Dying/darkening white sails

[ViperR]

Hello everyone,
I just joined and posted in the "Introduce Yourself" section.
I recently got back into wooden ship building and purchased and working on an OcCre Buccaneer kit because I like pirate ships. Price was affordable compared to other ones.
I have the deck planks and outside planks of the hull assembled and stained. Went with darker stains than the instructions/online videos because I wanted a darker and more sinister pirate look to it. Instead of "in the white" decking, I stained them in oak. Hull is stained in sections of maple and walnut. Gave a dark tone to the entire ship.
My dilemma and question are about the sails. They are white in color with yellow stripes in them and I want them to be a medium to dark grey in color. They are the typical cloth sails and are already cut and sewn. I was thinking about dying them to add to darkness of the ship instead of bright white sails.
What kind of cloth dye should I use? RIT dye from Hobby Lobby? Any tips or tricks on dying sales? I don't want them black, but a grey that matches my dark themed pirate ship.
Thank you!

 

[Y.T.]

I use strong tea to dye my sails. I wet them well in water before submerging into tea. This ensures even spread of color.

 

[Bob Cleek]

What YT said. You can use Rit Dye, as well, but tea and coffee are often used for the purpose. Be sure to rinse well, after staining, though. Both tea and coffee are acidic, much more so coffee than tea. Acids don't play well with threads and textiles on ship models over the long haul.