Your site is a wonderful source of information. My question: Is it possible to do a batik-like method on terrycloth? I wanted to do custom beach towels for my sons. Because of the texture, I wasn't sure if there was a resist that would work. I'd prefer to do a pattern, rather than dip the entire towel (painting on dye, if possible). Any information would be appreciated.

I had an awful time once with batiking some heavy flannel. The wax didn't want to penetrate the fabric. The wax needs to be hotter to penetrate a heavy fabric than a light one.

What I'd rather do, in patterning 100% cotton terry cloth, would be to cut out large masks or stencils from cardboard or posterboard. Mix up good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, and place it into pump spray bottles. Do not use all-purpose dye, such as Rit! Pre-soak the fabric in soda ash, as in the tie dye recipe, then wring it out and spread it out.

(Alternatively, you can soak the towels in the soda ash solution and line-dry them before spraying on the dye, or you can mix the soda ash in with the dye in the squirt bottles if you work quickly and complete the project within an hour or two of adding the soda ash to the dye.)

Arrange the cut-outs on the towels - or pin them on, if you want to hang the towels on a clothes line to spray them - then spray the dye on. Be careful not to breath the dye spray; use a dust mask or respirator. Do spray dyeing outside, if possible.

As long as you are painting the dye on, almost any water-soluble resist should work, such as PROchem's Cold Wax Resist. These will not work with the soda ash presoak, however, because they just wash off in the soda ash solution; use them only on dried soda-ash soaked material, or else by mixing the soda ash with the dye itself.

Here's a link to a page showing a shirt I dyed in 1997 by spraying green and black Procion MX dyes. My husband still wears it. High quality fiber reactive dye lasts through years of launderings.