dyeing wool blankets

[rfisher]

Does anyone have any experience dying wool blankets
I have a nice cream white army medical corp blanket and would like to make it navy blue or dk green. All the tutorials i have seen online say to use hot water but they aren't dying wool. I thought hot water and wool don't go together so what can I do ? And also can I do it in a 5 gal bucket or something. I'm afraid the wife would kill me if I used her wash machine. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Dying wool isn't easy... It requires heat, silk dyes and a BIG pot for the process, time and patience. Being made from animal hair wool obviously contains protein, therefore regular dying methods won't work. Wool being a protein is sensitive to high PH dyes as well. So again, the regular dyes used for plant based materials like cotton and linens are a no no. Dying wool obviously can be done, but honestly it's allot of work to do it correctly, trust me. :thumbsup:

 

[rfisher]

No wonder I couldn't find any tutorials on you-tube. I'll take your word for it. Guess its on to plan B . Thanks a lot for your help!

 

[Brokennock]

Would Salon quality hair dye work? Probably can't do the shade of blue or green the o.p. originally planned on (but who knows these days) but maybe could get a burgundy or brown?

 

[Crewdawg445]

Respectively, that's a good move! This very reason is why I purchase my wool in the color I'm wanting. It's a chore to dye, not impossible but rather time consuming.

 

[texoma]

I dyed 4 of the Italian surplus blankets using Rit liquid dye and vinegar.I dyed them in the bathtub using the hottest water my water heater would put out and they came out great.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Hair color is just that, color not a dye and isn't permanent like a dye. My mother-in-law is a professional hair stylists and I actually did try color after talking with her. The results however were not worth the time. Again, even with the proper dye it's a job.

 

[Crewdawg445]

I dyed 4 of the Italian surplus blankets using Rit liquid dye and vinegar.I dyed them in the bathtub using the hottest water my water heater would put out and they came out great.

Has your dyed wool been exposed to allot of rain? Also, is it 100% wool? Most surplus blankets contain a mixture of fibers. The dye will certainly take, but it won't last I can guarantee you of this as it won't bond with the protein fibers.

I made a simple match coat from a first attempt using rit dye. I to thought my efforts were rewarded... However, a soaking rain turned me and my gear a rather interesting shade of brown.

 

[texoma]

Have not been in rain,but after they dried I soaked them again to see if any color would run and it did not.Vinegar is supposed to set color in wool from what I have read.Couple of pics of blankets.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Soaking alone won't really show you anything, I did the same thing as you, as its common practice. Take them baby's out and use them in a good rain storm. Just make sure you have old clothes on!

I will say, those do look nicely done. If your not planning on using them often in the elements, for occasional outings or events you SHOULD be fine. Personally, I like to know my gear is going to hold up, expecially my blankets as I'm definitely relying on them! :thumbsup:

 

[texoma]

Lol nope they will stay in the wedge tent and I will wear my capote in the rain.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Here's a small batch of wool I've dyed blue, the grey I purchased. I do allot of work making wool leggings and breechclouts. The blue happens to be my last batch before I stopped the process. To do it right just takes allot of time.

 

[texoma]

That looks very nice.I wasn't expecting much when I dyed mine,they are just used for rendezvous but wanted to make them something other than the green they were and they came out ten times better than I expected.They do have some uneven spots but they look better than army green imho.

 

[Stophel]

Dying wool isn't easy... It requires heat, silk dyes and a BIG pot for the process, time and patience. Being made from animal hair wool obviously contains protein, therefore regular dying methods won't work. Wool being a protein is sensitive to high PH dyes as well. So again, the regular dyes used for plant based materials like cotton and linens are a no no. Dying wool obviously can be done, but honestly it's allot of work to do it correctly, trust me. :thumbsup:

Actually, just the opposite. Wool is very easy to dye with natural dyestuffs, whereas cotton and linen are notoriously difficult to dye with most anything! Wool is also much more colorfast than linen or cotton. :wink:

Now, as for a natural blue dye, there's indigo (and woad, which is the same dyestuff, just not as strong), and indigo dyeing isn't something the home hobbyist/one-time-dyer could do very easily, most likely. And to get any kind of green, historically, you had to use indigo for blue, and weld or something else for yellow to make green.
:wink: Which is why green is a relatively uncommon color until the advent of synthetic dyes.

I will definitely second the idea of buying wool in the color you want to begin with, especially if one is not interested in doing it absolutely historically, as dyeing is a pain! You can find scads of wool blankets of all colors for sale on ebay. Last two I bought were off white (I think about $20, including shipping), and a nice dark loden green blanket with a black stripe at each end that was less than $30. :wink:

 

[tenngun]

I had good results with rit dye n a HBC. I had made a candy stripe reservation capote for town ware. Before winter was over much of it was a greasy yellow. So I dyed it brown. looked good never had any trouble.

 

[Crewdawg445]

Sorry I should have clarified a little better on what I mean by "isn't easy".

Dying any article is a pain from start to finsh, this we know. What I'm saying is properly dying wool is a time consuming task and one that requires special dyes designed for protein based fibers. It's not as "easy" as some think by just going down to the local mart and soaking a wool blanket in a dye bath.

There is nothing hard about dying any material IMO, it just involves a little more patience. Patience in today's world can automatically lead to something being a hard task for many right away! :grin: