Brings a new lease of life to your clothes (Dylon Dye)

Member Name: steedandpeel

Product:	Dylon Dye
Date:	02/08/09 (241 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No mess, easy to use and effective

Disadvantages: A bit expensive and you need to run the machine quite a few times

A few years ago I bought a lovely pair of black trousers. They were comfortable, and they were smart enough for work. I loved them, and so I proceeded to wear them often. So, two years later, they've probably been washed more than 100 times, and they were looking decidedly gray and not nearly so smart as they once were. I didn't want to throw them away, so I decided to dye them.

I bought Dylon Machine Dye in my local hardware shop. It cost £6.99 which is very expensive. I've seen it on the internet for less than half what I paid. However, as I'd never get round to actually buying the dye this way, I decided to buy it on the spot. I chose the Velvet Black colour.

I pondered whether it would be cheaper to buy a non-machine dye. I had used these before tie-dying t-shirts when I was a teenager. I remembered it was a messy and lengthy process involving buckets of dye. I opted for the machine dye, as I didn't want to make a mess of the flat or have the bucket hanging around.

I put my trousers in the washing machine, and then, as directed by the instructions, I poured the dye on top in the drum. I then measured 500g of salt and added this to the drum on top of the trousers - the salt isn't included with the dye. I set the machine for a 40 degrees wash and let it do its thing. Once the cycle had finished, I put in detergent and ran the cycle again. Once it had finished I removed my trousers and hung them up to dry. As the instructions stated, I had to then run another cycle to clean the drum. I added some soda crystals to ensure that it was clean.

The product guarantees that it will not linger in the drum and dye anything else once you've followed these instructions. However, I was not convinced. Having carried out the instructions to the letter, I then put another wash on with old tea towels to check that they weren't dyed. The verdict was that they came out the same colour they went in as - the guarantee was correct!

I was very impressed with the results of the dye itself on my trousers. It has given them a new lease of life. They are now a dark black colour and they look extremely smart again. I've washed them since, but only with other black clothes, so I can't tell if they have run in the wash. They have retained the colour, so I am confident that they didn't.

So all in all, this was an excellent product that worked really well. I have knocked a star off, because it was expensive and I had to run my machine 4 times to ensure that there was no dye left - at 50p a go, that's another £2.00 on the price. However, this is still a lot cheaper than a new pair of trousers, especially ones I love. Definitely worth buying if you want to smarten up your faded clothes.

Summary: A great product for dying your clothes