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Concrete Patio Umbrella
How to dye fabric on a patio umbrella?
Have a large outside patio umbrella that has faded - the material is in good condition but has discoloured due to sun and weather. It is streaked from the sun while it was closed - the underside still looks like new but the top side has seen better days. The material can be removed from the main structure. I would like to know if this can be dyed so it looks new again - it is a black canter lever umbrella. If it can be repaired, I need to know if it goes back on main structure for drying (I assume it will streak if not dried properly) wil it stain anything underneath umbrella while drying ? The reason being, we have new stamped concrete under umbrella and don't want it stained. Can anyone help ??
Whether or not dye will work on your umbrella depends on the fibers it's made from. Whether it will immediately fade again will depend on the dye used and the UV resistance of the dye (blues are notorious for fading, for instance.) Some information on dye selection:
http://www.dharmatrading.com/topnav/dyes/ and a good series of pages on dyeing: http://www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml And no, you're not going to dye on concrete... dyeing I do outdoors is always done on grass.
You'll also want to make sure the dye is properly set before you put that umbrella up over concrete.
Personally, I'd be thinking about using fabric paints and maybe stamps to turn the fade lines into a design element on the umbrella. You've already got some wallpaper-ish stripes going from the fade lines... what if you stamped something on either side of the lines to give them a "reason" for being there?
http://www.dharmatrading.com/topnav/paints/
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/1179274-AA.shtml?lnav=techniques.html
http://www.joggles.com/fabric-stamping-tutorial.htm
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