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If you want brightly dyed cotton shirts, you should always use fiber reactive dye, rather than all-purpose dye. All-purpose dyes, such as Rit® Tint And Dye, Tintex® High Temp Dye, and other brands, can never be as bright or long-lasting as fiber reactive dyes, when used on cotton or other cellulose fibers.
Rit® brand dye, like all brands of all-purpose dye, is a mixture of two kinds of dyes - an acid dye, which will just wash out of cotton, since acid dyes work only on animal fibers such as wool, or on nylon (but not on other synthetics) - and a direct dye, which is duller in color and bleeds a bit with every single washing, forever, unless a mail-order permanent dye fixative such as Retayne® is applied.
This is a fine idea for nylon fabric, though! The acid dyes in all-purpose dye are more satisfactory than the cotton dye in all-purpose dye, and acid dye can usually dye nylon.
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Rit Tie-dye Kit
All-purpose tie dye kits do not work as well as other kits.
All-purpose dye
fades quickly in the
wash, compared to
fiber reactive dye.
Acid Dye:
the best choice for dyeing wool or nylon, and works great on silk, too
All-purpose dye requires a completely different recipe from fiber reactive dyes. Do not follow the recipes found elsewhere on this web site! They work only with fiber reactive dye.
All forms of all-purpose dye, including Rit® Tint and Dye, Tintex® High Temp Dye, DEKA L® Hot Water Dye, and Dylon® Multi-Purpose Dye, require a considerable amount of moist heat to attach to fabric. This means that the usual tie-dye squirt bottle technique is right out: it simply will not work properly. For instructions, see the Rit Dye web site - but be sure to first acquire some Retayne® or a similar product to make the color permanent! (See below.) Instructions are also given below, as the Rit® web site was unavailable for most of 2002. They are much more cumbersome than using fiber reactive dye, but if you insist on using all-purpose dye, you'll be far better off using the correct instructions:
(Are you sure you wouldn't rather use cold water fiber reactive dyes, with the safe, quick, easy squirt bottle technique?)
Alternatively, you may apply your all-purpose or direct dye mixed with a small amount of water, allow to dry, then wrap in unprinted newsprint and steam your shirt over boiling water for half an hour or longer (after the water comes to a boil), in a covered pot, just as you would steam vegetables. Do not bake or use other dry forms of heat; dye requires the presence of moisture in order to bond to fiber. Note that even after heat-setting, both all-purpose dye and direct dye will tend to fade badly in the wash unless finished with a cationic dye fixative such as Retayne. Note that some color bleeding is inevitable in the first rinsing and during the Retayne treatment, if the dye is not sufficiently set; it is difficult or impossible to get truly bright results with contrasting colors, when tie-dyeing with all-purpose dye. For the brightest and clearest results, always use fiber reactive dye for tie-dyeing.
After dyeing with all-purpose dye, be sure to finish your dyeing by applying a product to prevent it from running with every wash. Such products include Retayne®, Dharma Dye Fixative®, and Aljo Pro-fix PCD® after-treatment. These products are sometimes available at your local quilting supply store, but usually must be purchased by mail; see Sources for Supplies. Retayne® is a cationic bulking agent that essentially glues the dye into the fiber, making the washfastness of even direct dyes quite acceptable after it is applied.
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Last updated: July 29, 2008
Page created: August 8, 2002
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