Dyeing Synthetic Fabric

Dyeing synthetics has to be done with dye made for synthetics or has to be done at high temperatures (in my dye experience at art school a while back, but someone may know of something newer) Dyeing synthetics with heat can shrink them and often the dye doesn't come out they way you want. How about a cotton full sized sheet in white (or any color, so you don't have to dye it)? Just snip a small end of the top where it is folded and stitched and thread it on a tension rod. I have done this for privacy screens and for shelves.

Save the receipts and return the sheers when it's convenient. You'll probably spend less time just cleaning the shelves. If you don't want to take the time to sort and decide what to do with the stuff on the shelves, then get some empty cardboard boxes (from any nearby store, grocery stores always have boxes to get rid of), put everything in there and pick out the few things you want to keep on the shelf. Then store the boxes somewhere (basement, attic, garage, closet). Then, if after a year you still haven't made time to sort & purge, and you have not needed any if the items in the boxes, then you can easily take them to goodwill after that (or sell the contents). Problem solved.

P.s. If you're talking about pantry shelves where you don't want to put food items away, then I'd go with a thicker gauge fabric (like a flat bed sheet as others have suggested) in a neutral color. Dying fabrics just seems like a lot of work, and if driving to the store to get the right fabric takes too much time, then you might as well spend the time fixing the real problem. Good luck!

Drive back and forth to the store, buy fabric dye, dye the fabric, hope it works, clean up the mess, hang the sheers.....sounds like it might take less time and effort to just clean the shelves...lol....if you want to go the route with white sheers, you just need A LOT of them. I have white sheers on the window in our second floor spare bathroom.....30 inch window required 8 panels of sheers so they are bunched up enough so you can't see through it. Good luck and Happy Holidays!....

Dyeing synthetics to an exact colour is not possible. I found this out the hard way making my son's Ghostbusters Jumpsuit a couple years ago.

For a quick cheat:

If you are looking to cover the shelves like curtains, measure the area you want to cover. Find a nice fabric at Walmart or a fabric store. Get it slightly larger than you need, and buy some iron on fusible tape. Turn the raw edges under, with a piece of the fabric tape sandwiched in, and iron edges to fuse it. You can then use either command strips or velcro if the shelves are easy to clean to adhere them to your shelf.

Hope this helps.

Measure the area that you want to cover up with fabric. Then that way, you know how much to get.

Use a regular fabric, not sheers. Sheers will not be opaque enough to cover up what is behind it.

Another option, is to use curtain fabric. It is already finished on each side. No sewing involved. And you can use a pressure rod, to hang it up.
Or use Velcro, to attach the fabric piece to whatever shelf/area you need to cover up.

For a cheap fix, boil several tea bags in a pot of water and soak the curtains in that brew overnight. The color will be antique and streaked looking, giving it a beautiful look.

Since it's for christmas, what about tacking on long streams of ribbons behind the curtains, providing a whimsical look.

Or what about some sparkle spray paint? You could even do a snow flake pattern on the reverse side?

GL!