Dye a Tilley?

I've found that using tea to dye fabric works quite well. Buy the largest box of cheap Tetley tea bags you can find and brew a pot using all the bags. It makes a great dye and even leaves a pleasant aroma to the fabric. I haven't tried it with my Tilley T3 but I don't see why it wouldn't work. I've had my Tilley for 21 years and it's still going strong, BTW.

Another option is to go to a craft store and pick up a fabric marker. They are specifically designed to color fabric and from my experience, they work really well. I used a black fabric marker to color a 100 denier Cordura backpack. It worked like a charm.
 
MidwestDave said:
No.
I am neither a summer person nor a sun person.
I am a rough, ornery, judgemental SOB who dislikes clean white things.
Perhaps a good soaking in some salty brown Fargo street slush would help.



Dave
Click to expand...

Sounds like you've already had a good, briny soaking :p
 
I treated mine with vegetable oil, and now it has an oil cloth look to it and repels water better. I worked up a light amount on the outside and kept working it in with my hands. Looks ALOT darker now and has a great texture to it. It hasn't emitted any odd smells for about half a year now, and doesn't attract bugs. I attract them though.
 
Just rang me mum.
She is retired now but taught dressmaking and fashion at high school and what I think you blokes call community college when she wasn't raising us kids.
Boil you coffee mix well be fore you start make sure the item/hat has enough room to move around so the colour is even. Add plenty of salt it acts as a fixer. The boil the hat in the mix a good twenty, thirty minutes, stir it with a ( precisely whittled) stick.
If you want a more mottled appearance you can boil it briefly ( to give a base colour) take it out and twist it up and tie it with string Same a tie dying. then boil it more.
Maybe try that on an old t-shirt first.
Natural fibers will fade with exposure to Sun light that is just fact, but they can be re-coloured at home.
Brown onion skins will give golden hue to brown.
Carl
 
If you want a rusty red color, come on down and we'll roll it around in a Missouri cave.

That clay mud will get in and never come out.
 
I just got back from a 350 mile road trip over slick and nasty roads. My van accumulated four nice filthy ice deposits behind the wheel wells which, as soon as I finish lunch, will be kicked off and placed into a 5 gallon bucket to melt.
My Tilley will be soaked in this "fluid" for a few days and then rinsed in the Red River (thanks Jim).
Then we'll see if further effort is required.



Dave
 
Well, a five gallon bucket of melting road slop is truly a gruesome sight.
Change of plans.
I've noticed over the years that a cigar butt in water turns it a pleasant cinnamon tobacco color, so I'm saving the remnants of today's cigars and will try soaking them and see what color I get.
Good or bad, it's better than what's in the bucket now.



Dave
 
Dave, being as you're headed down tobacco road (sorry couldn't resist), for what it's worth my buddy once stained a gun stock using a plug of chewing tobacco mixed with ammonia. He got a very nice result, maybe worth experimenting with. I'd still go with the spray paint. ;)
 
Tobacco dye works the same as coffee or tea, and after you're done with the hat, simmer the dye bath down to a thick paste - supposed to make a great neurotoxin for blow gun darts on small rodents without poisoning the meat.
otherwise, make sure you scrub the pot out good before cooking in it.
 
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