Temporary Fabric Dye or Paint?

[gypsylakat]

I just had a fabulous idea for recycling something in my closet to do a cheshire cat look for an Alice in Wonderland party, I have this dress

(Note: the bodice is obviously separate, and reversable to VIOLET!)
The dress is made primarily of tulle type stuff and the underpart is synthetic probably polyester or rayon if i remember correctly... (I believe it cost me either $4 or $7 at Ross)

So I was thinking it would look really cool if I could get the different wavy bits of tulle to be slightly different colors of purple without dyeing it permanently, It's technically "ok" if it is permanent it would match the bodice better, but I kind of like having it white (not sure why) and would prefer something that wouldn't be permanent.
Would food coloring work? I'm thinking it would stain it, but then I  could bleach it (assuming it's a bleachable fabric, I don't have it in front of me...)

I'm also open to hearing permanent ideas

[amy]

Well here's my two cents.  Surely food coloring would stain but if you don't mind that part you could always try our old 80's trick.   I admit to having dyed hair and clothes with kool-aid!   We were all the rage in 1985 with orange or cherry kool-aid hair!   it washed out eventually.    It is super cheap and would be fun to experiment with... You could make it different strengths (no sugar of course) and use it like a water color paint.

[Auryn]

Cool idea but I don't think (mind you its just my minimally informed opinion) that there is such a thing as temporary dye for fabric.
Even if you could bleach it out the fabric wouldn't go back to the original shade of white.

I think you should just totally go for it and don't worry about washing it out.

[Adriana Rose]

You would not be able to rinse it out, that white would hang on to any color like crazy. And tule HATES getting dyed, i have not had any luck getting any to dye myself.

If you want to go for permanent i would try Dylon dyes they are in little packets and I have had much better luck with them than Rit.

If the tule does hold a color it might be a almost pastle color.


If you do bleach it back be sure to have some vinager on hand to stop the bleaching process when it gets to the color you want.
Vinage has a differnt ph level that stops the bleaching process,

good luck and post pictures

[ArielCallista]

I like the koolaid idea, I would suggest you go buy some small swatches of fabric just like the dress...tulle is pretty easy to find...the rest of the dress might be more complicated to match...get the swatches in white and dye test them...you could get like a quarter yard of each and cut it up into smaller chunks to test different ideas, dye and bleach out the color...koolaid etc.
I would suggest against trying to make it go back to white after tho. It probably won't go back to the same white it is now, especially since there is tulle involved.But if you swatch test you'll be able to see what would happen. After dyeing it cheshire cat style, if it doesnt make since to keep it stripy and purple, I'm sure you could dye it a solid darker purple or black. don't try to dye it a color too far from purple tho or it will come out brownish...depending on the dye of course...

[gypsylakat]

OK thanks for the ideas, I like the idea of dying it a solid purple after, but I'll also experiment with swatches to see what happens
KOOLAID! what a fabulous reccommendation!