How to Paint Jeans Black

Don’t throw away your old faded jeans. You can make them look as good as new if you paint them black. Popular things like tea and coffee are not good enough. It’s better and faster to use fabric dye.

5-Minute Crafts will help you give your jeans a second life.

What you need

1. Fabric dye: You can use liquid or powder. There are special dyes for jeans but you can also use the kinds that work with different types of fabrics, such as Rit.
2. Dye fixative: It’s better to buy the same brand as the dye. If you used Rit, use the same fixative.
3. A container big enough to fit in your jeans
4. 1 cup of salt
5. 1 tsp of dish soap
6. A long spoon or something else to move the jeans in the water
7. Rubber gloves.
8. Paper towels
9. Jeans

How to prepare

• Wash the jeans. Dirty fabric won’t absorb the dye well. There will be a barrier between the fibers in the fabric and the dyeing particles. You don’t have to dry the jeans after washing them.
• Prepare a space. The dye might stain the surroundings. To prevent this from happening, cover the workspace with some newspaper or keep paper towels close.
• Wear gloves. Protect your hands from the dye and hot water.

How to dye your jeans black

• Pour 3 gallons of hot water into the container. There should be enough water to fit the jeans freely. The temperature should be around 140°F. If the tap water is not hot enough, heat it on the stove.
• Add salt and dish soap. The former will enhance the color and the latter will improve the dyeing quality.
• Add the dye. Stir it well beforehand. Dip a paper towel into the solution to see if you have enough dye. If the towel is too light, add more dye, and if it’s too dark, add water.
• Put wet jeans into the container. Take a long spoon and turn the jeans in the liquid. Do it slowly but don’t stop. The first 10 minutes are really important. The better you do this, the better the jeans will look.

• Leave the jeans to soak. Keep them in the solution anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour. Check the fabric to see if the dye is absorbed well.
• Remove the solution from the container. Wring the jeans out. When they’re dry, they’ll be lighter than they are now.
• Use the dye fixative. Follow the instructions on the pack and mix the fixative in a container of hot water. Put the jeans into the water. Slowly turn the jeans for 20 minutes. The water might change color and that’s okay. This step is important to improve the brightness of the color and reduce the color fade in the future.
• Wash the jeans. Rinse them in cold water until the water is completely transparent. After that, put them into the washing machine with a big dose of detergent.
• Dry the jeans and enjoy your work.