Dear all,

I am making my husband a NY Yankees quilt for Christmas (at the rate I'm going it may not be THIS Christmas...).

This quilt will be a flannel rag quilt with navy and white alternating blocks--the navy flannel will have a white emblem appliqued to it and vice versa for the white flannel.

Here is my dilemma...I ordered navy fleece online from Joann's--it came in and it is a dark royal blue. NOT the same color as navy. ARRRGGGHHH!!! Should I shop around some more and see if I can find a true navy fleece (Hancock.com might have one) or should I try dyeing what I have?
I priced the dye yesterday and the color remover and packets of dye will run me about $15. For that price I am thinking maybe I can find the fabric.

Does anyone have experience dyeing fabric that is not white???

thanks for your help, this group is AWESOME!!!!

Rose Hall

I'm not sure, but I don't think you can dye fleace fabric because it's essentially 100% polyester. I thought you could only dye fabrics that have a fairly high percentage of "natural" fibers, like cotton or wool or linen? But I could be entirely wrong - I've only ever tried to dye cotton fabrics.

Jan

I've never dyed fleece, but kinda think the color remover would not be necessary because

the color is through the fiber and not applied later
navy is dark enough that over blue, it should not matter - a lot depends on the type of dye you are going to use.


That being said, I still think the cost of new will be cheaper. Dick Blick carries iDye for polyester, and Dharmatrading.com may have something there.

Good article here on dying poly
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dispersedye.shtml

THe polar fleece that I have, I can't even bleach, it doesn't do anything to it. no color change what so ever. I recommend that if you would like navy blue that you try and find it somewhere and use the royal blue for something else. Or contact Joann's and tell them that it is the wrong color.

i've had the same experience as cutebuns. bleach doesn't do anything to change the color, so i can't imagine that you can dye it, either.

i would follow her advice and look for it elsewhere.

Well, I took your advice and ordered the navy fleece online at Hancocks. I contacted them first via email and asked if it was a "true" navy or a dark royal blue. The cust. serv. rep. assured me it was a navy.
This project is taking longer than I thought it would...ugh.
thanks for the advice!!!
Rose Hall