Dyeing have you ever dyed a doll before?

The main things I'd stress is make SURE to remove the faceup and any traces of sealant on the body fully and it's sanded evenly. Make sure all the dye is washed off after doing so and if you are able to go with RIT dye over idyepoly, do so (idye's a bit more permanent, from my experience, which if it's your first time doing it, is going to be a PAIN to remove if you mess up and RIT lasts really well).

 

In my experience, rit dye more is for slow, slow, pale colors. I think I saw them on sale at Michaels recently.

I dye poly is for heavy saturated color and it comes FAST. Jerry's artarama or Texas art supply is where I get that. It's powder only. I'll get water from my kettle in a jar and shake it so it's basically like a pre made liquid and add it to the rolling water. That's an outside dye unless you're looking for an excuse to have to repaint your house

 

Worst case scenario, you can remove it with enough chemicals or sand it away a bit!

 

Have you checked the workshop area of the forum? There are some threads in the customisation part that might have good info on trials and errors of dyeing as well as a few tutorials here.

 

I've dyed 2, with multiple tries, and the results can vary from doll to doll. My first couple of times dying the same doll turned out really well, even though I've seen other people saying the resin from that company doesn't dye well. The other doll head I've tried dying came out awfully even though other people's dye projects from that company seem to have taken well. It's a bit of trial and error and luck. Depending on how saturated of a shade of blue you want, it can be removed. Blue dyes are notorious for staining and being difficult to remove, so if it's a very deep or saturated shade you're going for, it may stain some, even after carefully using something like acetone to remove it. You could try sanding it, but keep in mind that sanding removes details in the sculpting. I also wouldn't recommend sanding a doll before dyeing it unless it's really necessary like to remove seam lines. Just washing it well with a gentle dish soap should be enough to remove any oils or mold release that could impede how the dye takes. Dyeing it will make any sanding marks much more obvious.

 

I have dyed many, many dolls. Some simple, and others quite complex. I think at or just above 20, though as I've been dyeing dolls for about 8 years now I have lost the exact count haha~
I personally feel as though the vast majority of my dye projects have turned out remarkably well, but its important to remember that even with the most comprehensive and meticulous methods there are still so many variables when dyeing dolls and it is unreasonable to expect completely "flawless" results every time.
Anyway, if there is anything specific you are unsure or hesitant about feel free to ask and I'd be happy to share my expertise!~
A few things i'll note quickly though:

-The most important thing I must stress that hasn't already been mentioned is that when using dyes specifically made for synthetics/plastics (like iDye Poly and Rit Dyemore) you absolutely MUST maintain a consistent boiling temperature through the entirety of your dye project. I know it can seem scary for someone new to this process, but even small variations in temperature can negatively effect the way that the colors are dispersed and the dye takes to the resin.
-I personally use Rit Dyemore for all of my dye projects now. I've used a few other dyes but personally prefer Dyemore over everything else. Its much easier to use and mix due to its liquid formula and it has a very mild "chemically" smell compared to others. You can get pastel, dark and heavily saturated colors with it, it just depends on how much is used and how long you keep your pieces in the dye bath. It is better to develop color more slowly anyway, especially when doing gradients.
-Dye is not quite so "permanent" as you may think. If for some reason your dye job completely fails, you may be able to remove nearly all of the dye using 100% Acetone. Depending on the size of the doll and depth of the color used it may take a LOT of Acetone, but still it is a simple and effective way to take off the majority of dye that also does not have the actually permanently destructive effect of sanding. Keep in mind it is very difficult to get 100% of the dye out of fine detail areas such as hands and faces with Acetone, but you should be able to lighten it enough that a re-dyeing attempt will be possible.
- Blue is not one of the most difficult colors to dye, so no need to worry yourself too much over that. Black and primary colors are typically the easiest with most secondary/tertiary being more difficult except for purple which is one of the toughest alongside greys and browns. Dyemore also has many different shades of blues so chances are you could use just one straight from the bottle without needing to mix them.
-Always have a Plan B that you are ready to pivot to in case things don't turn out the way you'd hoped, and don't dye a doll that you would not be comfortable potentially having to re-dye or sand.

 

I have dyed a polyamide dolls, which was extremely easy and came out very even, and three resin dolls, which were slightly more difficult and not as even, but I'm still happy with two of them. I used a combination of Jaquard acid dye and RIT dye for the polyamide doll, as recommended by the artist, and just RIT powder dye on the two resin ones I'm happy with and RIT liquid on the one I wasn't happy with.

I'm not a professional, so I don't have a ton of advice, but what helped me most was to time how long I left the parts in the dye to keep all parts even, since I couldn't fit them all in the pot at once. I also strung each piece separately with thread and hung them from a stick that I laid across the pot to keep them from touching the bottom, sides or each other. It also made them much easier to pull them all out of the pot at the exact same time.

On the one I really messed up--I don't think the dye was the problem, it was the doll. He was an old doll I got secondhand, who had apparently been partially sanded without my knowledge. Normally, the doll looked fine. But after dropping him in the dye, it became very obvious where he'd been sanding, and not sanded properly either, might I add. He looked like he had horrific scratches all over him, it was terribly uneven and just...bad. So bad. I panicked and cried and had no idea how to fix it, and ended up selling him as a "junk" doll at a major loss. My advice here would be to either start with a new doll, look verrryyyy closely at your doll to see if you see any uneven sanding or scratches, or just give a secondhand doll a light sanding all over (but not enough to lose detail). And accept that even on a perfect doll, the dye is not going to be as perfectly even as with a doll just bought in that color, it's just the nature of dye. I'm pretty ok with it, though, real skin isn't perfectly even either.

The last doll I dyed, Chompy, who is a Dream Valley Tea.

 

I've only done it once, but the lessons I learned:

1. Watch out for magnets. Heat weakens them, and can soften the glue holding them in. Bigger ones seem to stand up to dyeing more, just make sure that like, your headcap magnets are still in the doll's head and that they can still hold everything together when it's all done!
2. Give parts a moment to cool and dry when judging the color. I found that mine actually had a touch more intense color when I let them dry and looked at them in natural light versus my kitchen light.
3. Acetone will definitely take dye off. Found that out while trying to deal with the magnet situation.
4. I personally was using a white doll (DV's white resin) to start with, and found that Rit's dye recipes were pretty spot on for the colors I wanted!

 

Plastic doll, yes, resin no. I do know darker colors tend to fade a bit with time on plastic and vinyl, but I'm not sure about resin. Anyone have any experience with that?