Dyeing Wool(Making Camo)

[Problem Child]

Last year I bought a couple of olive drab wool Military sweaters for $5 each. They're great for bowhunting. I would like to add a patern to them such as Predator camo. Could I just buy a bottle of white Rit Dye and make the pattern ?? Anyone tried this ??

[Flatstick]

One of the problems with dyeing wool is that you need the base color to be the back lightest color in your pattern and then add the darker browns,greens, or whatever. It is hard to get the white like what you are wanting to show on the darker base color. But you could use some darker colors over your olive drab to make a pattern.

[woodchucker]

Whats wrong with "olive drab" ?????

Solid colors are fine,I hunt in them all the time. Look at a Deer,big solid brown colored animal.....Never stops them from disappearing right before your eyes.  

[Problem Child]

quote:Originally posted by woodchucker:
Whats wrong with "olive drab" ?????

Solid colors are fine,I hunt in them all the time. Look at a Deer,big solid brown colored animal.....Never stops them from disappearing right before your eyes.    

[pjsnell]

You could use brown and black markers or spray paint in an "ASAT" pattern.  I would test on a piece of cardboard first. Look at the test piece from several angles, distances and in different levels of cover, to see how effective it is.

[Frank V]

Deer are solid colors. I hunt in solid colors at times. Frank

[John Scifres]

I spraypainted some desert camo to add some darker spots and lines.  It has lasted one season but could use a freshening.  Here they are on the left.  I bet if I used fabric paint it would last longer but I already had the regular stuff and I'm a simple man  

 

[Jeff Strubberg]

I had problems a couple years back when I made some lighweight camo for early season.  Tough to find around here.

Those fabric markers they sell in the craft stores actually worked pretty well, but it takes forever.  I tried a couple different dyes that brushed on, but never found one that stuck well even through the first washing.

[hickstick]

I bought a set of fabric spray paint cans int he craft section of wally world to ad some spotches to some surplus wool pants.   worked pretty well but the only problem was what i thought was brown was actually copper and had a little bit of metallic flakes in it.  still gonna use it once it gets cold enough just to see how it works on the deer.  


I know what you mean about the OD wool sweaters thought. I tried what you are thinking about (on surplus wool sweaters and pants), using rit color remover, then brown and black rit re tying each time.  the color remover only slightly lightened the color in the exposed areas, the brown hardly took at all and the black worked ok.

so I ended up with tie dye od green, slightly lighter green and light black/grey patches.  if I get a chance I take a couple pics tonight and throw them up.

[Dustin Waters]

could you use bleach to put the lighter strips in then work from there?  I dont really know I have never done this before so I dont know how bleach would act on wool.

[hickstick]

bleach isn't good.  it breaks down the fibers and eventually the garment will fall apart.

[Bobby Urban]

I would not monkey with it?  Just leave it as is like woodchucker said, You will be fine.

When it gets cold enough wear a lighter(or darker) fleece vest over it and you have created a broken patern that works great.  

I wear a tan wool coat most all the time because if a deer(tan) can hide in the open so can I. Ha - JMO

Bob Urban

[Tom Leemans]

Deer hide because of the way the light reflects off their hair. It's a texture thing. That said, I would love to get some khaki (sp?) wool clothing and splotch on some lines here and there.

[hickstick]

with the density of hunters around here, even in bow season, you couldn't pay me enough to walk into the woods in solid tan during hunting season.  even on private property where I had sole permission.  

I figure if I guy is slob enough to trespass, then he's slob enough to shoot at motion/sounds, etc.  I wont do it.

one of the reasons I like the red/black plaid over the tan/brown or white/black even if they might be better blending colors.

and I agree with tom...its the way the fur reflects  (why shaggie wool is better too), and also they aren't solid tan either. fur is made up of several colors from white to tan to black and in different lengths...

[hickstick]

pics as promised.

first the color version.  on the left is the swedish wool surplus pants with rit color remover, brown dye and black dye.  and on the right is swed. surplus wool with the wally world spray paint.
 


next same pic in B/W
 

[hickstick]

I forgot to add that the 'light color' on the sprayed pants was metallic too, I was concerned about it reflecting light, but haven't had the opportunity to test them out yet.   now that is getting cooler I'll be able to wear them soon.

[Problem Child]

Thanks for the pictures. Clorox had crossed my mind but like yall said,the sweater would probably fall apart.I might try the fabric paint.

[woodchucker]

Some have been wondering....