I have been longing to add these rich violet-blues and purples to my wardrobe... but I have not seen anything in these saturated colors in a very long time. So while I was at the fabric store this evening, I stopped in the dye aisle. One of the items on my list was a blue-ish-gray dye to re-dye a thrifted J. Crew cotton pencil skirt that has a beautiful sheen to the textile, but uneven fading of color. However... I wasn't liking the gray colors on the packages. Dylon, RIT, and Tulip were all had kind of flat and blah. I looked at purples, but they didn't have a color like the violet-blue I crave. So I decided to try mixing dyes. I bought Dylon in Ocean Blue and Intense Violet, and plan to mix that in a 3:1 ratio of Violet to Blue and try dying the skirt.

I couldn't find an active Dylon color-mixing chart - but I DID find a RIT chart....

https://www.ritstudio.com/wp-c....._FINAL.pdf

Has anyone tried mixing dyes? How did it turn out? Were the results better or worse, or merely different from what you expected?

I am going to dye the skirt this weekend, and I am aiming for the color in the middle photo. Depending on how it turns out, I may re-dye with some black or navy added to the mix. I will take before and after pictures.

ETA: Success! After and before photos have been added.

I used Dylon sink dye:

4 TBSP of Intense Violet

5 teaspoons of Ocean Blue

4 TBSP of salt

I dissolved this and mixed it well, in 4 cups of water.

I used a stainless steel pot, and followed the instructions on the package. Once the garment was in the pot, I added enough warm tap water to cover it. I didn't merely stir, I wore rubber gloves, and kept turning the garment over and swishing it. I kept the dishwasher beside me open with the racks pulled out, in case I had to set down anything in a hurry. I also kept a roll of paper towels, sponge, and dishsoap at the ready.

I did a test run on an old gray tee that was close in color to my skirt, and the gray 'ate' the blue (I think there is red in gray, which took the blue back to purple), which is how I got to 5 teaspoons of Ocean Blue - I upped it from the original 4. Overall, I am soooo pleased with the color I got for this skirt, but I think for some future gray-to-violet-blue projects, I would try adding one more teaspoon of Ocean Blue. I also want to use the original recipe, but with 50% more dye. And I also want to try and get that color in the first photo - so I may try adding a teaspoon of black. I would definitely use Dylon again for this, but for other colors, I want to try the RIT chart. But I think the pot/sink dye method is the way to go for richer color saturation. It does take time though. I spent about two hours start to finish (including clean-up and laundry).

The skirt is 100% cotton. The zipper is still gray, but only the zip part shows.

intend to wash this cold, gentle cycle, solo for awhile until I know for sure it won't bleed.