Post by Drum on Aug 6, 2024 15:34:58 GMT
Found a solid vintage T2 that was close to my size on eBay and, since I’ve always been curious about this model but never seen one in the wild, I decided to take a whirl as the price was right. What arrived was in good shape but noticeably yellowed even after a careful washing. Still, it was good enough to try out so I brought it to the beach for a few sweltering days last week. I will do a review of the model at some point so let it suffice to say, I added a whole new element of yellowing with my own prodigious sweating. All this convinced me that this would be a good candidate for a dye job.
After some research, I settled on the Procion reactant dye and picked up a starter set on Amazon. There were a few steps and various explanations for how best to approach the immersion dyeing process, but i decided it was a bit like reading recipes for soup that are all going to taste the same in the end anyway, so I chose a plan and “dove in”
The firmer reactant dye requires an activator, in this case, the starter kit came with a quantity of soda ash. Without the activator, the dye does not much adhere to the fiber. It is the combo of the dye and the activator that allows the color to penetrate and remain in the fibers. Additionally, this dye ONLY adheres to natural fibers, aka, the 100% cotton duck of this old ‘90’s T2. You will note the synthetic threads used to stitch the hats together as well as the polyester labels were not impacted by the dye.
Since I only wanted the hat to be one color, I followed the approach of mixing the dye (medium blue, cobalt blue and jet black) in a large plastic storage tote, tossed the hat in, added salt twice over ten mins and then two measures of the dissolved soda ash over 15 mins, stirring all the while. All told, I chose to slosh it around in the dye bath for about an hour until it seemed dark enough. I was hoping for a darker, not quite navy blue. After removal, the newly blue hat needed a LOT of rinsing before the water was not coming away blue. Unfortunately, the rinsing did result in a somewhat less blue hat than I was expecting, but it’s similar to a denim blue and, in the USA, nobody is allowed to hate denim blue, so… it’s all good.
All in all, I’m pleased with the results of my first effort. It is not as solid color wise as I was hoping but I think I might actually prefer the somewhat random splotchiness of the color overall. It is very much like a pair of prewashed denim jeans (which my Mom never bought for me because they didn’t seem as tough as brand new denim. ;p) and I think it will wear well. It depends on how the dyed cotton reacts to my sweat, I guess. I will update this thread.
Anyway, check out the pics and post any questions. I’m going to try something a bit more multi colored for my next dye job. Hoping for something akin to the tie dyed shirts I’ve worn since I was a teen. I will post up as that accrues.
After some research, I settled on the Procion reactant dye and picked up a starter set on Amazon. There were a few steps and various explanations for how best to approach the immersion dyeing process, but i decided it was a bit like reading recipes for soup that are all going to taste the same in the end anyway, so I chose a plan and “dove in”
The firmer reactant dye requires an activator, in this case, the starter kit came with a quantity of soda ash. Without the activator, the dye does not much adhere to the fiber. It is the combo of the dye and the activator that allows the color to penetrate and remain in the fibers. Additionally, this dye ONLY adheres to natural fibers, aka, the 100% cotton duck of this old ‘90’s T2. You will note the synthetic threads used to stitch the hats together as well as the polyester labels were not impacted by the dye.
Since I only wanted the hat to be one color, I followed the approach of mixing the dye (medium blue, cobalt blue and jet black) in a large plastic storage tote, tossed the hat in, added salt twice over ten mins and then two measures of the dissolved soda ash over 15 mins, stirring all the while. All told, I chose to slosh it around in the dye bath for about an hour until it seemed dark enough. I was hoping for a darker, not quite navy blue. After removal, the newly blue hat needed a LOT of rinsing before the water was not coming away blue. Unfortunately, the rinsing did result in a somewhat less blue hat than I was expecting, but it’s similar to a denim blue and, in the USA, nobody is allowed to hate denim blue, so… it’s all good.
All in all, I’m pleased with the results of my first effort. It is not as solid color wise as I was hoping but I think I might actually prefer the somewhat random splotchiness of the color overall. It is very much like a pair of prewashed denim jeans (which my Mom never bought for me because they didn’t seem as tough as brand new denim. ;p) and I think it will wear well. It depends on how the dyed cotton reacts to my sweat, I guess. I will update this thread.
Anyway, check out the pics and post any questions. I’m going to try something a bit more multi colored for my next dye job. Hoping for something akin to the tie dyed shirts I’ve worn since I was a teen. I will post up as that accrues.
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