Just a little bit of orange… How to hand dye a white bra orange.

I love orange, such a vibrant and happy colour and always wanted an orange bra.  I didn’t make this bra with the intention to dye it orange but regardless I am going to do it.

 When you need only one bra or brief in a specific colour it makes sense the finish the garment and then dyes it instead of dyeing everything separately. But consider the following before you start, dye work differently on different fabrics. The biggest part of this bra is Nylon (I know because I have dyed the different components before) and I suspect only the thread will be polyester, which will stay white. Beware sometimes the hooks and eyes and ribbon may be polyester too. I am going to use acid dye for animal fibres from Slipstream Fabric Finishes.

Preparing the dye bath, I don’t test the Ph every time, but I will today. It looks about Ph 5. The acid dyes work best below Ph 5.5 and for good measure, I add about 15ml of vinegar to the water. Re-testing shows a Ph of around 4.

I am satisfied and add the bra to soak while I boil the kettle to prepare the dye. Always add wet garments or fabric to the dye bath. Usually, I start soaking the fabric in a basin before I start preparing the dye bath.

Remove the bra before adding the dye (1 teaspoon), now dissolved in 250ml of boiling water. After a good stir, make sure all lumps are dissolved add the bra again. Initially, the bra looks peach, but with time and heat, it will change to a stronger orange.

I heat the dye bath to at least 80 ⁰C, stirring the whole time.

As expected the thread didn’t take the dye. To prevent the white thread you should sew the white bra with orange thread.

Vola! One orange bra! Perfect to go with my orange dress.

A tutorial on dyeing a matching brief consisting out of cotton and lycra will follow in part 2.