Name: Malou
Message: Where can I buy the all purpose dye?

Where do you live, that is, in what country? In the US, you can buy all-purpose dye almost anywhere, in grocery stores and drug stores, as well as stores such as Walmart. If you're in another country, please specify which one.

Fabric stores, such as Joann, often carry different sorts of dye, including not only Rit brand all-purpose dye but also Dylon Permanent dye, as well as the dye fixative, Retayne, which is necessary to make all-purpose dye acceptably washfast. You can also buy Rit all-purpose dye  or Tintex all-purpose dye by mail-order through Amazon.

Unfortunately, all-purpose dye is often completely inappropriate to use.  It will not work at all on polyester. It's handy for dyeing cotton and nylon at the same time, but it's not a very good dye for cotton, because it bleeds in the laundry indefinitely, unless you use a commercial dye fixative such as Retayne to set the dye. All-purpose dye is a hot water dye and should be used by simmering it for half an hour together with the garment to be dyed, in a very large non-aluminum cooking pot (large enough to allow the fabric to move freely), which will never be used for food again afterwards. Cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, are much more suitable for dyeing clothing, because the hot water required for all-purpose dye will often shrink clothing unacceptably. 

If you are dyeing cotton, rayon, linen, or hemp, you will be better off if you use fiber reactive dye, instead, such as Procion MX dye or Dylon Cold Water dye. If you are dyeing polyester, you must use disperse dye, not all-purpose dye. All-purpose dye works pretty well on nylon and wool, when used with vinegar in the hot dyebath, but you're likely to get more predictable results with acid dyes than with all-purpose dyes. Most people who use all-purpose dye do so only because it is so easy to find in local stores.

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)