Dying the Camo (the noobie's go at it)

[TXBolt]

So, I have absolutely no experience with fabricating things, sewing, construction, or anything that would give me skills to make this armor. I just have the internet and tenacity.

 

Here is my experience with this process.

 

Following the guidelines here, I purchased the camo (from ebay) per the guidelines set forth by the experts here (no wind proof, british desert camo, etc) and set to dying it with the RIT liquid dye (2 bottles of dark brown and 1 bottle of Black(shown here)). If you need my breakdown on how I went about searching, what I bought, etc... lemme know. I'll post that.

 

For the Dye work the way I did it:

 

You need:

RIT dye

Bathtub

Latex gloves

A stick

trashbag (x2)

household cleaner

Clorox wipes

junky cloths that you will throw away on completion

 

To dye:

Put on latex gloves (you do not want this stuff on your skin... you'll go to work looking like you have a disease. Then the zombie hunters will come get you or something.

 

I used the bathtub to do the dying (more on how not to have your wife murder you for doing that in a bit). I filled the tub with the hottest water it would produce to about 4 inches deep, and then poured the whole bottle of dark brown dye in (SHAKE BOTTLE WELL BEFORE POURING). Use the stick to gentle stir in the dye.

 

I placed each piece of the BDU in the water (including the pockets I had cut off because I will be using those later when I sew things back on to spec).

 

Let soak 25-30 minutes using the stick to push down air bubbles that lift the fabric out of the water. I didn't really stir... I just let is soak.

 

I drained the tub around minute 28 and then wrung out the fabric of excess water.

 

Place pieces into one of the trash bags and carry them outside for drying. Just hang em up however it make sense. The wife will thank you for carrying it in a trash bag and not dripping brown dye all over her house.

 

With minimal elbow grease use one of those junky rags and the household cleaner to clean the tub. There will be stains left. However... your best friend is the clorox wipe. 4-5 of those bad boys with a little scrubbing makes the tub look good as new... with ONE exception. If you have scratches and gouges in the tub, the dye will settle into those scratches. You will have to work a little to clean those out. I assure you... you CAN clean the tub if you get after things immediately. After 3 rounds of dye, my wife has not murdered me yet (or even hinted at it for THIS reason... other reasons are not part of this thread).

 

Attached picture is the 1st pass.

[TXBolt]

So once that dried, I took to hitting it with the second dye. This was about a full week later due to work and kid schedules.

 

I used the RIT Dark Brown and let it soak for 15-20 minutes in the tub as described above. All steps the same except for the time in the tub. I drained the tub at about 15 minutes and pulled items out at the tub drained.

 

See attached pic for 2nd dye.

 

You can see the difference in 1st and second dye quite well.

 

(NOTE... If I knew how to do an in-line post, I would... sorry for thumbnail)

[TXBolt]

The third dye stage (Black) took me a month to get to. I own a CPA firm, and it was the heart of tax season, so those clothes were good and dry.

 

Using the same method, I let it soak for 10-15 minutes (draining the tub at minute 10).

 

The color turns out exactly right if you do the process of:

25-30 minutes Dark Brown

15-20 minutes Dark Brown

10-15 minutes Black

 

If you are freaked out because it looks too dark after the black... don't worry. it dries perfectly.

 

I am attaching multiple pics here to really highlight the difference lighting and angle can make on the pics you see on the board. The wet "true" color is closest to the one you see in my hand. The dry "true" color is the one of the shirt.

 

By the way... Note the button. You will notice the dye does not take to that fabric or to the seams (see how they are lighter?). That is because they are not cotton like the rest of the clothing. After researching, this is normal. The buttons will be hidden, so no big deal. You will have to go in with a touch up pen (as described throughout this board to clean those seams up).

 

I am contacting a buddy of mine to help me with the sewing, so I hope to have posts later on how that went. I started cleaning up my hard armor too, so that should be coming as I stumble through that process.

 

I hope this helps.

 

OK... so I am having trouble posting the pics for some reason (I keep tinkering with the sizes, but its refusing to upload). Sooooo.... go here to see what I'm talking about: https://www.facebook.com/thunder.bolt.96930/posts/978227448950736