# dying your own shirts



## themanwhowas (Dec 4, 2008)

I have just done a calculation. If i were to buy 5 shirts in 5 sizes in 5 colours (125 in total) from my current supplier it would cost me £207.50. If instead i were to buy 25 shirts in 5 sizes all in white, it would cost me £147.50. I would then need to dye these myself then iron them before printing on them. That may be more work but it's a saving of over 25% (minus the cost of dye). I'm just curious if anyone actually does this and what you think of the idea?

Thanks


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## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

Even Dying is not easy, and then waste.

I you where to try and dye 125 shirts evenly, you would need a container to fit'em, so if you average washing machine holds about 5kg /11 Lb and that is about 25 shirts, so 5 Washing machines together would get you there, if you want to accuratelly produce the same color your container would have to fit all the t-shirts of the same batch. All the home dying I have done is towards a more vintage worn look, never even.

Then there is the waste; no idea how regulations are in you country/state/city, but if they cacth me dumping 300L+ of dyed water in the sewer where I live, I would get in to big trouble. Dyes are so soluble that if your water flows to a river or beach you'll probably leave a stain visible from afar. 

Then, is 50p per shirt worth all that hustle? Is your margin so little?


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## Brantgoose (Sep 7, 2008)

If you dye with fiber reactive dyes the shirts stitches don't turn color, The other types of dyes have acid in them and are bad for the environment so i only use fiber reactive dye. You can look for shirts with cotton stitching. I don't care if the stitches are white still though, think it looks cool.


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

Plus you've got shrinkage to contend with. Plus the fact that those shirts are presumably *white* and not PFD, so it probably won't even work properly (they'll have polyester thread - you need cotton if you want to avoid white contrast stitching).

Dyeing pieces is easy, but dyeing a whole batch is tedious.

All in all, I think it's an absolutely terrible idea.


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## ino (Jan 23, 2007)

Clothes are dyed before they're stiched, all in the same batch and also at the same time. This is a specialized job.


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## themanwhowas (Dec 4, 2008)

Yeah those are some good points. I don't think i'd be allowed to go to work with purple hands everyday anyway, it was just an thought


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