Name: alanna
Message: i would love to know how to create a batik that is machine washable where the color will not fade. i made a shirt in art class (using the modern method of applying the dye with a paint brush) and my teacher told me to soak the parts that were dyed in salt water to help set the dye. this only caused the color to fade, and the dye to bleed to other parts of the shirt. if you could help me out with this, that would be great.

The answer is to use cool water fiber reactive dye, with soda ash. Popular brands of fiber reactive dye include Procion MX, Drimarene K, and Cibacron F. You can purchase the dye by mail-order from the companies listed on my Sources for Supplies page at <http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml>, or you can buy the less economical smaller packages sold at some crafts stores under the names Jacquard or Rainbow Rock, if you can find them. "Dylon Cold Water" dye will work fine for this; "Dylon Multi Purpose" dye will NOT work.

Whatever you do, do NOT use hot-water dye, such as all-purpose dye. Brands of all-purpose dye include Rit, Tintex Hot Water Dye, and Dylon Multi Purpose. Since this dye does not combine permanently with the fiber at temperatures below the softening point of wax, they do not work at all in batik.

There is nothing you can do to make hot-water dye permanent when you have applied it with cool water. Salt water will not help to fix this sort of dye. The dye may run less during the immersion process if the water is completely saturated with salt, however (at a rate of about one pound of salt per half gallon of water). This will not make the dye permanent, but it may reduce bleeding just during the time when it is submerged in the saturated salt solution, and thus might make it possible to boil the dye and remove the wax without completely destroying the project. (I have not tested this with all-purpose dye; a saturated salt solution is good for temporarily preventing running of unfixed fiber reactive dye, until it is fixed with soda ash.)

However, your project which has already had dye transfer to other parts of the shirt is probably ruined. It is such a waste when artists are not taught to use the proper materials to begin with.

Please buy yourself some fiber reactive dye and try the recipe on <http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/howtobatik.shtml> and <http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/howtodye.shtml>, or at <http://www.gsdye.com/Canada/ProcionMX.html#anchor145232> or <http://www.prochemical.com/directions/MX_Batik.htm> or <http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/208786-AA.shtml>.