Dritz 87012 Permanent Fabric Dye, 1.75-Ounce, Velvet Black

I am not a DIY-er. Growing up my mom was a costumer/seamstress and I watched her make hella messes everywhere dying fabric and clothing for the stage, and mom always came out with odd colored hands. I swore I'd never do it, the results might have looked great on stage, but the effort hardly seemed worth it for every day life (which, by the way, did not stop my mom from dying anything she could get her hand on if the mood struck her..!). Because I could never stand the mess it made, I never became a DIY-er - I'm a DIY idiot.Recently I bought a pair of pants that were so nicely cut, I really wished I had a pair in black. I decided to go for it - times have changed, and I'm not running a theater costume shop, there's no need for stress or mess.And I was right. I followed the directions explicitly. Pants were 100% cotton, brand new, so I washed them, but did not dry them. The directions say there's enough dye/dye-power to effectively dye about 1/2 pound of fabric, roughly equivalent to a large shirt or pair of pants. Perfect.I decided I'd push it a little and drop in a light henley that was also 100% cotton and would likely take very well.The pants were olive kaki, and the shirt a kind of muted pewter blue, both dark enough to provide a nice undertone to the velvet black Dylon color. I dyed both items together in a bucket, and was fairly lazy about stirring, but I was sure to saturate both items of clothing. I let them sit in the dye with a couple of extra stirs for an extra half hour, not that I think that did anything, but whatevs, couldn't hurt.Rinsed in cold water, as per instructions, then washed in the washing machine to get the excess dye out. I didn't use detergent, and will wash these clothes with other black clothing, as I'm sure there's plenty of excess dye in them.But the results are fantastic! The pants look incredible, you'd never know I didn't buy them off the shelf in the color they came out. A tip for those who want to do a top notch job - thread, nylon or metal zippers, buttons and decals, none of these things will take dye, which worked out well in my case. The shirt didn't come out black for some reason, but a rich navy blue. I don't think that had anything to do with the dye (for instance, if I used too much fabric for the amount of dye the pants wouldn't have come out as beautifully dark as they did), I think the shirt must have some part polyester or something. In both cases, I won - the shirt looks fantastic, better than when I bought it three years ago and the pants are incredible!I don't want to make a regular habit dying clothes, but I won't be reluctant either. This was a great, no muss no fuss experience with a top-notch result - my clothes don't look home-dyed at all, they look store crisp!One thing I'll suggest to the dying novice: spend an extra couple of $ to get long rubber gloves for the dying/stirring process. I used cheap little ones that went up to my wrists, and while I managed to keep my forearms dye-free, the right hand glove had a tiny puncture and I ended up with an entirely black middle finger on my right hand...ha! Thankfully the dye does wear off skin pretty quickly, so it only lasted a few days..! Whew!

I recently used this dye (Velvet Black) for the second time to refresh the color of 2 pairs of faded black cotton denim jeans that I wear to work. Once again, the jeans came out perfectly black. I used 4 - 1¾ oz. packs and a cup of salt in my front loading washer set at 140°F. I let it run on the longest cycle with 7 rinses so the dye would have a chance to really set in and then get rinsed well. I'll use this dye again and again. It's really good. It is a black that is based on a super dark blue pigment so if I wash these black jeans with my regular blue jeans in the future, I won't have to worry about the blue jeans coming out looking dingy and dirty, the way they did when I used Rit dye which is a brown-based black. Instead, my blue jeans come out looking newer than when they went in but the color transfer is minimal. I highly recommend this dye for 100% cotton denim jeans.

I have used regular liquid RIT to darken my faded black clothes for years. Yet, I succumbed to voices on the internet that claimed RIT was a mass-market, subpar product with which to dye fabrics. I believed something else, a specific and well-reviewed fabric dye touted by garment customizers, may get my clothing even blacker. I gladly paid very little for Dylon, which shipped quickly from the UK. In a large, stainless steel sink I attempted to dye one faded black tee and one pair of very slim faded black pants, mostly natural fibers, sized extra small. I got a splotchy mess. I wear and wash these favored items hoping the Dylon-induced Rorschach blots will fade or go unnoticed. I followed all directions. I have a decade of experience with big-box-store-bought clothing dye, and I did NOT expect this snafu with what was purported to be a more specialized dye with a better pro reputation than what I had previously used. RIT may not be long-lasting, but Dylon, in my experience, is a much more unreliable, persnickety dye for deepening black clothes.

I used this dark green dye on a grease-stained, pale yellow-green, 100 percent cotton dress. I sprayed the dress with water to dampen it, then followed the package instructions for the dye. I let the dress sit in the dye for a few hours (longer than recommended on the package). The dye worked very well. As expected, it did not dye the stitching (probably because the thread contains synthetic fiber) or the printed white plastic design on the dress. The resulting color is slightly more of an olive shade than I expected, but that's probably because the dye color was combined with the original yellow-green color of the dress. A few small bleached areas of the dress were successfully dyed, and in strong light, those areas appear slightly more blue than the surrounding fabric, perhaps because the fabric was nearly white in those areas. I was disappointed that the grease stains were still visible, but laundering the dress a few extra times eliminated the stains completely. The dye also seemed to add some substance to the fabric, making it feel thicker. The dress now receives compliments.

Dylon worked well in a small bkeach spot but the larger one of the two is slightly noticeable. Dylon wont cover a cotton poly and rayon blend totally. Those fabrics need a really hot bath dye. I'm not totally dissatisfied however, it is wearable. It was easy to use and not too messy.

This product did work, but it did not work as well as I expected it to. The jeans blue color came out a lot lighter than I would have liked. It helped a lot, but definitely did not make them dark like new jeans. I tried dieing my jeans in the washing machine, but it decided to drain itself out sooner than I wanted it to. It is possible that the jeans didn't die as well because of this, but it seamed like it wouldn't have made enough of a difference if it had. I would be willing to experiment with this product again, but I wouldn't recommend or discourage trying it out at this point.