If someone was going to tye-dye yarmulkes, would it be better to go with cotton, or with that shiny satiny type of fabric?

Always choose cotton or silk, never polyester. Fiber content is everything; the specific weave (satin, twill, broadcloth, crocheted) doesn't matter a bit. All 100% natural fibers are good for dyeing. You use a different method for wool and other animal fibers. Hemp and linen are just like cotton, for dyeing.

50% cotton/50% polyester will *look* like 100% cotton, but when you dye it you get baby pastels instead of bright colors.

I'm sure it's far easier to find polyester satin than silk satin, in yarmulkes. Silk satin is so much nicer, but it's more expensive, and people don't even realize the difference unless it's pointed out to them. You can dye nylon, though. Just not any other synthetics. If the seller does not specify what the satin is made of, assume it is undyeable polyester.

You can draw on paper with special polyester dye crayons and then iron the designs onto polyester satin. Could be a fun project for kids. The polyester should be white for this purpose.

More questions....

0) Prewash: does it make any difference if the new kippot are washed in hot or cold?

Hot is better, best to prewash in hot with soda ash and detergent. (The soda ash improves cleaning but does not substitute for the soda ash presoak. Soda ash rinses out easily.)

However, if the kippot need to be treated gently, just stick throughout to whatever care instructions you find best. I normally just throw my dyeables in the laundry. Try washing just one in hot, and if it shrinks out of shape, treat the rest with much more care!

1) Color. My first thought was just to go with one color for the entire kippah, since the things are small (~5 inches across). [My daughter] wasn't enthralled with that--she likes the idea of more colors. Someone suggested using different tones of the same color family (e.g. light, medium, and dark blue) rather than the classic yellow/magenta/teal. I like this, since it seems that the inevitable goofs won't be quite as jarring--easiest I'd guess would be to use the same dye, and just add more or less dye than recommended to weaken or strengthen the color. Would that work? Another thought I had earlier was to dye the kippot one lighter color and then use the technique you'd mentioned before of shaking pure dry dye particles on of a darker color.

Avoid shaking dry dye in quantity - you don't want to breathe the stuff. I don't want kids using it.

I favor using several different colors that are close and look pretty together. Say, turquoise and cerulean and navy. I think the results are prettier and more complex than just using gradations of the same color. You will get gradations of each color due to the tying, anyway, with lighter areas near where the rubber bands go.

I would rather avoid using all three primaries in one little thing. If all three colors mix together, the result is not pretty! Pick two primaries and the secondary color that falls between them. This way you will be sure not to get mud. Say, turquoise and magenta and purple, or yellow and orange and magenta, or yellow and green and turquoise. Mix up two colors from dye powder than mix the intervening color by mixing those two.

It is often best to use pure single color dyes, not dye mixtures, since funny things can happen at the edges when mixed colors meet - see http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/pureMXcolors.shtml

2) Curing/washing the little buggers. We're going to have an assembly line of friends helping with the dyeing. Do we finish dyeing each one, pop each into an individual baggie, and seal it up? And when it's time to untie them a few hours later, does it make any difference if some of them have sat for an additional hour or two? How about when I dump them into the synthrapol-laden washing machine: can the first few sit in there for an hour before the final ones make it into the machine?

What is the temperature going to be? If you use urea in the mix it will keep them moist; urea is a humectant and is traditional for tie-dyeing. You must let them react at 70 degrees F. or above though. If it is that warm, you do not need to wrap in plastic at all, as the urea will take care of maintaining adequate moisture. If it is too cold, you need to place them in a warm place, though, which generally means wrapping them up so you can move them. If their colors are compatible, instead of being all three primaries, you may be able to get away with popping several in a larger bag.

You can leave them overnight, or even two nights. It is unlikely to be a problem. Some people think that maybe leaving things to sit for several days may encourage the formation of small holes. Others say there is no relationship and the people with the holes just ordered some low quality blanks to dye, whose holes did not show up until after the washing out process.

I usually leave things until the next day to wash out., Doing so causes all of the dye to be done reacting, either with the fabric or the water, so no active dye remains to transfer to the wrong part of the item during washing. For tie-dyeing in which you want to minimize color changes after you have finished - no dark spots in the yellow sections - it is important to leave things to react for longer than necessary.

Before you dump things into the machine, be sure to fill it quite full with cold water and synthrapol. Try not to dump things in until you are getting ready to wash a load. I fill the machine and use children's blunt-ended scissors to snip rubber bands as I toss them in. I do not even prerinse at all, usually, since I am lazy. Don't use hot water until the second washing. Soaking in hot water makes for more efficient dye removal. We turn off the cold water to the washer because our washer insists on adding some cold water when we have it set to hot. After some minutes of agitation in hot water, I may turn off the machine for a while to allow a longer cycle, to take full advantage of the hot water. Usually at least two washings in hot water. More washings than that if you have to use warm water to avoid shrinkage.

Two other possibilities that are easier than multi-color tie-dyeing:

Single color tie-dye - tie them all up, then dye in the washing machine as indicated at
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/washingmachine.shtml
Do several batches, each a different color.

Low water immersion - wad up a bunch of them and stuff them in a bucket, then pour over two different colors of dye, enough to almost cover them, let rest for a bit, then pour on the soda ash. see
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/lowwaterimmersion.shtml
Also see a couple of photos in my comment at
http://www.pburch.net/drupal/?q=node/30#comment-66


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