Absolutely Gil - the darker the better.  It would be nice to know what the
fabric is - I guessed it was a blend of synthetic and cotton and so went
the route of hot water dying as you can't dye synthetics properly otherwise
- according to the instructions.  More cotton than I thought in the fabric,
as I had to heat the iron to a fairly high setting in order to iron all the
wrinkles out.  You may have noticed that I dried them in the sun and didn't
use a clothes dryer.  Only some colours have the dye for synthetics so keep
an eye on that when and if you purchase the dye.

Lastly I used a stabilizer at the end to prevent the dye from running - and
it seemed to work fairly well.  You need at minimum a 5 gallon or 20 litre
pot and have to get the temp up to just below boiling.  I roughly weighed
the curtains and they were about 5 lbs or 2 kgs overall .  You need
about 16 to 18 litres per pound of cloth and I ended up using a whole
bottle for each batch - and another whole bottle of stabilizer for each
batch.  This site has lots of good info.

https://www.ritdye.com/

Bruce

On Mon, Sep 12, 2022 at 2:18 PM Gil Ngai <gil@dayonemedia.ca> wrote:

> Very inspiring, thank you Bruce.
> I have the same curtains and would love to go to a darker color.
> Do you think it's possible to make them a very dark color? Like charcoal?
>
> *Gil Ngai*
> Chief Storyteller
>
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>
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2022 at 1:01 PM Bruce Todd <beeceetee@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Well this is a different kind of repair which I had been putting off for a
>> while.  I think some of you know I am having my van restored and as a
>> result have been living a very boring life without a Vanagon since late
>> January.  Really missed driving it this past summer - no camping, no oil
>> temp readings to share, no last minute mechanical heroics from the side of
>> a highway or driveway and no beer chilled from the deep depths of my
>> Dometic.
>>
>> Given the van has been such a money pit (in a good way) and all the
>> discussions recently about white elephants, I decided to change the paint
>> colour to hunter green - which will match the tan interior quite nicely.
>> I
>> liked the original white the van was painted, however I wanted to give the
>> van a more distinct and original look.  Anyway, over the past few years I
>> have noticed my tan curtain set starting to fade - primarily on the side
>> exposed to the window - rear window curtains being the worst, and so I
>> decided to dye the curtains a darker colour - from tan to chocolate brown.
>> To do so I used Rit dye for synthetics and cooked the curtains in two
>> batches, in a large 5 gallon pot on the stove for about 40 minutes.  a
>> pretty good result overall - still there are some fade marks but they are
>> not as prevalent as before.
>>
>> Anyway here are some photos which also include the new colour I have
>> selected - ( it is the lighter version of the two greens).
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/t/8EkUiIGAfJOqqUmd [dropbox.com]
>> <
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.dropbox.com/l/AABeedorab2kDCWN91Gma1fR9BDDS36QRWQ__;!!G4oVokrRG-Im!4fWJ-Z7LaupsuJQPP9ZV7Li4bEYe_JRtXQ9ttW4IPLOLBw8t3AF86uFVGsJ-NteNkZe5nA$
>> >
>>
>> Bruce
>>
>