From faded to fab: 3 ways machine dye can save your wardrobe

Woman sitting on a step, wearing olive green blouse, grey trousers and a black handbag.

Revive, restore and reimagine your outfits with machine dye
Breathe new life into your wardrobe in just five steps
Restore your faded jeans to their former glory
Reinvigorate your faded shirts and dresses

It doesn’t wear a cape or spandex, but your washing machine is about to save your wardrobe. The faded clothes of yesteryear and the outfits you once (mistakenly) thought were fashionable do not have to wither away in shame.

All it takes to breathe new life and energy into your apparel, is a pod of DYLON machine dye. It really is that easy. Let’s get started:

A machine dye guide

Listen to your inner voice. It’s shouting, “Can I really refresh my wardrobe with dye?” The answer is, yes! You can revive, reimagine and reinvigorate outdated and faded clothes with machine dye…and it only takes five steps:

Weigh your clothes to determine how much dye you’ll need (one DYLON Machine Dye pod can dye 600 grams of fabric to full intensity).
Make sure your fabrics are clean and dampen them.
Place the damp clothes in the washing machine and pop the unwrapped and opened DYLON Machine Dye pod directly on top.
Set the machine to a full 40° C cycle. Don’t use the economy or pre-wash options.
Run the same cycle again, this time adding washing detergent to rinse the dye out.
Once you’ve finished dyeing your fabric, take it out and run an empty cycle, using detergent, to clean your machine.

For best results:

7. Always read the full instructions (inside the pack) before starting.

Young woman wearing a long ochre cardigan over a black top and blue jeans.

Now get dyeing – here are three ways you can update and beautify your wardrobe:

1. Vive la favourite shirt!

Intense colours are beautiful but they fade. Blacks become greys, browns become greys, greens become greenish greys. It’s all very drab. Even the most beloved shirts eventually get discarded because, let’s face it, nobody wants faded clothes. But it doesn’t have to be that way – here’s how you can revive your favourite shirt:

Select a DYLON Machine Dye that best matches the colour of your shirt. There are 22 colours to choose from, so this shouldn’t be too tricky.
Follow the machine dye guide above.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself: Can I handle an evening of constant compliments?

2. A denim revival

Oh how the mighty have fallen! Your favourite jeans have gone from dazzling under the city lights to glowering under supermarket halogens. Under that lighting, even they can see how much they’ve faded (and why they’re no longer the go-to for nights out). Here’s how to get them back in shape:

Select the DYLON Machine Dye that most closely resembles the colour of your jeans – Jeans Blue and Intense Black are common favourites.
Follow the machine dye guide above to get your relationship with your jeans back on track.

Red-haired woman in a tight-fitting black mini dress holding a black clutch.

3. Little not-so-black dress

Everybody needs some TLC; that includes your party staple. The little black dress is iconic and indispensable but over time even it can’t resist the effects of wash and wear. If your partner in crime has lost her former vibrance, don’t discard her like yesterday’s news. Not when you can reinvigorate her (and any other dress that has faded, for that matter) back to life. Restoring your dresses is so easy:

Select the DYLON Machine Dye in Intense Black (or whichever colour most closely resembles the dress you’d like to save)
Follow the machine dye guide above to bring the colour back to your favourite and then take her out on the town.