RE Dye for muted items

[Papa T]

Happy New Year  !
I have a large assortment of shirts, etc. that was given to me.
They have colors that I can best describe and muted...
Can these be redyed ?

[ktaltre]

If the items to be dyed are 100% cotton and pale in color then, yes, one can overdye.
If the items are 100% cotton there are ways to discharge the colors from them.
One way is bleach, although bleach is detrimental to the fiber if left on too long. A cup of bleach to a gallon of water is a place to start, although I've used straight bleach on occasion (bleah).
Some colors don't discharge well either.
If you use bleach to discharge, you should use a product called "anti-clor" to neutralize bleach after discharging, obtained through ProChem or Dharma - also stores that sell aquarium supplies will have a product to neutralize bleach.
You should rinse the bleach off first before resting the items in the anti-clor water - then wash.

There is also a product called thiox:
http://www.prochemicalanddye.com/store/product.php?productid=16197&cat=249&page=2
I've used this in the microwave and in a big pot, outdoors - it's smelly, but not like bleach.
You just rinse and wash after using this product.
k. taltre

[deb]

I like to have fun with light-colored things I want to overdye. If they're basically primary colors, it's easy enough to overdye them with other primaries and enjoy the resulting secondaries. For things already in secondary colors like green or purple, I pick the adjacent primaries and play with them. For example, I might take a light green shirt and have fun with yellow and blue, or maybe with yellow and brown or even use a darker green and a brown and see what happens. And if they aren't too dark, you can play with deep blue and black and brown, or just deep shades of whatever colors they are or would go well with them.

Another option is to do some discharge as suggested above and then once the bleach is neutralized and the garment's been washed, dye the discharged sections. I had a black tee discharge to a pale orange but with some yellow dye it became a viable school-colors tee in strong black and golden yellow for my youngest kid.