Name: Jenn

Country: USA
Message: Do you have any recommendation for dying cotton chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners) a fleshy peach color?  I tried a couple of RIT dyes and didn't even come close.  I'm not even sure how much water/dye to use since I can't find any info on dying anything like pipe cleaners.

Are you certain that the stems are made of 100% cotton? If the fiber content is mismarked and they are actually made of polyester, the dye will not work. If you're not positive, you can try a burn test (see Fabrics.net's page on 'Fabric Identification'.)

If the chenille stems are made of cotton or rayon, you can dye them most easily with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes. Unlike Rit all-purpose dye, these are cool water dyes and do not require heat. Perhaps the simplest method would be to buy a tie-dye kit (any brand but Rit) and follow the instructions, except of course for the tying itself. If you order the Procion MX dyes by mail-order, you can choose a peach-colored dye mixture so that you won't have the difficult job of mixing the different colors to get the color you like. Be sure to add soda ash, unless you have the sort of kit that contains the soda ash already mixed in with the dye powder.

I am concerned that the metal stems might bleed rust onto the fibers. It would probably be best to rinse the dye out only an hour after applying the dye. I think that perhaps a fabric paint would be a better choice, with a hair dryer used to dry the paint quickly, to prevent rusting.

A good fabric paint that flows and blends almost like dye is Dye-Na-Flow, made by Jacquard Products. This will work well on cotton and also on most synthetic fibers. While it takes some time for dyes to react with fibers, it doesn't take any particular time for fabric paints to do so, so you can dry the fabric paints as quickly as you can manage, without interfering with the color intensity. If you go to your local crafts store, you might be able to find Dye-Na-Flow or another good fabric paint, but you'll want to avoid "puffy", "slick", or dimensional fabric paints. If you can't find a suitable fabric paint locally, mail order them from a supplier such as Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. You might have to dilute bright orange with white or ecru, or mix with salmon, in order to get the exact hue you need.

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