Dying milliskin

LaytonSpider

New Member
I have this plan to make an Amazing Spider-man 2 inspired suit using solid colored material instead of prints. I've been lurking and researching and designing and lurking and well.. mostly lurking. But to get to the point, I bought some milliskin spandex material online in red and royal blue without getting swatches. Bad move, I know. I got the shipment and the colors are way off from what I thought they would be. :facepalm I don't know how they can call that "red" and I've never seen such a light royal blue.

So now my question is, how do I dye this material? Has anyone here had to dye milliskin before and been successful? I just want to saturate and darken the colors somewhat. From what I've read on 'the marvelous interwebs', acid dyes are most likely the way to go. Unfortunately, they need higher temps to achieve a good, solid color than is recommended for spandex materials. I want the color to be consistent and permanent.

Any insights would be very welcome and much appreciated. Thanks in advance! -I hope.
 
I had a similar problem; the blue spandex I got for a Nightwing suit turned out to be just a bit lighter than I wanted. I used Rit Dye and hot water - not boiling hot, just as hot as I could get it from the tap - and it came out fine. It did take quite a long time to get it just a shade darker, though, so if you're looking to darken it significantly you'll need to be patient, and you might need to do it on the stove to keep the water hot...but then, of course, you do need to worry about it getting too hot and damaging the fabric, which is possible.

Anyway, it's a risk, but it's a lot cheaper to buy a few boxes of dye and give it a try than it is to get all new fabric.

Out of curiosity, where did you get the fabric? I want to know who to avoid...
 
Out of curiosity, where did you get the fabric? I want to know who to avoid...

I got it from an etsy shop. I don't think you would need to avoid them. It's my own fault really. I should have got swatches first. Hopefully I've learned my lesson there.

I'll look into Rit Dye. Did you get the exact color of dye that you needed or did you go for a darker shade to help the color get darker sooner?
 
I ended up getting a color that was close to what I wanted, but I also didn't have many options. I dunno if I would have tried a darker color if there had been one available. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If I knew something about color theory I could probably give better advice...but I don't.

aaaaand I'm sorry it took me two weeks to respond. Probably not very helpful.
 
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