Dye Job ??

[sailme88]

My bride has long had an issue with the silver/gray cushions within our C34. She much prefers the blue one that our ODay had. Total replacement is a non starter.. Cost vs age of the boat equals bad investment. So my question to you out there is : Has anyone attempted to dye their interior fabrics? If so, outcome and pitfalls .

Thanks,

Rick

 

[rgranger]

Do you have a small piece of fabric you can trim out for a test dye? If your covers have a zipper, sometimes there is a little fabric that hangs over the edge of the zipper. Try turning your covers inside out and see if there is a small piece of fabric you can snip out. Then buy some RIT dye (or other product) and do a test dye in a bowl with the snip. Wash it in the sink a few times to see if the color holds ...

 

[Ron20324]

IIRC, most interior fabrics are an acrylic or other manufacturered fabric and will not absord dyes too well- if at all.

 

[vhoisington]

Lots of information on dying fabrics is available in the internet. I wanted to dye some sunbrella and tried but found that no matter what I did it would not take the dye. The other option you have is to make new covers yourself. Its not too hard and, actually makes for a good winter time project. I found the materials online and if you can sew a straight line it can be very fun. Sailrite has a whole series on sewing cushions and they make a good place to start.

Dyeing the cushions might be possible but you will need to check, sometime the dye reacts with the fabric and provides a different color than expected.

Good luck

 

[sailme88]

Do you have a small piece of fabric you can trim out for a test dye? If your covers have a zipper, sometimes there is a little fabric that hangs over the edge of the zipper. Try turning your covers inside out and see if there is a small piece of fabric you can snip out. Then buy some RIT dye (or other product) and do a test dye in a bowl with the snip. Wash it in the sink a few times to see if the color holds ...

RIT was/is the planned route...Thanks

 

[Mr Fox]

The acrylic fabrics used on most boat cushion are not dyed like cotton or wool; the strands themselves are made in a particular color. You need a dispersion dye formulated for synthetics, RIT’s normal dye wont work on synthetics but they make a product called DyeMore which will work.

Products in DyeMore for Synthetics — Rit Dye

With so many diverse synthetic fabric iterations on the market, we thought it was high time to offer a dye capable of taking those very fabrics to the next level. That’s why we’re proud to introduce Rit DyeMore, a dye specially made for synthetic fabrics like polyester, acrylic, acetate, plus...

www.ritdye.com

 

[dLj]

If the cushions are in good shape, why not just make covers for them in the color you want? Covers aren't very expensive to make....

dj

 

[Timm R Oday25]

Our Oday came with very tired and very original '80's plaid covers . I had new covers made as the foam was in great shape. I think I paid $700. The was labor and Sunbrella . The new covers made more of a difference to the interior than any other thing we've changed .
In hindsight I really didn't need the Sunbrella on the inside . Ten plus years later they still look great.
As an aside , have your wife pick out the new material . The boat becomes more of a "we" thing that way .

 

[markwbird]

Everything about owning a boat is a bad investment.

 

[sailme88]

I'm going to look into the suggestion of recovering. There is a men's and women's mid-level security prison close by that offers upholstery repair as part of the job education. I'll let you all know..

 

[Mark Maulden]

Who says a boat is an investment?

 

[MikeHoncho]

I'd be worried about color transfer after the fact.

 

[markwbird]

I recovered the cushions on my boat myself. Sailrite. It cost about $1000.00 total to do the whole interior including the berths.