Dyeing Spandex Original Dean Cain Superman

[jlwshere]

I have a Dean Cain Superman Costume. Needless to say, with most Superman costumes, the actual colors are different from what you see on screen, in this case the costume is a darker royal, almost navy blue. Unfortunately, the costume had seen excessive sunlight before i purchased it, which has turned it purple in most places. I spoke to Judith Curtus, who designed the costume and she confirmed this did happen.

I would like to restore it to it's original color, but am being told that this is not possible as this dark color can only be dyed a darker color. I cannot believe that with all the advanced technology in the world this is ths only option. Does anyone have any experience or ideas in how I could successfully change this from a purple to a dark royal blue or know of anyone who could do this without putting what I do have in jeopardy?
As an aside, I understand Adam Wests original cowls and gloves also turned purple as well.

Any help would be greatly appeciated.

 

[mdb]

Honestly it would be risky to try and alter the colour. I'm guessing it is a nylon based fabric which means you cannot use bleach on it. Nylon behaves like wool and silk and other protein fibres in that bleach breaks it down.

There are dye removers but they tend to be tempermental when it comes to blues, it can take several goes (I'm currently dealing wth this with some aqua cotton net) and on nylon it can be very stubborn. Oh and th blue will tend to go shades of green or purple (depending on dye composition and shade) when using colour removers.

I use Dylon Pre-dye fairly regularly as i is pretty gentle and I have used it successfully on many pairs of nylon-lycra/spandex pantihose. The only pairs it worked bizarely on happen to be blue (they went a grey-green-mud colour).

Redyeing from there is fairly easy as nylon does like dye. It will require care again.

I personally wouldn't muck about with trying to dye it again, but you may get a better evaluation from some professional restorers, but ask around as in all trades there are some who are better than others.

 

[Got Maul]

The other issue, you have other stuff that WILL also get dyed, like the emblem etc. Secondly, even with professional dyers you cannot guarantee consistent dye lots.

 

[Darth Mule]

The other issue, you have other stuff that WILL also get dyed, like the emblem etc. Secondly, even with professional dyers you cannot guarantee consistent dye lots.

Exactly. You would be looking at removing anything that you didn't want dyed blue, and I don't know how easy it would be to get the emblem off, or how many pieces the costume comes in. If you can get it down to just the blue parts, then you run into another problem.

I would like to restore it to it's original color, but am being told that this is not possible as this dark color can only be dyed a darker color. I cannot believe that with all the advanced technology in the world this is ths only option.

Remember that there are two sides to all this technology. The one you have to worry about here is that some commercially dyed fabrics are impossible to remove color from without having access to similar equipment. On the other hand, if color remover is effective on the spandex, you only need to lighten it enough to redye it the dark royal color. Now as MDB mentioned, you do have to worry about what color it turns under color remover. Some items will go nearly white, others will turn green or orange. Since dye is essentially transparent, you will have to factor this in to your redying process by balancing out the base color with its opposite. This can be easily botched if you don't know what you're doing. For instance: to kill the green, you would use a little red (opposite on the color wheel), but since you're working with blue you can easily turn something purple if you use too much.

In short, you have about a 50/50 success rate here, but you should tread lightly. Dying can get complicated.

 

[vaderdarth]

There is a fabric dye called Aljo that has a formulation for nylon type fabrics. It's the same stuff used to dye the white muppet fleece which was also called Antron (nylon). I'd test a tiny inconspicuous area of it first, then proceed with the rest if the first one comes out right. You won't know the final results until the dyed fabric has been rinsed and dried to see if the fabric took the dye.

Dave

 

[jlwshere]

Thanks for all of the replies thus far. As I know zilch about dyeing I would certainly farm it our to a professional. The Cain costumes has separate briefs so only the "S" would have to be removed - it is a one piece embroidered patch. It is only single stitched on, but I have a suspicion it is also glued on but am not sure.

I will probably just leave it be, but it bugs me.

 

[Bryanakin]

I have a Dean Cain costume, I've dyed my unitard to he dark blue. As you mentioned earlier, I also had a hard time finding stock spandex of the correct color blue. So I used a nylon dye called Jacquard. You can dye it on your stove top with a large pot and some hot water. It's actually a very easy process, and the instructions are all printed on the bottle.

1. Large pot with warm-hot water (not too hot as to melt the nylon).
2. One bottle of the Jacquard dye.
3. Vinegar (exact amount listed on instructions).
4. Pour the dye into the pot and stir evenly so the color is distributed.
5. Put unitard into pot and stir constantly so the fabric is dyed evenly.

Process takes no more than 30 minutes.

As you mentioned, you'll have to remove the emblem before you start your work.

With indoor lighting, it looks dark as it should.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thessair/3910755195/in/faves-bryanakin/

Compare: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30102133@N05/3813318045/in/set-72157619829216042/

With outdoor lighting, it tends to look like Dean's from the show -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30102133@N05/3902510054/in/faves-bryanakin/

Compare: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30102133@N05/3983337333/in/set-72157619829216042/