flash on in a dark room:
Image

Neither of the final product pics completely reflect how it looks in person, but they do show off the range you get when photographing it.
Last edited by DerGrundel on September 7th, 2017, 6:29 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Jairus liked this
#388840
I have a small concern about using this recipe to dye the Rothco suit I have acquired... being that the suit is a size Youth XSmall for my son who is nearing the age of 3.

Just wanted to get some opinions on if I should use smaller amounts of bleach or dye since there is considerably less fabric than the average GB's Rothco flight suit. Do you guys think it will be fine just using the recipe as is or should I use a little less of the ingredients? Any opinions on the matter would be greatly appreciated.
#418000
I want to do a couple of uniforms and I wanted to do one to be the charcoal grey so I'm curious to know if I need a dark flight suit to use this dye recipe or would it also work on something like the new ones that AJ now has in GBFans store.
#418050
The flightsuits sold in the GBFans store are navy blue, whereas this recipe assumes you start with a black flightsuit.

For the navy flightsuits, I'd imagine you'll want to bleach or use color remover, then dye with black to bring it back up to the right shade of grey with just a hint of blue.

Depending on the shade of the suit after using bleach or color remover, you may need to also hit it with another color of dye.

For example:
You bleach your suit, but it ends up with a slight purple color. Use a touch of yellow or green to offset it and bring it back around to a grey color (with just a tiny hint of blue) color, then use black to achieve a darker color.

I've not worked with a navy blue suit, so this is all speculation and guesswork. This is just the method I'd imagine will give you the best results. You'll need to experiment and dye a little bit at a time until you get it right.
#418234
Interesting, maybe I'll see if I can't track down a black one somewhere then.
#420008
So dyeing my black Rothco was a massive fail. I followed the instructions, even throwing in hot water from the sink instead of hot water from the washing machine and I couldn't get the suit to bleach. Just various patches turned brown.

Eventually I got a decent amount of it brown and tried to dye with Navy dye. I did the whole soaking twice for 10 minutes, put it in the dryer and it came out with parts that were still black, some brown, some navy and some white, which I am guessing is damage from the bleach (?)

I was thinking of giving it one more go instead of buying a new flight suit. But instead of bleach I was going to try the RIT color remover and then more navy dye. Any thoughts on this? Should I cut my losses and start fresh with a new flight suit or would I maybe be able to salvage my current one? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys!
#420138
It sounds like the bleach is getting to the suit unevenly. Some washers have a little bleach spout that dispenses it nice and evenly; some do not.

One thing you might try is getting the suit good and sopping wet, then setting it aside. Start your washer on the smallest load and hottest water possible; close the lid and let it fill all the way up and start agitating. Open the lid and pour in your bleach, then close and let it agitate some more. Then, dump the suit in and cross your fingers.

Follow the same general method when dyeing if using the washer; get the suit good and wet, pre-mix your dye and washer water, let it agitate a bit, then dump your suit in and let it go.

Sorry to hear it's giving you so much trouble. At least one of the beauties of suit dyeing is that you can almost always just strip the color and try again. Good luck!
#420175
Thanks for the tips! I ended up using color remover and the navy dye after. It loks better but the color is lighter in certain spots and it didn't quite capture the charcoal color. As it stands though it doesn't look horrible and I feel like I have a better idea of how to approach it now do I'll weat this one for now and give it another go later om
#420578
The first post has been updated with a new Tru-Spec recipe that I've had success with over the weekend. Take a look:

Image

I tried to keep the recipe as simple and similar to my earlier recipes as possible, but experimented with washer dyeing. I think that will be the most hassle-free option for most people, though the sink instructions are still there if anyone prefers that method.
#421383
Washer
1.) Wash suit twice with 1 cup of bleach each time, hot/cold cotton cycle. Machine Dry with a Fabric Softener

sheet both times. (This is to knock a little of the sheen out of the fabric and agitate the fibers to be more

receptive to dye.)
2.) Wash again, hot/cold cotton cycle, with 2 cups bleach.
3.) Wash again, hot/cold cotton cycle, with 1/2 bottle Kelly Green liquid RIT and 1/2 cup salt. Do not dry;

leave the suit damp.
4.) Wash again, hot/cold cotton cycle, with 1 bottle Royal Blue liquid RIT and 1 cup salt.
5.) Wash on warm/cold cycle with normal detergent. Use the extra rinse cycle option if available. Machine Dry normally, with or without fabric softener.
I looked over this thread for the answer to what im about to ask but did not see it...so if I missed it I apologize for annoying folks...

My GF and I had been looking for a flightsuit for her GB costume but due to a misunderstanding with the size charts the flightsuit she bought is more my size then hers...so needless to say I inherited a black Atlanco Tru Spec Flightsuit that I now want to dye charcoal grey.

With your washer recipe what setting for water level did you use? I have never dyed a garment for costuming before but I assumed it would be an important detail so the dye bath isnt too diluted or concentrated.
#421440
Figures I'd leave out a step. :lol:

My washer has load sizes rather than water level settings, but I just used the "Small" load setting. I'd imagine whatever the lowest water level setting is or whichever one you normally use for just a few garments would be about the same.
#421576
Ok so I followed the washer recipe to the letter today and the end product was...disapointing.

A few details about the suit itself....

Atlanco Tru Spec Black. Large 65% Poly 35% Cotton Blend.

I went through all the motions with the various washing and bleaching. when it went into the washer for the kelly green step the flight suit was a medium brown in color. Salt was used in the shown proportions. After the royal blue step and a regular cycle with detergent and dryer...the suit is still brown...just a bit darker brown. Again the recipe was followed to the letter...if anyone has any suggestions im more then open to them as dying garments is completly alien to me, I might as well be performing surgery on a wookie. Some folks in earlier posts of this thread seemed to have similar results but I never saw anyone who quite nailed it. Peez halp o.O
#421703
Sounds like not enough color may have been removed. You might try giving it another wash with 2 cups of bleach again, then taking a hairdryer to a portion of it to see what shade it is. You'll want to go for something that's lighter than the shade of grey you want to end with ultimately, since dye only makes things darker; never lighter.\

Also, make sure you're using water as hot as you can get it. If the washer method just isn't working, the sink method might.

Please let me know how it turns out the second time. I'll be trying this recipe on another suit in a different washer; I'd like to get all the info I can to try to normalize it so that it works the first time for everyone.
Ron Daniels liked this
#421770
My first attempt at dying my flight suit used Jarius’s washing machine method…the end result was less than satisfactory and the suit ended up being an odd dark shade of brown. Now in my haste to get this flight suit done I neglected to take as many pictures as I would have liked…plus I always seemed to be doing this at night so the pictures I did take, the colors just aren’t showing right.

Jarius, your sink method, in my opinion, is the best route for the Tru spec suits, but with some minor changes. Mind you originally I attempted the washer method so I was working with a suit that had been bleached several times and dyed once so the beginning garment was that weird shade of brown I spoke of. We are waiting for my GFs new suit to come in so when it gets here I’ll be doing this again with a fresh new black flight suit just to see if I can repeat the result.

1.) Wash suit twice with 1 cup of bleach each time, hot/cold cotton cycle. Machine Dry with a Fabric Softener
sheet both times. (This is to knock a little of the sheen out of the fabric and agitate the fibers to be more receptive to dye and to get us to a shade of brown)

2.) Wash again, hot/cold cotton cycle, with 2 cups bleach. (At this point the flight suit will be a gnarly shade of brown)

3.) Wash suit with 2 packets RIT color remover, hot/cold cotton cycle. Machine Dry with a Fabric Softener sheet. (The RIT color remover will leave the flight suit a semi patchy grey. This step is one of the most important as the cotton fibers will literally almost be white while the poly fibers will remain a grey close to what we want. I’d be willing to bet real money that step one here can be removed as step 2 will be with 2 cups of bleach which will beat the shit out of the fabric enough to take dye. Once you wash it again with the color remover the base grey it will be should be perfect)

4.) Dye with 1 cup (237 mL) Royal Blue liquid RIT, 1/4 cup (59 mL) Kelly Green liquid RIT, and 1 cup of salt in a sink full of hot water for 15 minutes. Make sure to agitate it frequently and don’t let air bubbles in the flight suit just sit. Push them down, move the suit around to keep the color consistent

5.) Pull out, rinse until the water runs clear. (I recommend using your washing machine for this as hand wringing out dye is a pain in the ass in your sink. Use a plastic bin to transport it from sink to washer to avoid blue dye all over your house)

6.) Add a little more hot water to the dye bath, and let the suit soak for another 15 minutes.

7.) Pull out, Rinse well until the water runs clear. (or run it through the rinse cycle in your washing machine)

8.) Wash again with light detergent cold cycle

9.) Machine Dry with fabric softener

Its almost 1AM so I’ll get some photos tomorrow in natural light and throw them up here when I get a chance. I’m happy with the way it came out.

In a nutshell…the trick is more about getting the black flight suit to turn grey without the dye. Once you get to that point the dye you use is only darkening the existing grey, smoothing out the color, and making it more consistent across the flight suit.

I can’t recommend the use of your washing machines rinse cycle enough….it makes the process a lot easier. Just make sure you use a plastic bin with no holes in the bottom or you will have a mess and don’t forget to run a cleaning cycle. This is to make sure you don’t accidentally dye some clothes when you do laundry next. Also since you will be handling a garment soaked with blue and green dye….use your chemical gloves. I have a pair of the chemical gloves AJ sells and they are 100% unscathed, I did make sure to rinse them a bit each time I pulled them out of the dye bath..
Jairus liked this
#421794
lunchbox739 wrote:In a nutshell…the trick is more about getting the black flight suit to turn grey without the dye. Once you get to that point the dye you use is only darkening the existing grey, smoothing out the color, and making it more consistent across the flight suit.
This is a VERY good synopsis of the dyeing process!
It's not so much like painting over a canvas; it's more like using a highlighter on construction paper. Colors will only ever get darker, so always be sure you arrive at a color lighter than what you ultimately want before the dyeing process.
That brownish/reddish-grey color is what you're aiming for, with some blue and green to shift it over to the neutral-with-a-hint-of-blue sweet spot.

The washer instructions are very much experimental. I've heard from people who are a little intimidated by sink or stovetop dyeing, so I thought it might be a little easier for the first-timer. I'm going to try to replicate the washer instructions in a different model machine and see what I get; it may be that some machines simple don't get hot enough or cycle long enough, or that machines are just too different to get good, reliable results with one recipe.

Might end up being easier to pull down the washer recipe and stick to sink dyeing.
Sometimes you try new things, but end up sticking with what works, you know?

Good to hear you were successful, anyway! I'd love to see photos once you get some proper lighting.
#421838
I think the washer method is viable...but you will have to up the amount of dye being used. A regular run of the mill top load washer's small load setting is still a lot more water then what you will get from your average household kitchen sink. with 1 bottle of blue and 1/2 bottle of green it would seem the dye bath would end up being overdilluted to complete the dying process in a wash cycle.

Here is a pic of the flight suit on my patio....had to get my GF to hold the thing up...

Image

also for those of you who have tru specs but they dont fit quite right....after you go through this...it will fit perfectly...Mine shrunk a good bit. It went from baggy to almost fitting like a tailored suit
#427278
lunchbox739 wrote:My first attempt at dying my flight suit used Jarius’s washing machine method…the end result was less than satisfactory and the suit ended up being an odd dark shade of brown. Now in my haste to get this flight suit done I neglected to take as many pictures as I would have liked…plus I always seemed to be doing this at night so the pictures I did take, the colors just aren’t showing right.

Jarius, your sink method, in my opinion, is the best route for the Tru spec suits, but with some minor changes. Mind you originally I attempted the washer method so I was working with a suit that had been bleached several times and dyed once so the beginning garment was that weird shade of brown I spoke of. We are waiting for my GFs new suit to come in so when it gets here I’ll be doing this again with a fresh new black flight suit just to see if I can repeat the result.

1.) Wash suit twice with 1 cup of bleach each time, hot/cold cotton cycle. Machine Dry with a Fabric Softener
sheet both times. (This is to knock a little of the sheen out of the fabric and agitate the fibers to be more receptive to dye and to get us to a shade of brown)

2.) Wash again, hot/cold cotton cycle, with 2 cups bleach. (At this point the flight suit will be a gnarly shade of brown)

3.) Wash suit with 2 packets RIT color remover, hot/cold cotton cycle. Machine Dry with a Fabric Softener sheet. (The RIT color remover will leave the flight suit a semi patchy grey. This step is one of the most important as the cotton fibers will literally almost be white while the poly fibers will remain a grey close to what we want. I’d be willing to bet real money that step one here can be removed as step 2 will be with 2 cups of bleach which will beat the shit out of the fabric enough to take dye. Once you wash it again with the color remover the base grey it will be should be perfect)

4.) Dye with 1 cup (237 mL) Royal Blue liquid RIT, 1/4 cup (59 mL) Kelly Green liquid RIT, and 1 cup of salt in a sink full of hot water for 15 minutes. Make sure to agitate it frequently and don’t let air bubbles in the flight suit just sit. Push them down, move the suit around to keep the color consistent

5.) Pull out, rinse until the water runs clear. (I recommend using your washing machine for this as hand wringing out dye is a pain in the ass in your sink. Use a plastic bin to transport it from sink to washer to avoid blue dye all over your house)

6.) Add a little more hot water to the dye bath, and let the suit soak for another 15 minutes.

7.) Pull out, Rinse well until the water runs clear. (or run it through the rinse cycle in your washing machine)

8.) Wash again with light detergent cold cycle

9.) Machine Dry with fabric softener

Its almost 1AM so I’ll get some photos tomorrow in natural light and throw them up here when I get a chance. I’m happy with the way it came out.

In a nutshell…the trick is more about getting the black flight suit to turn grey without the dye. Once you get to that point the dye you use is only darkening the existing grey, smoothing out the color, and making it more consistent across the flight suit.

I can’t recommend the use of your washing machines rinse cycle enough….it makes the process a lot easier. Just make sure you use a plastic bin with no holes in the bottom or you will have a mess and don’t forget to run a cleaning cycle. This is to make sure you don’t accidentally dye some clothes when you do laundry next. Also since you will be handling a garment soaked with blue and green dye….use your chemical gloves. I have a pair of the chemical gloves AJ sells and they are 100% unscathed, I did make sure to rinse them a bit each time I pulled them out of the dye bath..
One thing I would like to add to this formula, if you are using a High Efficiency Washer((like myself) I would do only Step 1 and Step 2 with your washer and use a tub or sink for the remaining steps.

I just spent the last day and a half working on this because the High Efficiency washer not able to add the dyes to the suit in the correct manner. After my first try yesterday, the suit came out a Dark Green and I was not happy at all. Today I repeated the first 2 steps and then use a 11 gallon tub in my sink to do the rest of the job. However, I did use my washer to rinse and spin the suit after the dye bath and to do the final cleaning.
#428017
It was blue, used bleach bath to strip the colour to the dreaded brown, wash, dried, wash again to remove traces of the bleach then used black, navy dyes to dye it back to the colour I want. It is only a slight hint of purple. Maybe the brown reacting with the blue I guess.
#428022
I have no idea sir....the recipe in this thread uses a black suit as a base and royal blue/ kelly green to get the proper grey. If you lighten the flightsuit enough you can get a bluish grey. It varies from garment to garment depending on how the fabric reacts to the color remover

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