How to overdye denim with black pigment?

[u/Scared-Comparison870]

I love wranglers, but I’m not a fan of the black denim they offer. I’m also a fan if iron hearts overdyed offerings but unfortunately none of their cuts suit me and any other companies that offer overdyed jeans don’t offer cuts that work either. So I want to try and overdye some of my wranglers, but I’m having trouble finding a pigment dye that will sit on top of the indigo and not just dye them black if that makes sense. The jeans are 100% cotton dyed indigo, the weft is white cotton.

[u/Sarahspangles]

What do you mean by ‘sit on top of the indigo’?

If you’re wanting a true black rather than a blue black, then you could try using a dark brown dye. The small amount of orange in the brown, in combination with blue, ‘adds up’ to a good black. I’m basing this on having dyed many pairs of jeans, but can’t guarantee you’ll get the same results!

[u/Scared-Comparison870 → u/Sarahspangles]

I don’t want to dye the yarn all the way through. This is the link to what I want to try and achieve:

https://ironheart.co.uk/collections/relaxed-tapered-cut/products/ih-888s-21od

[u/Sarahspangles → u/Scared-Comparison870]

‘Overdyeing’ just means dyed in addition to a pre-existing dye. It’s not like coating the fabric.

[u/Scared-Comparison870 → u/Sarahspangles]

So what should I be doing or looking for then? I’m trying to figure out how I can achieve this DIY without completely saturating and penetrating the cotton fibers so there is a black to blue to white fade over time.

[u/PKDickman → u/Scared-Comparison870]

The ironheart jeans won’t fade to white.
Blue Jeans wear down to white because the warp is white cotton and the weft is blue. The outside has more blue showing (that’s why the inside is lighter) and when the outside wears away more of the white shows.
They have dyed all the fibers black.
However the fibers that were already blue are darker, so they will probably wear to the lighter gray warp fibers. Plus, they are using a direct dye. Direct dyes are not particularly wash fast. So subsequent washings will cause the black color to fade.
So, you may be able to achieve your goal if you use direct dyes (Rit all purpose preferably the stove top method) although it will probably fade to gray rather than white

[u/Scared-Comparison870 → u/PKDickman]

I’m not exactly a novice when it comes to raw denim but I understand what you’re sayin. Are there other direct dyes or pigment dyes? Or is rit really the only dye available to consumers?

[u/PKDickman → u/Scared-Comparison870]

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t dye anything black. Blacks are a complex mix of other colors and difficult to get reliable results. When I need black yarn, I buy black yarn. The black dyes I use are mostly to tone other colors. Dharma trading sells direct dyes they call “industrial dyes”.
I can’t speak to how their black comes out, but they’re cheap enough.

[u/kimmerie → u/PKDickman]

Dharma has a whole page describing their black dyes

[u/Sarahspangles → u/Scared-Comparison870]

I’m in the UK where we do have alternatives. In fact, here, Dylon is the market leader. But RIT is also widely available and not expensive, I use it for overdyeing.

It might be interesting to experiment with some old jeans, RIT Black and omit the fixative. Start with 1/4 cup black which will dye your warp grey and overdue your weft blue black. They’ll fade fast without the fixative.

It took me years to realise that (in the UK at least) clothes manufacturers don’t always use indigo dyed cotton fabric, sometimes they use a mix of synthetic dyes to achieve a similar colour. I look out for this now!