How can I dye t-shirts UT Burnt Orange with Procion MX dyes?

Name: Alexia

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Country or region: Austin, TX

Message: I work for a social enterprise called Open Arms, based in Austin, TX. We employ refugee women who have been relocated in Austin, and use donated t-shirts that we transform into skirts and scarves. Because we rely on donations, we have gotten quite a big load of white t-shirts and have had the idea of dyeing them. We tried unsuccessfully for months to dye UT burnt orange until I found your website. I followed the directions and had a great first try but was never able to totally reproduce it. It would end up a little too red.

I used -4 1/2 tbsp golden yellow from Pro Chem
-4 1/2 tbsp scarlet from Dharma
-1/2 tbsp new black from Dharma
I put 15 t-shirts in the wash, used 5 cups of salt, 1 1/2 cup soda ash and 2 tbsp synthrapol for the wash.

The first time was perfect but the other 3 were a little redder. Could it be because I didn't weigh the dye but measured it? I remember reading that some dyes weighed less than others....Could it be the combination of brands, although according to your website they're the same but come from different suppliers?

Looks like I need to update my chart. Dharma's scarlet used to be a manufacturer's mix, Procion red MX-BRA, same as Jacquard Products' 030 fire engine red and ProChem's 300 scarlet. Manufacturer's mixes are the same from one seller to another, except for the fact that, like all dyes, some are more or less dense than others. This means that, while a given weight always contains the same amount of dye, a teaspoon can contain significantly less dye, if it's a particularly fluffy batch, or significantly more dye, if it's a particularly dense batch. However, a manufacturer's mixture may be replaced by a supplier at any time, without warning or notification, with an in-house mix that the supplier mixes for themselves, one which is quite similar in hue, but perhaps different in some essential detail. Dharma no longer lists their #9 scarlet as red MX-BRA, a good indication that it has been replaced by an in-house mix.

In my opinion, it's almost always best to use the pure unmixed single-hue dyes as mixing primaries, because they are more reliable, even if obtained from the same source, but especially when obtained from different sources. (See Table 1, "Pure unmixed single-hue Procion MX type (dichlorotriazine) dyes" on my page, "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?".) It's also important, if you are relying on being able to reproduce a color, to always measure your dye powder by weight, rather than volume, because the dye manufacturers promise that the dyes will always contain the same amount of dye per a given unit of weight, but the density of any dye powder may be significantly different if one manufacturing batch is used rather than another. While 5 grams or red MX-5B should always contain exactly the same amount of dye color this year as next year, even if you buy it elsewhere, a teaspoon of red MX-5B may contain a different amount of dye if you take it from one jar instead of another, even if you bought the two jars from the same retailer! Measuring by volume, using a teaspoon, is certainly less trouble, and is to be preferred when exact color matching is not needed, but measuring by weight is far more predictable.

A less likely problem, but one of which you must still be aware, is that fiber reactive dyes do go bad with time. The same high reactivity that makes Procion MX dyes work great at room temperature also means that they can go bad after just a couple of years. Some dye colors react more quickly than others, and will also "go bad" more quickly than the others. If one of the colors in a premixed color goes bad more quickly than the others, then the hue produced by the mixture will shift significantly. Sometimes a Procion MX dye will stay good for five years, but other times it will show significant changes after only a year or two, especially if not stored with very tight lids on the jar, in a reasonably cool place.

It's unfortunate that that handy color mixing chart from Jacquard Products relies on volume measurements. Volume measurements are convenient and easy to use, but not reliable for reproducing colors exactly. Even if you were to stick with only dyes sold by a single company, such as Jacquard Products, there is bound to be some variation from one dye lot to the next. One dye lot as purchased from the factory might be a whole truckload, but eventually they will run out and have to buy another truckload, which will contain the exact same amount of dye color per weight, but a slightly different amount per volume.

So, what should you do now?

First, let's consider the shirts you have already dyed. They are close to being a burnt orange, but they are too red. Evidently the scarlet you used was either too strong, or too biased toward red, with too little orange in it. A good way to tone down any color is to overdye it with the "opposite" color. If you look on the color wheel, the color that is opposite orange is blue, while the color that is opposite red is green. If you overdye your reddish burnt-orange shirts with a pale green dye, this will correct the red and bring them closer to the color you want. Always start with a lighter green than you think you will need for this, because you can always dye again, but it's harder to remove dyes.

Or possibly you're rather attack it from the other side, removing the dye and starting over, especially if they are too dark already. Use two or three boxes of Rit Color Remover in a hot washing machine to remove as much of the dyes as possible, from as many shirts as can move freely in the volume of the washing machine. If your washing machine, like mine, tries to save energy by adding cold water to a hot water cycle, turn off the cold water faucet to the machine until it has filled with hot water. You want the water in the washing machine to start at a temperature of no less than 140°F, for the Rit Color Remover to work well. It works even better at higher temperatures, such as in a very large pot heated on the stove, but that requires a major investment in a dyeing pot (which you should not plan to reuse for food), and it's a lot more trouble. Not all colors remove well, but many do; you'll know how well it will work only after you try it. Removing color with household bleach, based on sodium hypochlorite, will work on some different dyes than Rit Color Remover, but also has a greater tendency to damage the fiber, unless you are careful. (See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?", and "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?".)

How should you correct your recipe so that you obtain the desired color in the future?

First, let's look at what's in the dye mixtures. The Jacquard Products recipe calls for 9 parts (or 2.25 teaspoons) of yellow MX-3RA, 9 parts (or 2.25 teaspoons) of red MX-BRA (a mixture of orange MX-2R and red MX-5B), and 1 part (or 1/4 teaspoon) of the black mixture MX-CWNA. The recipe you typed in uses twice as much black as their recipe calls for, but that's not the cause of your trouble, since black MX-CWNA has a dark blue cast, not a reddish cast.

I think you should substitute a pure orange, Procion orange MX-2R, for the scarlet mixture of red MX-5B with orange MX-2R. I don't think you really need to shift the orange MC-2R down to a yellower orange by adding any yellow MX-3RA, but that will be your call. You'll need to do a little bit of trial and error. Maybe you'll just want to substitute orange MX-2R for only part of the scarlet mixture you've been using.

To take a bright orange such as orange MX-2R to a burnt orange, a simpler and more direct method is to just add a small quantity of the opposite color on the color wheel, which is blue. If you mix a small amount of cerulean blue (blue MX-G) with orange MX-2R, you will get a burnt orange. A little trial and error will be necessary to learn how much blue to add to the orange, but my guess for a first try would be about 9/10 orange MX-2R and only 1/10 as much blue MX-G, or even 1/20 as much.

Since the mixture black MX-CWNA is actually a very dark blue, adding a little bit of just it to orange will produce a burnt orange, but it will be a different one than you would get with blue MX-G. Do a small-scale test each way, and see which you prefer.

Yet another approach, if you will be using a significant amount of this color, is to contact ProChem's technical support department, and ask them to devise a color formula for you to mix using their Procion MX dyes. That requires buying a significant quantity of their dye color mixture, however.

The other problems I encountered were:
-one, that the fabric had to be washed at least 2-3 times and rinsed at least twice before the water would be clear enough. Since we are selling our products to the public, I would not take any chances of the dye bleeding in the wash. Am I using too much dye?

It does take several washings to remove the excess unattached dye, but there are some important points that help to make washing-out more efficient. First, always start with one cool-water cycle, or one thorough rinsing by hand, to remove the soda ash and salt, and some of the loose dye. Starting in hot water can be a mistake, because it encourages some of the unattached dye to associate loosely with the fabric in a way that is harder to wash out. Then, after your first wash, use very hot water, at least 140°F, to run two consecutive wash cycles (no need for a rinse cycle in between). Hotter water works much better at removing excess dye. Properly fixed Procion MX dye will not come out of the fabric even if you boil it, but the loose dye comes out much more quickly and efficiently if the water is very hot, the hotter the better. When it is necessary to conserve water, the greatest efficiency is gained by pouring boiling water on top of the dyed fabric (after having rinsed it in cool water); using an insulated container for this soaking step adds further to the efficiency by maintaining the heat longer. After one good soaking in hot water, do a hot-water wash, and finish with a cool water rinse to remove the detergent (a hot water rinse would be fine, but is no longer possible on many washing machines).

If your water is at all hard, and Texas does tend to have hard water in its streams, you should use sodium hexametaphosphate to soften the water you use, both for mixing dyes and for every load of washing, when removing the excess dye. This is because the hard water ions can cause some dye molecules to combine into complexes that are more difficult to wash out from the fabric. You can buy sodium hexametaphosphate from any major dye supplier. Don't use the Calgon that comes from the grocery store, because it contains completely the wrong chemical, though Calgon from Jacquard Products is fine.

two, because of the over washing, the fabric became worn and less soft. Any recommendation on that?

Always turn the shirts inside-out before you prewash them for dyeing. Keep them inside-out throughout the dyeing and washing-out process. Turn them right-side-out only after you have completed the whole process. This will reduce wear and pilling on the outside surface of the fabric. So will using the most delicate setting available, but this varies from one washing machine to another. As a general rule, clothing fares best when always turned inside out for any laundering. Serious amounts of wear usually show up after only a few washings only when heavier fabrics, such as blue jeans, are washed in the same load.You can buy a truly unscented maximum strength fabric softener, Milsoft, from Dharma or ProChem, that is much more effective than grocery-store fabric softeners, and won't cause trouble for asthmatic or allergic customers the way grocery-store fabric softeners can.

I have ordered Retayne but have yet to use it.

Don't use Retayne or other cationic dye fixatives to fix fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX. Properly fixed MX dyes are more permanent than Retayne is. Retayne also has to be washed only in cool water in the laundry (after using hot water to apply it in the first place), to keep it from washing out. Furthermore, Retayne and other cationic dye fixatives tend to make dyes more susceptible to fading in bright sunlight. Retayne is a very good solution when you are working with inferior dyes, but the excellent Procion type dyes you've been using are better than Retayne.

I am so thankful that you are willing to share your knowledge to the public and appreciate any help you can give us!

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

Posted: Sunday - October 02, 2011 at 09:18 AM

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How can I dye t-shirts UT Burnt Orange with Procion MX dyes?

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