Dyeing a shirt without damaging sewn on decorations?

Question

I was given a shirt with a black & white horse sewn directly on the fabric. (It's not a removeable patch.) I'd love to wear the shirt, but it's yellow and I look awful in yellow. Is there any way to dye the shirt without coloring the horse?

Answer 1

You might be able to if the fabric is not polyester AND the horse embroidery *is* polyester. Cotton, linen, rayon, nylon, tencel and silk are all dyeable at home. Polyester is not. Dharma Trading is a good place to look for more information on dyeing these fibers with fiber-reactive dyes (Rit is the pits by comparison).

Two other thoughts: if you sew, you could choose a fabric that goes with the yellow and make an overlay yoke for the shirt... enough to get a flattering color near your face. Or consider adding a scarf of a fabric that gets flattering color near your face but covers some of the yellow.

Second thought, especially useful for poly fabric: Dharma also has some thin-bodied fabric paints in various colors. Of the ones at their website, the only one I've worked with is Lumiere and Neopaque. Brushing some of that over the yoke area lightly could give you an interesting effect that you can then heat-set when you get it to the stage you like. Practice this on an old shirt first, to get the hang of things.

Answer 2

You could paint a resist over the horse, but the problem is the yellow. Any dye will combine with the yellow to create a muddy grayish-green. How about if you cut around the horse and then applique it to a shirt you DO like?

here's a selection of resists from a reputable company, if you'd like to try it anyway
http://www.dharmatrading.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi?query=resist&quickjumpURL=&quickjumpURL2=
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Answer 3

I don't think there is any way to do this. but I like the other answerers suggestion of cutting it off and making an applique. Trying to dye yellow isn't going to work very well; anything dark enough to dye the yellow will ruin the patch.