RIT Dyeing Sitka Fanatic White to Brown

[Brewski]

To Long Didn't Read Summary: I used Rit DyeMore to spot dye the white on my fanatic suit. Took around 12 hours over 2 days. Results were good and close to subalpine on the non fleece parts and results were ok on the fleece parts. See post 3 pics.

I think the EV2 pattern has too much white for Texas’s deer rifle season and really sticks out when ground hunting. I get cold easily so I wear at least the jacket below 60 degrees. I like the fanatic pieces so I spot dyed the white and some of the grey. I didnt want to dye the fanatic pieces in a giant pot of boiling water because I thought boiling might weaken the different fabrics and insulation, so I opted for spot dyeing the outside white areas only.

Supplies:

• Fanatic jacket, bibs, beanie, incinerator hat
• 1 bottle Rit DyeMore chocolate brown color
• 1 bottle Rit DyeMore green color
• Old small pot
• Stiff toothbrush
• Rubber gloves
• Old bedsheet
• Supplies to protect the countertop
• Plastic tote for first wash and transporting dyed suit
• Cold twelve pack of craft beer

Instructions from the website, scroll down to synthetics section, but I used more dye and a clothes dryer.
https://www.ritdye.com/instructions/spot-dyeing/

I tested the instructions on the back of the fanatic hat with just the green color. The green is a bolder color but proved the materials could be dyed.

 

[Brewski]

My process:

1. Wait for a weekend the wife is out of town.
2. Start drinking twelve pack.
3. Take before pics (I forgot)
4. Prep the countertop. The dyed fabric makes a big mess when moving the jacket or bibs around.
5. In a small pot boil ½ cup water, turn down to a very low simmer, then add 5 tablespoons brown and 1 tablespoon green, stir (repeat when you run out of dye mixture).
6. Keep this pot at a low simmer, close to boiling through the entire process.
7. Use stiff toothbrush, dip into the simmering dye mix, and brush the dye mix into the white spots. The dye mix doesnt want to soak into the fleece so you have to work the dye into the fleece.
8. Dye each piece, hit the white areas at least 2x. Hit the large white areas at least 3x.
9. Put dyed but wet jacket and hat in the old bedsheet. Tie corners into bag with paracord. Throw bag into clothes dryer on hot for about half hour. Rotate the contents of the bag at least once. The goal is to fully dry the dye to allow it to set. I used the clothes dryer instead of the hair dryer in the Rit instructions. Hair dryer would have taken forever. Repeat for the bibs.

The above steps took about six hours. I let the dried pieces sit overnight.


In the morning I rinsed all the pieces with detergent and hose water in the plastic tote in the backyard.

Then washed in the wash machine and dried in dryer.

 

[Brewski]

Results:
Results were good and close to the dark tan of subalpine on the non fleece parts and results were ok on the fleece parts. I tagged out in November so I wont be able to hunt in the dyed suit until next year.
Note that in the pics, the stratus pants, subalpine neck warmer, and realtree extra jacket are NOT dyed and only included for comparison purposes.

 

[Brewski]

Lessons Learned

• The dye is only $5 a bottle at walmart if its in stock. I used the entire bottle of brown and ¼ of green.
• Hit the large white areas at least three times. I only coated them once or twice.
• Dont worry at all if you dye the other colored areas, the dye barely colors the browns and blacks and only somewhat colors the grey.
• The non fleece smooth fabric dyes alot better and color is very close to the subalpine tan. This material is alot easier to dye.
• The fleece doesnt absorb the dye and you have to work the dye into the fleece.
• The stitched logos, zippers, and grey grunt call pocket dont dye.
• The residual wet dye mix made a huge mess in the clothes dryer. The old bedsheet did help contain the wet dye in the dryer. I spent about 1 hour scrubbing the dryer then ran a load of wet towels. I got the dryer 90% cleaned but wife was mad. However the 10% remaining has not dyed any of our clothes.
• The toothbrush sprays dye on your clothes and surroundings.
• Wear gloves.
• Dont forget to dye the inside collar. I forgot and will dye before next washing.
• I would try black dye instead of green I think that would be a darker result.

 

[Miflatlander91]

That turned out pretty great from the pictures....not sure I could bring myself to put dye on those expensive pieces but I like how it turned out.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

 

[zpearo]

Thanks for this writeup. Just got a good deal on an icebreaker merino midlayer and plan to dye it a darker brown. This will be a good reference