Dyeing Nylon Spandex - Testing Part I

1970s and early 1980s sci-fi was rife with feathered hair, flashy colors and above all; super shiny Spandex!

The costume department for Buck Rogers spared no expense when it came time to buying what I imagine was bolt upon bolt of Nylon spandex that went into the costumes for the show.

Supposedly a 2-way stretch only, the 90% Nylon with 10% Spandex gave us a mirror-like shine that made an outfit appear painted on.

Wilma Deering's outfits were some of the best examples of this, and one of the companies who made this magical fabric is still producing it to this day. It's called Jumbo Spandex.

Color choice in this material, however; can be slim. Pink is in only one or few shades; super bright or very pale...if any pink at all, and primary colors rule the stock found in my online searches. Yet it still comes in white, and Nylon is dyeable!

I suspect the costumers for Buck Rogers ran into this conundrum, too, and in their attempt to get a bright pink with dyes, ended up with that unique pink for Wilma's costume from the "Space Vampire" episode.

Another place we saw this fabric used during the same time period, in the fashion trend of disco pants. On screen and off, I've only ever seen photos and film of people wearing these, but I recently found some on Ebay. Not vintage, but reproduced by American Apparel.

It's the exact same Jumbo Spandex fabric; 90% Nylon, 10% Spandex, in the same weave.
Just like the vintage pants, the 2-way stretch across the grain, actually has a little stretch on the grain, too. Otherwise there would have been no way they could have gotten such a smooth fit across the hips, and allowed for movement without cutting off circulation.

For the most part, modern spandex like milliskin is polyester and Lycra, and not only lacks the ability to absorb dye, but doesn't have the same body and shine as classic Jumbo Spandex.

To prove the dyeable nature of Jumbo Spandex, I did a test today.

The 'spots' on the pants in the background are just caused by the light. Not dye.

I nabbed myself a pair of the red American Apparel disco pants (I not-so-secretly love them!), and snipped a small bit off the inside zipper placket.
I mixed about 1/2 teaspoon of Dharma acid dye in a Caribbean Blue I had on-hand, to about 1 1/4 cups of almost simmering water.
I let the small scrap soak for only 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
After rinsing thoroughly and drying, I had a pretty burgundy scrap, still shiny, with some still-blazing red polyester stitching attached.

Again, this was just after a 5 minute soak, so you can imagine the depth of color if I'd left it in longer.

I'm going to buy a few different shades of pink, neutral base red and yellow from Dharma to mix if needed. Then I'll test scraps from white Jumbo Spandex I'm ordering from Fabrics World, until I get as close as possible to that pink shade on Wilma's ensemble.