Post your Gustin

Here are my over-dyed super heavy slubs.  The white weft showing through was just too much of a "leopard" look for my taste.  I used dark brown RIT dye, going for a an indigoXcoffee look, but they turned out more purplish (indigo mixed with the brown during the dye process).


Old26 - aren't you looking for an indigoXpurple?  These went from my least favorite Gustins to now my favorite pair.  Enjoy.

imgur.com/a/fpech

I wonder what would happen, If you used red rit dye? hmmmm....

Red might work...hmmm, looks like I have another experiment to perform.  I'm thinking my 7 year old son's worn out jeans would be a nice test run.  Stay tuned....

I'm thinking about doing some of this, can you give a brief overview of your process (estimates on dyeing mix ratio, soaking time, rinse, etc)? I understand if you don't wanna, but it'd be greatly appreciated.

Items needed - rubber gloves, salt, RIT liquid dye or equivalent, large bucket, woolite or equivalent detergent, water, and jeans.  Time is about 1 hour (not including hang dry).

1) Pre-soak jeans in cold water (I use a 20 gallon or so plastic bucket with rope handles, about 2 feet in diameter) if the jeans have never been washed/soaked before.  This helps remove some/most of the starch and IMO makes for better dye transfer.
2) I use liquid RIT dye (found at craft stores, cost is $3-$4).  8 ounce bottle. The darker colors work best (I over-dyed my daughters jeans with a light pink and it was hardly noticeable).
3) I place the the plastic bucket in my bathtub and then fill the bucket with a cup of salt and 4 gallons of very HOT water.  Stir so as to dissolve salt.
4) Shake the bottle of dye vigorously, then add the entire 8 oz to the salt/water.
5) Use rubber gloves, and hand stir the dye for a minute or two.
6) Now add wet jeans to the dye mix.  Stir/knead the jeans constantly in the dye for about 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes, stir occasionally (every 5 min or so) for another 15 minutes.
7) Dump the hot dye mix down the drain of the bathtub (the dye does not stain my porcelain bathtub, but I've heard that it can stain porcelain if an older tub).
8) Keep the dyed jeans in the plastic bucket, and begin rinsing in COLD water, over and over until the water begins to have just a hint of dye left (usually a good 10 rinses for me, this is the most tedious step). 
9) Now add a small amount of Woolite to the bucket and hand wash jeans with cold water for a couple minutes.
10) Dump woolite mixture down tub drain, then begin further rinsing the jeans in cold water so as to remove any soap residue (3 or so rinses).
11)  Hang dry, and voila!  Really quite simple and easy.

Expect about an inch or two shrink in the inseam and about an inch in the waist.  My gustins are size 35 straight and the waist stretches back out after a few wears.  The dye is uniform throughout both pairs I have dyed (no streaking).  The original indigo warp remains, while the white weft absorbs the dye.  The thread must be poly, because the dye does not effect the original thread color.

Thanks.  The dye will not transfer to any synthetic materials as far as I can tell, so the Gustin labels must be made of poly, or some other synthetic.  The selvedge ID does absorb the dye (one downside), and so in this case the white portion of the ID turned purple, and the red line turned a bit rust colored.

It'd be pretty interesting to do something like this with the Japan Shine since it has a poly-blend weft, presumably all it would do is tint the warp, and then you have different colored shiny jeans. I think a black overdye could result in some really interesting fades.

Holy crap. Those are SICK. That's pretty cool how the poly stuff is untouched. I assume the pocket bags turned purple; is that a correct assumption? How did the leather patch do?

I might have to give this a go with my Summerweights. Or actually, maybe the Super Lights; those have more slubbiness and could look pretty crazy with a little purple streaking instead of the white.

Regarding shrinkage, did the circumferential measurements (thigh, knee) change much or was it pretty much just limited to waist and inseam? I ask because I can afford to give an inch or two back in the inseam on both pairs, but the Summerweights are much trimmer through the thigh and knee than the Super Lights.

Great idea.. all you'd actually need to do is mask the areas that matter. The cuff, belt loop, fly.. you could use vinyl tape on the leather patch.

As an aside (and alluded to by Mattbert), I have found that the "open" weave denims permit much more of the color of the dye (weft) to peek through, which for the super heavy slubs makes for a killer look.

It came up in another thread that I had dyed my Oxblood2's, and I was asked for pics. Since this seems like an appropriate place, here we go!

First, however, my apologies for the terrible and poorly lit photos. I've found out it is extremely hard to photograph these jeans, and so I'll have to take another set in natural light later this week. I tried to use a white towel behind to provide _some_ kind of reference point.

Ok, pics:


White weft/id now a greenish grey (looks pretty flat grey here  )



You can still see some original color around the seams as a result of my amateur dye skills




Kitty came to offer some color contrast.




While I admit this picture is terrible I do think this is the closest I came to capturing the true color of the jeans.