dying silk

[bannon]

Hi, i just bought a silk dress from ebay. it's lovely but the colour isn't so great. does anyone know if i can dye the material or should i not touch it. it says dry clean only so i'm worried i'll ruin it.

[Jugglering1]

I wouldn't advise dying a dry-clean only article because dying is a water based activity, which the garment isn't really made up to survive. You can buy dyes for silk though but I'd be more worried about washing the dress - if it is lined then you may find that the two different sections react to the water differently and you'd probably lose the beautiful shape.

Just a thought, if you are any good at dressmaking, you could add a holey, lacy or really fine sheer fabric (in a different colour) to the dress to transform the overall colour.

Here are a couple of pictures of what I mean:-

http://www.styleplus.ie/images/FiorellaLaceGow n.jpg

http://www.casalena.co.uk/images/K004.jpg

[bannon]

thank you so much. i'll give this a try!