Firefly , Mal Reynolds questions.

Great, thanks guys. Now I have to re-do my Mal pants with this awesome new technique!

Just to clarify, the final result was done with a half pack (not the liquid) of dark brown Rit in ~1.4 lt of water, boiling for 20-23 minutes. Then washed on a fast cold/cold cycle and dried for a few minutes on high heat until dry.
I didn't stir it while boiling, I just left it alone. I'm not sure if that matters. :lol
 
That looks perfect! Can't wait to get mine, both my pants and stripes have shipped. Here's hoping the pants are the right size this time.

Also, I asked my teacher about those shoes, he said he got them at DSW or Ross and has no idea when. They don't have any branding on them except for this weird logo stamped on the sole. Might be out of luck. They're not perfect, they only have 3 panels on the toe instead of 5 and the toe is pointier than Mal's, but the color of the leather is spot on and the sole looks good. I'll post if I ever manage to find out any more about them.
 
Pants weren't the right size. :unsure

Fetts, which ones are those, the Wah Maker or the other ones? My Wah Maker pants have totally different buttons on them and only look that color under bright sunlight. Under room light and flash they turned out a much darker color. Also, did you order one size up from your regular waist size? It seems that's what I'm going to have to do, because these are uncomfortably and embarassingly tight on me.
 
Pants weren't the right size. :unsure

Fetts, which ones are those, the Wah Maker or the other ones? My Wah Maker pants have totally different buttons on them and only look that color under bright sunlight. Under room light and flash they turned out a much darker color. Also, did you order one size up from your regular waist size? It seems that's what I'm going to have to do, because these are uncomfortably and embarassingly tight on me.

I think the other ones, wheat color. WWMerc size goes by inches around your abdomen, so I measured just above my belly button with a tailor's measuring tape. Although I wear a 31 or 32 in pants, I bought a 36 from WWMerc. This is because I measure 34 inches around, just above my belly button where these pants wear (they wear high). US mens pant waist sizes aren't accurate. A 32 in pants isn't really 32 inches, it's more like ~34 but WWMerc sizes in actual inches, so it throws people off. I went with 36 because I want to tighten up the strap in the back like Mal does. I also figured I could take in the pants just a bit if they were too big. It turns out with the strap tightened a little, they fit fine. I think a 34 would have also worked for me. It really felt strange ordering a size 36 when I was wearing a size 31 dockers :lol I was worried about it until they arrived. I hemmed them because they were way too long and I'm having the stripes sewed on, so they are with the seamstress now. I get them back on Monday and I can post a pic to show you my waist line vs the pant size if that helps.
 
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Ah, yea, I guess the 36 is the way to go then, I'd rather not have to tighten the strap to make them fit. Unfortunately, turnaround time for a new pair to get to me is over 2 weeks according to their return instructions. Looks like I'll have the ribbon ready to go by the time they get here.
 
Just to clarify, the final result was done with a half pack (not the liquid) of dark brown Rit in ~1.4 lt of water, boiling for 20-23 minutes. Then washed on a fast cold/cold cycle and dried for a few minutes on high heat until dry.
I didn't stir it while boiling, I just left it alone. I'm not sure if that matters. :lol

So then it was just the dark brown rit, and water, with little, or no, stirring? Did you use any of the other items suggested in side the rit box? (i.e. dish detergent, salt, etc. NO, really they recommend using dish detergent to brake up the surface of the water, and salt to help the color "take", or something.) Just wanted to make sure, you just used the dye, and water, before I got get some, and give this a try. :)
 
I always thought they meant laundry detergent. Is it really supposed to be dish detergent?

I would recommend stirring, the amount of stirring doesn't change the color absorption, it just helps with the evenness of the color. If you don't stir there's a chance you'll get darker and lighter areas. The salt is added to permanently set the color, like how you can wash new clothes with vinegar to prevent fading.
 
I always thought they meant laundry detergent. Is it really supposed to be dish detergent?

I would recommend stirring, the amount of stirring doesn't change the color absorption, it just helps with the evenness of the color. If you don't stir there's a chance you'll get darker and lighter areas. The salt is added to permanently set the color, like how you can wash new clothes with vinegar to prevent fading.

Oo, good tip. I have never heard the vinager thing before.
 
No, I didn't use anything extra. The first run was just a test and the color took so well I stayed with that method. 1.4lt tap water in a 2.8 lt pot with .5 pack of dark brown Rit, boil for 25 min. Wash in cold/cold no detergent, dry.

One ribbon I abused by washing it several times on the small load setting with detergent and 1 cap full of bleach, then two cap fulls of bleach but the color held. This was the one that went too dark and I was trying to get it to fade.

I don't think this ribbon is 100% polyester. I don't know if I have hard water or not or if that matters.
 
No, I didn't use anything extra. The first run was just a test and the color took so well I stayed with that method. 1.4lt tap water in a 2.8 lt pot with .5 pack of dark brown Rit, boil for 25 min. Wash in cold/cold no detergent, dry.

One ribbon I abused by washing it several times on the small load setting with detergent and 1 cap full of bleach, then two cap fulls of bleach but the color held. This was the one that went too dark and I was trying to get it to fade.

I don't think this ribbon is 100% polyester. I don't know if I have hard water or not or if that matters.

I think if you had hard water, you would know.

If you can drink the water from your tape, and wash your cloths in it, without some kind of fancy filter, that cast you a lot of money, and that you either have to "treat", or have to refill something like a tank outside with resin beads, then chances are you don't have hard water. Then you don't have hard water.

It's a real pain in the butt, and if you have it, you usually know.

Thanks for all the info on the ribbon. :)

It will be months before I'm thin enough to buy my pants, but I think I will go ahead and dye the ribbon this weekend. :)
 
I actually wonder if there's enough interest in an accurate stripe to find a company to manufacture a roll for us?

I'd be in.
 
I found some companies that will do it but the minimum order was between 1000 and 2000 yards. If everyone involved committed to buying a whole roll, then it might be doable. I'd be in.
 
I found one with a 2k yard minimum. I'm contacting them to get a quote. We would need to nail down exactly what the stripe count, color, and order is.
 
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That would save us the trouble of dying it. I think you got the colors nailed, you could send that as a sample. I just got my ribbon today and an inch is definitely too narrow, I'd cast my vote for 1.25". Also, this ribbon is really thin and flimsy, the stuff on Mal's pants looks a little heavier to me. Other than that I'd say same number of stripes spread out over the greater width, but maybe with the dark brown stripes on the edges a little wider than the others. If one pair of pants safely requires 4 yards, we'd need to get 500 people in on it. I don't really see that happening.
 
I don't see that happening either. We'll know more when they get back to me with price. I'm not sure I want to handle a run or anything. I'm just collecting data at this point. I'm pretty pleased with the stripes I have now, so it's a toss up.
 
I see what you mean now. I guess I'll have to track some of the stuff down in a natural fiber, any tips?

Now I'm torn on which trousers to buy. A long time ago I bought a pair of the Wah Maker Frontier trousers from WWMerc (ended up being the wrong size and had a financial crisis, so I sent them back for a refund), but they were nearly 100% in the details. The stamped design on the suspender buttons was even pretty similar. The cut of the split back was even right. The ONLY problem is that the fabric was a cotton duck that was quite a bit too dark. In that respect, the Frontier Classic trousers win hands down, but the details of those ones are way off. I've had quite a bit of luck with Rit color remover since then and I could probably leach all the color out of the Wah pants, but I don't have much faith in my ability to bring them back to the correct color, and the duck canvas might have a bit too heavy a weave. And then you have to take into account the price, the Wah's are twice as expensive. Any thoughts?


I think mine are WAH, but I can't recall off the top of my head, and there's no label in them. I'm pretty sure I got them from an eBay seller named Cowtownkaty - the correct colour is Wheat.
 
I just noticed though that the ebay ribbon has the wrong number of stripes. It would be great if Zeppo could jump back in and help us track down some of the ribbon he got.

The ribbon I bought came after an exhaustive search over the course of many days on eBay, and I just lucked out and stumbled upon a small quantity of it.
 
Btw, one of my teachers has a pair of slip on shoes with what's at least a SIMILAR toe shape/pattern with the sections/strip things and what looks like a really close sole (it's all black instead of that mustard color from the Serenity promo pics). Next time he wears them to class I'm going to ask him what brand they are. Who knows, maybe they're the ones.

The mustard colour is due to the shoes getting covered in dust and sand and stuff. They're a black and grey/white two tone sole.

Also, the shoes used to build the boots on the show are from Steve Madden.
 
Oh, and if I really had to guess I would say Mal's stripe is most likely 1.25". 1.5 looks way too big, but I have a feeling 1" is too small.

According to Shawna Trpcic, it was 1"

That's what I used on mine.
 
I think the half pack of dark brown was the way to go. I'm very pleased with the results. Boiled for 25 minutes.
ribbonfinal.png


Looks great!
 
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