Scarves "Upcycled" Scarf

[blydia]

also adding my first upcycling experiment here:
I used IDEAL color for cotton, linen, viscose and silk in a bright red to tone down a very bright royal purple / ultraviolet scarf, that I had bought on impulse and afterwards found that it goes with nothing in my wardrobe.
there was 1 casualty in the process (the spoon) - but it shows the color of the dye I used:
I had it in a 40 degree C waterbath for 30 minutes. Here's the transformation:
Before

after

side by side

 

[cathee1]

That's a beautiful purple colour! Good of you to take the risk so that you can actually wear the scarf. A scarf that always sits on the shelf is a bad investment..

 

[dublineuse]

Hey there, i have just been redirected to this thread

I would like to home-dye a scarf. It is very bright orange with green / yellow / grey.
Any advice as to what dye colour to use? Colours that i like are blue / grey / purple - is that possible ?

Thanks in advance for your help - attached a picture of the scarf i would like to home-dye

 

[blydia]

Hey there, i have just been redirected to this thread

I would like to home-dye a scarf. It is very bright orange with green / yellow / grey.
Any advice as to what dye colour to use? Colours that i like are blue / grey / purple - is that possible ?

Thanks in advance for your help - attached a picture of the scarf i would like to home-dye

View attachment 4248833

I think your best bet is to dye with a dark blue or dark purple. I've done a quick overlay with photoshop to see how it could come out. the blue would give a somewhat more muted purple and the dark purple would give a more true purple shade. obviously it can turn out quite differently, but I used this tool as a guidance when I picked the color for dyeing my scarf. To get it to grey you would have to dye it with the complementary color (teal or blue-green) but that can give a very dirty color if it doesn't work right so probably wouldn't do that..
good luck! please share the result!

 

[dublineuse]

Thank you so much ! I will try dark blue and will post a picture !
Btw i looved your purple, you truly are gorgeous and have great taste ! Such an inspiration [emoji177]

 

[blydia]

Thank you so much ! I will try dark blue and will post a picture !
Btw i looved your purple, you truly are gorgeous and have great taste ! Such an inspiration [emoji177]

aw you are too kind

 

[dublineuse]

Me again
May i ask what colour transformation you would suggest for scarf with this colorway?

 

[bunnycat]

Hey there, i have just been redirected to this thread

I would like to home-dye a scarf. It is very bright orange with green / yellow / grey.
Any advice as to what dye colour to use? Colours that i like are blue / grey / purple - is that possible ?

Thanks in advance for your help - attached a picture of the scarf i would like to home-dye

View attachment 4248833

I don't think it will be possible to take it from orange to blue ( orange+blue = muddy because they are complimentary) If you like a purple that leans in to red tones (like red violet) you may have better luck keeping the colors from turning muddy. Pink would be my suggestion, as the orange will take that well and go a pretty coral.

I had a similar problem with an orange and white Alphabet iii twilly. It got DD'd pink.

Before:


After:

Me again
May i ask what colour transformation you would suggest for scarf with this colorway?
View attachment 4250377

I think you've got a lot more leeway with this one because of the pale background. Blues or purple should work fine (don't go too dark....)

 

[blydia]

I don't think it will be possible to take it from orange to blue ( orange+blue = muddy because they are complimentary) If you like a purple that leans in to red tones (like red violet) you may have better luck keeping the colors from turning muddy. Pink would be my suggestion, as the orange will take that well and go a pretty coral.

I had a similar problem with an orange and white Alphabet iii twilly. It got DD'd pink.

Before:

View attachment 4250387
After:

View attachment 4250388


I think you've got a lot more leeway with this one because of the pale background. Blues or purple should work fine (don't go too dark....)

would agree you cal play around with this one depending on what outcome you want. any color you’re going to get will likely have a earthy feel because of the underlying brown. I could imagine a wine or burgundy red would give quite nice rust or a emerald green shade would give some khaki/olive tone. if you’re into that could be quite nice. not sure I would do blue here not sure how a browny blue would look.

 

[dublineuse]

Hi there !
Thank you again for your suggestions and helpful pictures !
As promised, here is the result with the orange scarf.
I used pink (blue was impossible to find in my store)
I think the colour as improved indeed (and it suits my colouring better). However now the scarf is all stiff [emoji32] not at all nice to wear or even to touch.
Not sure what i did wrong here but i am afraid to say it’s a fail for me

 

[frou frou]

That’s a shame because the dyed scarf is stunning.
I love wearing orange, but sludgy orange with browns is not nice or flattering, so the appearance is vastly improved.
On the hand of the silk, have you tried washing again, adding a slurp of white vinegar to the rinse ?
Even in H boutique the scarves with dark or strong colours often seem to have a cardboardy feel at first.

 

[FugitiveRouge]

Hi there !
Thank you again for your suggestions and helpful pictures !
As promised, here is the result with the orange scarf.
I used pink (blue was impossible to find in my store)
I think the colour as improved indeed (and it suits my colouring better). However now the scarf is all stiff [emoji32] not at all nice to wear or even to touch.
Not sure what i did wrong here but i am afraid to say it’s a fail for me

View attachment 4256663View attachment 4256664View attachment 4256665

The dye bath chemicals probably stripped and stressed the silk. Silk is a fiber made from protein. My general rule of thumb is to treat silk like my hair. I never wash it hot or use any detergent I wouldn't apply to my head. If the texture feels particularly dry or rough, I'll even apply moisturizing conditioner to the silk!

I would go straight to the deep conditioner treatment if the texture feels as crummy as you say.

Vinegar can help restore shine and fix and neutralize dye as a rinse step after conditioning.

 

[MonsoonBirkin]

What a gorgeous blue-to-purple transformation! I always respect those who are bold enough to DIY modify their lux stuff. I haven't always thought the outcome was great (this one is a big thumbs up), but I always admire the effort.

Dublineuse, maybe you can frame the scarf and use it more as an art piece? Maybe that can be a silver lining if the texture can't be restored.

 

[dublineuse]

Thank you all for your advice ! I will try and see if i can soften it a bit... if not yes i suppose i could do something else entirely with it

 

[julian.f]

This thread has been quiet for a while...and although I did the Hermesmatic and I loved the results, I had forgotten about a Psyche scarf way back in the depths of my closet. When recently cleaning out and reworking how I was storing my scarves (which is why I had forgotten about some "less than favorites") I found it. Now if H could do it, so could I (I had hoped). The successes above gave me some courage to go through with it. Purchased some Dylon. Chose Plum Red. Did this in the machine but kept an eye on it and it didn't stay longer than 20-25m in the dye. The before was elegant and beautiful but the the colors weren't doing it for me...I have to say I'm thrilled with the result and do encourage others to try this, especially with scarves that are designs that may not sell well - this is at least a way to salvage and get wear out of something you already own .