Is it safe to use cooking utensils for cooking once they have been used to dye fabrics?

I just bought some fabric dye and the instruction calls for simmering the fabric for 20 minutes and dye for an hour. I really like that pot for cooking; however, it is the only pot I have that is big enough for dying fabrics.

All professional dyers will tell you to never reuse a dyepot for food. Dyes other than food coloring are not considered safe for containers used for food preparation. The fabric dyes you can buy in the grocery store have not been tested to be sure that they will not cause cancer or other health problems, so it is important to avoid eating anything that may have been contaminated with dye. You can put fabric into glass canning jars and heat those in a pot of water without contaminating your pot, though.

If you buy a cool water dye, such as Procion MX dye, you can apply it in a bucket without needing to heat it at all. The results are much better if you use this kind of dye than if you use the hot water dye that you bought, anyway. All-purpose dye works best if you boil the fabric in the dye, but even then it fades quickly and bleeds badly in the laundry. Procion MX dyes can be found in Dylon Cool Water Dye and in Tulip One Step Fashion Dye, in addition to the Jacquard Procion MX dyes found in good tie-dye kits and a few very good crafts stores.

For more information, see:
Is all-purpose dye safe to use? Is it safer than fiber reactive dye?
Is it safe to eat or breathe fiber reactive dyes?
Hazards from dyes and chemicals in textile finishing: a brief guide for employees [PDF]

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[This material was first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on May 27, 2008.]
Posted: Friday - June 27, 2008 at 09:15 AM          

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