Name: Anne

Country or region: USA

Message: My daughter came home from soccer practice with a t-shirt she had tie dyed.  We were told to let it dry then wash it out with vinegar.  I did so, but now her t-shirt looks dingy or dirty in the background instead of crisp white to accent her yellow and blue colors.  Is there anyway to rectify this problem? I have no idea what type of dye was used. Thanks for any help you can offer.

Whenever someone tells you to "set" the dyes in a tie-dyed t-shirt with vinegar, the sad truth is that they don't know what they are talking about. Vinegar ranges from useless to harmful for tie-dye dyes; it does not do anything good at all. If this same ignorance extended to their choice of dye or the recipe with which they've applied it, then there will be no saving this shirt.

A good tie-dyed shirt is one that's made with the right type of dye. (See "How to Tie Dye".) If you use fiber reactive dyes, such as the Procion-type dyes in the popular tie-dye kits made by Jacquard, then the dye becomes permanently bonded to the fiber the shirt is made of. Properly dyed shirts can be made bright and clear simply by washing them in very hot water to remove the unattached excess dye. However, there is no way to make a bright, crisp, clear, beautiful shirt with all-purpose dye, such as Rit brand dye. The dye does not stick firmly enough to the fabric, so it invariably runs and bleeds the first time it gets wet, ruining the design.

You can make a single-color tie-dye with Rit dye, or dye something a solid color with it. All-purpose dye is not very washfast, so items dyed with Rit dye must be hand-washed separately in cool water, because the dye will run. Washing colors separately is impossible for a multi-colored Rit tie-dye; there is no way to set the dye in a multi-colored tie-dye made with Rit dye, which means the design will inevitably run and become muddy. However, for items dyed with a single color of Rit, although salt or vinegar never work, you can set the dye with a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne. (See "Commercial Dye Fixatives".) Once the dye has run in a way that you do not like, it's too late to use Retayne, because it will just fix the dye in the places you do not want it. Retayne can't solve the problem you're having with your daughter's yellow-and-blue t-shirt.

What I recommend you do now is wash this shirt in hot water, the hottest water available, preferably 140°F or hotter. If it was dyed with a good fiber-reactive dye, then the colors will improve as the backstaining from excess unattached dye is removed. If it was dyed with Rit, it will become paler as the dye itself washes out, but in that case there was no hope for it anyway. In that case, I recommend that you make a better shirt to replace it, using the right sort of dyes.

Buy a good tie-dyeing kit, such as the one made by Jacquard Products which can often be found in crafts or sewing stores, or even, in the summer, in large stores such as Walmart or Target. The very best and most economical source of a good tie-dyeing kit is by mail-order, from a company such as Dharma Trading Company. If you use a good kit, with the right type of dyes, and dye 100% cotton shirts that are not stain-resistant, it is very easy to produce a beautiful tie-dyed shirt whose colors will stay bright through years of frequent wearings and launderings.

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