Other Services
UK Garment Dyehouse and Customisation Services
Our dyehouse sits inside our own production. Dyeing, washing and finishing happen under the same roof as the printing, so a garment does not get sent out to a third party and waited on between stages. Very few UK apparel suppliers still run a dyehouse in house, and it is the single thing that lets us do work other printers have to turn down.
We have the capacity to overdye more than 150,000 garments a week, with consistent colour batch to batch and finishes that hold up through wear and washing. That covers a flat overdye on a plain blank at one end and tie dye, dip dye, snow wash and heavily distressed streetwear finishes at the other.
Because the dyehouse and the presses are in the same building, colour and print can be developed against each other. A wash can be applied over a print to knock it back into the garment, a garment can be dyed before or after decoration depending on the effect you want, and a strike-off can be looked at with the printed sample sitting next to it.
Minimums depend on the process and the volume and are confirmed when we quote. Standard production turnaround is 5 to 10 working days from approval of artwork and payment.
Our Garment Dyeing and Washing Capabilities
Overdyeing
Dyeing a finished garment a new colour. Overdyeing is what gives garment-dyed apparel its depth, because the dye takes to the seams and stitching differently to the body of the garment. It is also the most practical answer to stock that is the wrong colour: a line sitting unsold in a colourway nobody wants can often be overdyed into one that sells, which is a great deal cheaper than writing it off.
Tie Dyeing
The garment is bound before dyeing so the tied areas resist the dye, producing the spiral, bullseye and banded patterns the technique is known for. Every piece comes out slightly different, which is the point of it. We run tie dye at production volume, which is a different discipline to doing it by hand on a small batch.
Dip Dyeing
Partial immersion, so colour graduates from saturated at one end to nothing at the other. Used for hem fades on tees and hoodies and for two-tone effects, and it works particularly well when the fade runs across an existing print.
Scrunch Dyeing
The garment is scrunched and bound at random before dyeing, giving a marbled, irregular surface with no repeating pattern. Softer and less structured than tie dye, and a good fit for ranges that want texture without an obvious motif.
Pattern Dyeing
Structured, repeatable resist patterns rather than random ones. Useful when a range needs the character of a dyed finish but the buyer needs every unit to look like the sample.
Garment Distressing
Physical wear applied deliberately to give a garment a lived-in look before it has been lived in. Applied to hems, cuffs, collars and seams, and controlled so that the garment is worn-looking without being weakened.
Hot Washing
A high-temperature wash that changes how the garment handles and sits. It softens the fabric, takes the newness off it and settles any shrinkage before the customer gets it, which matters if you are selling on fit.
Vintage Washing
Softens and fades a garment so it reads as something that has been owned for years. The most commercially reliable wash we run, because it suits almost every kind of graphic tee and it is what most people mean when they say they want a garment to feel broken in.
Distress Washing
A more aggressive treatment producing worn edges, faded panels and an unmistakably used surface. Where vintage wash is subtle, distress wash is the effect itself, and it is the backbone of a lot of streetwear.
Snow Washing
Produces the mottled, flecked surface that gives snow wash and acid wash garments their look, with white marbling breaking across the base colour. Strong, recognisable and best used deliberately.
White Washing
Lightens the base colour of the garment, either as a finish in its own right or to open up a lighter ground before another process goes over it.
Garment Customisation, Cuts and Trims
Dyeing and washing change the surface of a garment. These change its shape.
Specialised Cuts
Garments cut to a specification that the blank does not come in. Useful when a range needs a silhouette that is not available off the shelf and having it made from scratch is not proportionate to the quantity.
Cropping
Cutting a garment to a cropped length, finished either clean or raw depending on the look. One of the most common ways to turn a standard blank into something that reads as designed.
Nibbling
Small deliberate cuts and nicks at edges and seams to produce a raw, worked finish. Sits naturally alongside distressing and distress washing.
Burn Outs
A chemical process on blended fabric that removes one fibre and leaves the other, producing a semi-sheer pattern in the cloth itself. The effect is in the fabric, not printed on top of it, which is why it cannot be replicated with ink.
Added Trims
Trims applied to finish a garment off, alongside the tags and labels applied on our garment finishing line.
Dyeing Around a Print, or Printing Onto a Dye
The order matters. Dye first and you print onto a colour that already has depth and variation in it. Print first and then wash or overdye, and the print is knocked back into the garment so it looks like it grew there. Neither is better in the abstract, and the right answer depends on the effect you are after and the ink.
This is the practical benefit of a dyehouse sitting next to the presses. We can run both ways round on a sample and let you look at the two together before the production run is committed. If you are working with a printer and a separate dyer, that comparison usually costs a fortnight and a courier.
Rescuing Stock With an Overdye
If you are holding garments in a colour that has stopped selling, overdyeing is usually the cheapest route back to a saleable product. The units already exist and the cost of putting them through a dye is a fraction of buying the range again. Combined with reprocessing, which can also update labelling and specification, a lot of dead stock can be brought back into a sellable state.
Send us the details and a sample and we will tell you what the fabric will take. Not every composition dyes the same way, and we would rather say so before you commit than afterwards.
Colour Consistency at Volume
Anyone can dye one garment. The difficulty is dyeing 20,000 of them the same colour, and then dyeing 20,000 more to match six months later when the reorder lands. That is a matter of process control and record keeping, and it is what the capacity figure actually means: not just how many garments can go through, but how many can go through and come out matching.
If your line repeats, tell us at the first order. Holding a colour across reorders is far easier when we know from the start that it will need to be held.
Dyeing, Washing and Ethical Compliance
Dyeing and washing are the water and energy intensive end of apparel production, so if you are being asked about your supply chain, this is the stage the questions land on. Our Leicester operation completed an Arche environmental audit in January 2025, holds SEDEX SMETA 4-Pillar certification including the SMETA 7 additions from January 2025, covering labour standards, health and safety, environment and business ethics, and takes part in the Worldly Higg Index environmental assessment, most recently in December 2024. The detail is on our sustainability and CSR page.
Who Uses Our Dyehouse
Streetwear and fashion brands who need washed, dyed and distressed finishes at production volume. Retailers and own-label ranges wanting garment-dyed depth on core lines. Bands and promoters after a merch piece that does not look like a printed blank, through our band and tour merch printing. Other printers and suppliers who need dyehouse capacity they do not have. And brands sitting on stock in the wrong colour who would rather sell it than write it off.
Dyehouse and Garment Dyeing FAQs
Get a Dyehouse Quote
Tell us the garment, the finish you are after and the quantity, and we will come back with a quote and a view on what the fabric will take. Call 0116 242 6300 or email info@meeshagroup.co.uk.