Name: Phyllis
Message: I've been doing a lot of painting on silk with silk dyes. Many of the clothes that are sold as blanks are cotton. I have so much silk dye that I wonder of I can use it to dye the cotton blanks and if so, is there anything I need to know. I'm used to painting it then steaming it. Thanks so much for the info. I've seen most of the silk clothing blank and don't like them much. Besides Dharma and one or two others, I can't really find good silk blanks.

I used to buy white silk clothing from a mail-order clothing catalog, back when the strength of the dollar compared to other currencies made imported silks very inexpensive. Things have certainly changed since then, unfortunately. Perhaps the best option would be to find a local seamstress to sew silk clothing for you.

Which silk dyes are you using? There are many more ways for a dye to attach to silk than for cotton, since the structure of the protein in silk is much more complex than the structure of the cellulose in cotton. Many silk dyes will simply wash out of cotton, even if you steam it. There are some exceptions. Procion H dye, which requires much more heat than Procion MX dye, will work on cotton as well as silk, though it still requires steaming. Remazol fiber reactive dye are sold under several different names, including Createx liquid fiber dyes, Jacquard brand red label silk colors, and Tobasign dyes, and can be set on cotton with steam or a chemical fixative. Other silk dyes may not work at all with cotton, however. It would be best to call the retailer and ask about the possibility for using other silk dyes on cotton, if you purchased from a user-friendly firm such as ProChem. If you tell me which dyes you are using, I might be able to find more information.