US2716585A

US2716585A - Over-dyeing stockings to produce two-color and ombre effects

Info

Publication number: US2716585A
Application number: US466469A
Authority: US
Inventors: Jr Sidney Bailey
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1954-11-03
Filing date: 1954-11-03
Publication date: 1955-08-30
Anticipated expiration: 1972-08-30

Description

Aug. 30, 1955 s. BAILEY, JR

OVER-DYEING STOCKINGS TO PRODUCE TWO-COLOR AND OMBRE EFFECTS Filed Nov.

INVENTOR. smnaY BImLEY OR.

fiff rne) United States Patent OVER-DYEING STOCKINGS TO PRODUCE TWO-COLOR AND OMBRE EFFECTS Sidney Bailey, Jr.,, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application November 3,1954, Serial No. 466,469

v Claims. (Cl. 8-14) This invention relates generally to womens hosiery and more. particularly to a method of ombr dyeing the same to provide it with a welt region which is of contrasting color with respect to that of the leg and foot portions thereof, this application being a continuation-in-part of my copending application, Serial No. 337,325, filed February 17, 1953, now abandoned.

More particularly, it is among the principal objects of the present invention to. provide an ombr-dyed nylon stocking wherein the welt and the after-welt region of the stocking is of a color or shade contrasting with that of the remainder of the stocking and wherein the transition from the contrastingly colored welt portion of the stocking to the normally colored remaining body portion thereof is practically imperceptible.

Stockings of the character above described provide an entirely new and novel design effect, are of an enhanced ornamental appearance and when produced with welts of diiferenttints enable the wearer to select for use hosiery the tops ofwhich are colored to match or to complement the color ofv the wearers undergarments.

Other objects and advantages of' the invention will appear more fully hereinafter, it being understood that the present invention consists substantially in the construction of hosiery and the method of producing the same, all as hereinafter described, as shown in the accompanying drawings and as finally pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure 1 is a view in side elevation of a stocking ombrdyed in. accordance with the principles of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a group of stockings. supported for suspension in the dyeing bath; and

Figure 3 is a perspective view showing a plurality of suspended groups of stockings inposition to be immersed in a dye tank.

It will be understood that the present invention is especially applicable to nylon hosiery, either full-fashioned or seamless, the dyeing of the stockings to obtain the ombr effect of the present invention being effected subsequent to the usual pre-setting operation.

The upper contrastingly colored welt region of the stocking may be dyed in practically any desired color which has a wide range of pleasing tints and shades, the preferred colors being those which provide pastel shades, such as blue, red and yellow and which'may be combined, if desired, to produce adye of suitable blending color for the body portion of the stocking extending below the after-welt and including the foot, such as tan. Of course, any suitable dye bath may be prepared for dyeing the body portion to any desired color or shade.

The basic coloring dyes are thus of the normal pastel colors such as are conventionally used to dye nylon hosiery, which dyes may be of the acetate group, such as Acetamine Scarlet B, manufactured by E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington, Delaware; Celliton Fast Blue FFR, manufactured by General Dye Stufi Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Amacyl Yellow G, manufac- "ice 2 tured by American Aniline Dyestufi Co., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; or they may be of the acid group, such as Nydye Red 3B, Nydye Blue or Nydye Yellow S, all manufactured by Althouse Chemical, Co., Reading, Pennsyl- Vania.

To obtain the ombre-dyed hosiery of the present invention, the nylon stockings in the greige, after they have'been suitably pre-set, are conventionally bagged for dyeing and then dyed in accordance with conventional dyeing procedure indye baths containing dye solution of whatever pastel color is desired for the welt portion of the stocking. Thus, different groups of the stockings in the greige are initially dyed to respectively different pastel colors of any desired tint, this initial dyeing of any one group of stockings to a particular pastel color throughout being effected through conventional dyeing procedure, which normally involves immersion of the stockings in the particular dyebath for a predeterminedly selected color for a period-of approximately thirty minutes at a dye bath temperature ranging from F. to F.

In accordance with conventional dying procedure, from 2 to 8 ounces of a suitable dyestuff, e. g., any of the acetate or acid group dyes hereinbefore mentioned, may be dissolved in from 1600 to 2000 pounds of water for each 100 pounds of hosiery to be dyed, theamount of dyestuff dissolved in the water being varied as desired to produce the desired shade of color. The bagged hosiery is entered and held in this aqueous dye bath for a period of approximately 30 minutes at a bath temperature of about 170 F.,,

whereupon the hosiery is sampled for proper color and, if necessary, the ratio of dyestufi to water changed to provide a dye bath for initial dyeing ofthe hosiery to the desired pastel shade.

Upon completion of this initial dyeing of. thehosiery,

4 the hosiery is removed from the dye bath, the excess dye and moisture are extracted therefrom, and thereafter theinitially dyed hosiery are permitted to dry to final shape, preferably while the same are fitted on forms.

The basically dyed hosiery, after they have been dried, are then assembled in lots of multiple pairs, e. g., one dozen pairs, and suspended by their top ends from between clamp type hangers like those designated 11 in Figure 2, these hangers being each suitably provided with a supporting hook 1-2 for engagement with a suitable overhead-supported rack 13. Preferably, this rack 13 is supported by a cable 14- Which is operable to raise and lower therack into a-nd'out of a tank 15 containing the final dye solution 16. several lots A of the paired hosiery suspended from the rack 13 are each basically dyed to a particular pastel color, which color, however, for any one lot may be different from those of the remaining lots suspended from the rack 13.

The final dyeing solution just referred to is prepared of any suitable dye compatible with the dye employed in the basic dyeing of the stockings to an overall pastel color and preferably consists of a blend of the red, blue and yellow basic dyes to produce a dye solution of tan color. Of course, the final dye solution may be of any desired color affording suitable contrast with the basic color, the only desideratum being that the final dye bath color be such as will completely obliterate the original basic color to which the hosiery may have been dyed.

As in the case of the pastel colored dye bath, the final dye bath solution is prepared by dissolving as much of the dyestulf of the requisite color in water as is necessary to produce a final dye color which is darker than and which will accordingly obliterate the initial pastel hue of the hosiery, fromv 1600 to 2000 pounds of dye solution being employed for each- 100' pounds of hosiery to be.

finally dyed. For this final bath the amount of dyestuffi'n the aqueous solution thereof may range from 0.5 to 3 or It will be understood, of course, that the more pounds, the relative proportion of the dyestuff employed being dependent upon the density which is desired for the secondarily applied dye color. Thus, where the covering dye for the initially applied pastel tint is to be tan, a satisfactory solution may be prepared by dissolving about 0.5 pound each of the red, blue and yellow basic dyes in from 1600 to 2000 pounds of water for each 106 pounds of hosiery to be over-dyed in tan color. Of course, the proportions of the primary color dyes may be varied to obtain any desired color of over-dye and in fact any prepared dye-stuff suitable for overdyeing the hosiery may be employed, as, for example, Acetamine Dark Brown SS and Acetamine Black CBS, both manufactured by E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Wilmington, Delaware, or Fast Brown 3R, of which from 1 to as much as 8 pounds may be dissolved in from 1600 to 2000 pounds of water to prepare a suit able dye bath for 100 pounds of hosiery.

Preferably, the final dye solution may include any suitable agent, in the proportion of 1 to 3 pounds thereof for each 100 pounds of hosiery to be dyed, for reducing the surface tension of the liquid as well as for insuring migration of the dye through the stocking fabric by capillary action, such agents being, for example, dibutyl phthalate, diglycol stearate, octyl alcohol and alkyiaryl polyether alcohol.

Thesecondary dye bath is also maintained at a tem perature of about 170 F. as the hosiery is dipped therein to overdye the initially applied pastel hue, from which it will appear that except for differences in color, the primary and secondary dye baths are quite similar and compatible with one another, it being important to note in this connection that nylon, in particular, possesses affinity for all classes of dyes so that in the case of nylon hosiery there are no untoward problems involved in ombre dyeing the same in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

To achieve the desired ombre-dyed effect as hereinbefore described, the rack-supported hosiery, as shown in Figure 3, each lot A of which has been basically dyed to a primary pastel color, is lowered foot-first into the dye solution contained in the tank 15. This lowering is effected at a controlled speed and is interrupted when the stockings are submerged to a point at which the surface level of the dye liquid reaches to about four inches below the after-welts of the suspended stockings. The stockings are then raised out of the solution at the same controlled speed of vertical movement thereof, the lowering and raising cycle preferably being repeated two to live times within a period of approximately fifteen minutes while the temperature of the dye bath is maintained at from 150 F. to 170 F. It will be found that by this procedure, the dye liquid will migrate by capillary action upwardly into the stockings for a distance of two inches more or less above the surface level of the dye bath, with-\ out leaving any perceptible line of demarkation between the primary pastel colored welt portion of the stocking and the secondarily dyed remaining portion thereof. In some cases, it may be desired to lower the stockings into the final dye bath to an extent sutncient to effect migration of the final color dye into the welt proper, in other cases into the after-welt and in still other cases into only the upper leg portion of the stocking just below the afterwelt. However, in all cases, the lowering of the stockings into the final dye bath is interrupted at a point to insure that the final dye color does not completely obliterate the basic pastel color of that upper part of the stocking which is to be of the selected pastel tint.

If desired, the ombr-dyed portions of the stocking below their pastel colored welts may be further immersed in and withdrawn from the final solution several times, each such further immersion being of a progressively de creased length of the stocking and for a period somewhat longer than that of the initial immersion, the total elapsed time for the further immersions just referred to being preferably not more than thirty minutes. These subsequent immersions insure ombr dyeing of the stocking to the color of the final dye bath, and provide the stocking from the pastel colored top portion to and through the foot portion 16 thereof, with a color of a density which ircreases downwardly toward the toe and which is in contrast with that of the pastel colored welt portion of the stocking. While this subsequent clipping of the stock ng to progressively decreasing depths into the dye bath s a preferred procedure, it is not essential and the stocking may in certain cases be satisfactorily dyed by repeated lowerin thereof to a predeterminedly fixed depth into the dye solution.

The following is set forth as a specific example of the procedure to be followed in producing stockings of nylon, cf the polyheptamcthylene adiparnide type, having top or welt portions of pastel blue color and leg portions of a tan color which imperceptibly blends into the blue color of the welt: pounds of the stockings, after having been pre-set in the greige and then bagged, are then dyed in their entirety in a dye bath containing 2 ounces of the aforementioned Celliton Fast Blue FFR (identified in The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes by K. Venkataraman, vol. 2, p. 809; Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1952) dissolved in 1600 pounds of water, the stockings being held in this bath for about 30 minutes at a bath temperature of 170 F. The stockings so preliminarily dyed are now freed of excess dye solution and then fitted on forms upon which they are permitted to dry to final shape.

Thereafter, the stockings, while on said forms, are over-dyed as hereinbefore described, for a period of 15 minutes, by the aforesaid controlled lowering and raising thereof into and out of a final dye bath containing 2 pounds of the aforementioned Fast Brown 3R (identifled in the aforementioned edition of The Chemistry of Synthetic Dyes at vol. 1, p. 641) dissolved in 1600 pounds of water, the temperature of this final bath being maintained at F. until the ombr dyeing of the stockings therein has been fully completed. As a modification of the foregoing specific example, the final dye bath may contain 2 pounds of dibutyl phthalate as a wetting agent, for reducing the surface tension of the dye liquid and for facilitating migration of the dye through the hosiery fabric by capillary action. However, the use of such wetting agent is not essential for capillary migration of the dye and so it may be omitted where fast capillary action is not required. Upon completion of the final dyeing operation in accordance with either of the above modifications, the original pastel blue color of the stocking from its bottom up to just below its welt will have been so over-dyed by the tancolored dye that although the welt portion thereof retains its original pastel blue color, no perceptible line of demarkation appears between the blue-colored welt and the tan-colored remaining portion of the stocking.

As has been indicated hereinbefore, the upper welt portion of the stocking, which may or may not include the after-welt and a portion of the stocking leg just below the after-welt, is basically dyed to any desired pastel color or shade of uniform intensity which affords a pleasing contrast with the dye secondarily applied to the remaining part of the stocking. Of course, this secondarily applied dye may also be of any desired color or shade, although it must be of sufficient density to completely obliterate the basic dye in the regions of the stocking wherein the basic pastel color is not desired to show. By the dyeing procedure described, the secondarily applied dye so blends with the primary pastel colored dye in the region below the welt that the transition from one color to the other is imperceptible. And, if desired, the secondarily applied dye may itself be so applied to the stocking, as hereinabove described, to provide a graduated density of the color extending downwardly from the pastel colored welt portion of the stocking to the foot portion thereof with the color of deepest hue in the region of the stocking foot.

It will be understood that the present invention is susceptible of various changes and modifications which may be made from time to time without departing from the general principles or real spirit thereof, and it is accordingly intended to claim the same broadly, as well as specifically, as indicated in the appended claims.

What is claimed as new and useful is:

1. A method of ombr dyeing stockings knitted principally of nylon to provide a distinctive color for one end portion of the stocking which is contrastingly different from that of the remaining portion of the stocking and which colors coalesce in a zone of transition by imperceptible change of one color to the other, which comprises initially dyeing the stocking in its entirety in a liquid dye bath to the distinctive color desired for said end portion thereof, in then drying the stocking, and in thereafter over-dyeing said remaining portion of the stocking by first immersing said remaining portion of the stocking in a liquid over-dye bath and then withdrawing the stocking therefrom, said over-dye bath being compatible with said first-mentioned dye bath and providing a dye color which is contrastingly different from and has the capacity of completely obliterating said distinctive color of the portion of the stocking which is immersed in said over-dye bath, and controlling the rate of immersion and rate of withdrawal of said remaining portion of the stocking in said over-dye bath, so as to provide for migration by capillary action of the over-dye through the stocking upwardly beyond the level of said over-dye bath into said zone of transition immediately adjoining said distinctively colored end portion of the stocking.

2. A method of ombr dyeing stockings principally knitted of nylon yarn to provide a distinctive color for the welt of the stocking which is contrastingly difierent from that of the remaining portion of the stocking and which colors coalesce in a transition zone adjoining the welt by imperceptible change of one color to the other, which comprise basically dyeing the stocking in its entirety in an aqueous dye solution of the distinctive color desired for the welt, in then permitting it to dry, and in thereafter over-dyeing the portion of the stocking below the welt thereof by immersing and withdrawing it foot-first in a second aqueous dye solution of a color which is contrastingly different from and has the capacity of completely obliterating the basically applied color of the stocking, said foot-first immersion of the stocking in said second over-dyeing solution being for such limited depth of the stocking as to constantly maintain the welt portion thereof spaced above the surface level of the over-dyeing solution, and controlling the rate of immersion and rate of withdrawal of said portion of the stocking, so as to provide for migration by capillary action of the over-dye upwardly into said color transition zone located between said surface level of the over-dye solution and the distinctively colored welt of the stocking.

3. A method of ombr dyeing stockings principally knitted of nylon yarn to provide a distinctive color for the welt of the stocking which is contrastingly different from that of the remaining portion of the stocking and which colors coalesce in a transition zone adjoining the welt by imperceptible change of one color to the other, which comprises basically dyeing the stocking in its entirety in an aqueous dye solution of the distinctive color desired for the welt, in then fitting the basically dyed stocking upon a rigid form and permitting it to dry thereon, and in thereafter over-dyeing the portion of the stocking below the welt thereof while on said form by lowering it foot-first in a second aqueous dye solution of a color which is contrastingly diiferent from and has the capacity of completely obliterating the basically applied color of the stocking and then withdrawing the same from said solution, said lowering of the stocking into the over-dye solution being to such extent as to maintain the basically dyed welt thereof spaced above the surface level of the over-dye solution, and controlling the rate of lowering and withdrawing of said portion of the stocking into and out of said over-dyeing solution, so as to thereby provide for migration upwardly by capillary action of the over-dye into said color transition zone located between said surface level of the over-dye solution and the distinctively colored welt of the stocking.

4. In a method as defined in claim 3 wherein said lowering and withdrawing of the stocking into and out of said over-dyeing solution is repeated a plural number of times.

5. In a method as defined in claim 3 wherein said lowering and withdrawing of the stocking into and out of said over-dyeing solution is repeated a plural number of times and wherein the extent to which the stocking is successively lowered into the over-dye solution is decreased for each succeeding lowering.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,202,652 Bentley Oct. 24, 1916 1,817,053 Zerk Aug.4, 1931 1,852,138 Zerk Apr. 5, 1932 1,943,408 Zerk Ian. 16, 1934 1,959,753 Zerk May 22, 1934 FOREIGN PATENTS 153,079 Australia Sept. 2, 1953

Claims

1. A METHOD OF OMBRE DYEING STOCKINGS KNITTED PRINCIPALLY OF NYLON TO PROVIDE A DISTINCTIVE COLOR FOR ONE END PORTION OF THE STOCKING WHICH IS CONTRASTINGLY DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF THE REMAINING PORTION OF THE STOCKING AND WHICH COLORS COALESCE IN A ZONE OF TRANSITION BY IMPERCEPTIBLE CHANGE OF ONE COLOR TO THE OTHER, WHICH COMPRISES INITIALLY DYEING THE STOCKING IN ITS ENTIRELY IN A DYE BATH TO THE DISTINCTIVE COLOR DESIRED FOR SAID END PORTION THEREOF, IN THEN DRYING THE STOCKING AND IN THEREAFTER OVER-DYEING SAID REMAINING, PORTION OF THE STOCKING BY FIRST IMMERSING SAID REMAINING PORTION OF THE STOCKING IN A LIQUID OVER-DYE BATH AND THEN WITHDRAWING THE STOCKING THEREFROM, SAID OVER-DYE BATH BEING COMPATIBLE WITH SAID FIRST-MENTIONED DYE BATH AND PROVIDING A DYE COLOR WHICH IS CONTRASTINGLY DIFFERENT FROM AND HAS THE CAPACITY OF COMPLETELY OBLITERATING SAID DISTINCTIVE COLOR OF THE PORTION OF THE STOCKING WHICH IS IMMERSED IN SAID OVER-DYE BATH, AND CONTROLLING THE RATE OF IMMERSION AND RATE OF WITHDRAWAL OF SAID REMAINING PORTION OF THE STOCKING IN SAID OVER-DYE BATH, SO AS TO PROVIDE FOR MIGRATION BY CAPILLARY ACTION OF THE OVER-DYE THROUGH THE STOCKING UPWARDLY BEYOND THE LEVEL OF SAID OVER-DYE BATH INTO SAID ZONE OF TRANSITION IMMEDIATELY ADJOINING SAID DISTINCTIVELY COLORED END PORTION OF THE STOCKING.