Name: Deborah

Country: US

Message: I am dyeing Tencel (which is similar to rayon) and have Procion MX dyes and Cushing Direct Dyes.  Instructions for dyeing are different. (MX uses soda ash and no heat; Cushing says vinegar and heat.) Can they be used together (ie. one area with MX and another with Cushing direct)? Also, Cushing does not say to use Retayne afterwards - your website and many others says Rentayne is necessary for washfastness.

The dyeing techniques for direct dyes (such as Cushing direct dyes) and fiber reactive dyes (such as Procion MX) are too different to allow you to combine them into a single application. I recommend that, if you use both on a single piece, you apply them in completely separate steps. Apply the fiber reactive dye first, since it attaches to the fiber much more permanently than the direct dye does, so there's no question of the first coming out when the second dye is applied. 

It's unusual to combine fiber reactive dyes with direct dyes, since direct dyes are in so many ways inferior to fiber reactive dyes. If you buy direct dyes in bulk, they are cheaper than fiber reactive dyes, but in small quantities direct dyes do not give you even this advantage. Direct dyes are not as fade-resistant as fiber reactive dyes, even when they are treated with a cationic dye fixative, though it does help considerably. Direct dyes are also more trouble to apply, and less versatile, since they should be applied at nearly boiling temperatures. They are intended for dyeing the entire piece a single color, not for applying to only part of it, since direct dyes in one section will tend to bleed onto the rest of the piece whenever you wash it.

In order to combine direct dyes and fiber reactive dyes on one piece, apply the fiber reactive dyes first. Use soda ash to set the Procion MX dye, following a good recipe; do not use vinegar with Procion MX dye on Tencel, because it neutralizes the soda ash, whose high pH is required for the dye-fiber reaction. After completing the dyeing process with Procion MX dye, wash your fabric once in cool water and then two or three times in very hot water, to remove all excess unattached dye. Do not wait to do this hot-water wash-out until after you've used the direct dyes, because a portion of the direct dyes will be removed by this treatment. Direct dyes attach to the fiber only loosely, in much the same way as the unbonded excess fiber reactive dyes.

After you've completed your dyeing and washing-out of the Procion MX dye, you can, if you still want to do so, apply a direct dye. Salt must be used in dyeing with direct dyes. However, vinegar is not needed; vinegar does not improve the washfastness of Cushing direct dye. Vinegar is important in dyeing wool and other protein fibers with Cushing Acid Dye, but never in dyeing cellulosic materials such as Tencel. The Cushing Direct Dye recipe recommends the use of vinegar and salt, not in the dyeing process itself, but in an after-wash; unfortunately, it's not true that the vinegar will improve washfastness, as they claim. What is the vinegar good for? Probably only as a fabric softener, as recommended by Martha Stewart, who suggests using vinegar in the final rinse of your laundry instead of using commercial fabric softeners.

If washfastness is a concern for you, or if you want to dye only part of a garment or piece of fabric, you should not choose Cushing direct dyes or any other direct dyes. Direct dyes are notorious for bleeding and fading quickly in the wash. They will also tend to redeposit on anything else you wash in the same wash-load, so that, if you fail to carefully separate your clothing by color, your bright and light-colored clothing will become muddy in color, and your whites will become dingy. (In contrast, Procion-dyed laundry does not have to be sorted, regardless of the washing temperature, once the initial washing-out has been completed.) There is no strong chemical bond holding direct dyes to the fiber, as there is in the case of fiber reactive dyes. The use of a cationic fixative such as Retayne is helpful for reducing the tendency of direct dyes in clothing to bleed in the wash, and I strongly recommend it if you use any brand of direct dye on anything that must be washed repeatedly, such as clothing. 

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