In my search for cream colored polos, I’ve ended up with some that are too yellowish. I was thinking I would just dye them a dark color for every day. I’m worried about the dye coming off in the wash onto anything else in the machine. Any experience?
Most polo wraps are made of polyester. The threads are plastic, and the color is mixed into the plastic while it is still liquid. Dying polyester is tough, you have to use a special dye, and heat the water to boiling to get it to impregnate the plastic of the threads. The dye also ruins the pot you use for anything related to food prep. If you could find natural fiber polo wraps it might be a bit easier.
Lots of washing and rinsing after you dye the fabric can reduce the chance of bleeding.
And I suspect the heat, etc would destroy the springyness of the polos.
If you are going to do it, get the dye made for synthetics. It works pretty well. I had no problems with the dye destroying my pots or with bleeding. It is hard to gauge how well the dye will take. I dyed an ankle brace - it is several shades of the same color family, as it is made of several different fabrics.
The colors for the RIT DyeMore aren’t exactly as advertised, but other than that, I had much better luck with the poly dyes than the traditional RIT (cotton) dyes.
How do YOU wash polos to get rid of all the little bits of sawdust etc. And the secret of washing without all that detangling??
I don’t like them at all - but my rider does - so I go along with it.
Thanks for your answer RedMare. I was sure someone else would have used that synthetic Rit dye.
Foxtrot A)don’t put on or take off your polos in the stall, that will take care of your shavings problem, and B) laundry lingerie bags are your friend! Be sure to stick the velcro to its wrap before stuffing them all into bags. I fit about 4 wraps in my bags. Pull them out, and, no tangles!
If you buy white, they’ll turn beige eventually :winkgrin:
[QUOTE=Foxtrot’s;8950623]
How do YOU wash polos to get rid of all the little bits of sawdust etc. And the secret of washing without all that detangling??
I don’t like them at all - but my rider does - so I go along with it.[/QUOTE]
Put them in a lingerie bag or something resembling that, don’t throw a bunch of loose wraps in there. Or, just throw a pair or two at a time in with a regular load if you don’t have too many. I put the Velcro to Velcro together making a big loop when I put then in too. If they aren’t too worn out to hold, they are way easier to sort out and roll.
My trainer used to put a tub of tangled wraps out in the viewing area and tack room “inviting” clients and their bored tag alongs to kill some time. Worked great, took 2 minutes to teach just about anybody over the age of 6 to roll them correctly. Worth finding the occasional mistake rolling rather then tying up staff untangling and rolling them for an hour when they had so many other things to do. Kept the peanut gallery quiet too.
I’ve not washed any for years - but used to put velcro to velcro and then tie them in a big loose knot - but they still tangled.
I’ll use the laundry bag and do two batches.
I so a lot of dyeing projects with both natural fibers and synthetics. If you aren’t already set up for doing this it would be cheaper to just buy another pair of wraps. That is unless you get old pots from a thift store.
