Name: Tara

Country: Canada

Message: Hi Paula!

I have looked over your site, and have to a certain degree had my question answered, but would like your advice as to what to do now. My apologoies if it is overly redundant! I dyed my 100% cotton cloth diapers with Dylon all-purpose. I thought I had done my research, but I suppose I was overeager, and was also suckered in by an advice giver at the store. I knew I needed fiber reactive dye, but was unable to find procion anywhere in my city, and knew people had used Dylon - unfortunately I only found the wrong kind of Dylon.

Therefore, after many hot washes, of course the dye is not colorfast, and I obviously can not use the diapers on my infant. I see after extensive perusal of your site (so informative btw, thank you very much) that a dye fixative would NOT be considered safe to use on diapers. So my question for you is: What do you recommend I do? Cut my losses and write off the diapers, OR remove the dye somehow (??) and dye them again using the proper dye. I do appreciate your time and response.

If you're totally disgusted by the whole thing, of course you may delegate these diapers to the rag bin, but it's not really necessary.

What I would do is soak the diapers in hot water. Probably in really hot water - using a cheap styrofoam cooler as your container, pour boiling water from the stovetop over the diapers, and give them an occasional stir with a long-handled spoon, preferably one made of plastic rather than wood. This, by the way, is also the most efficient way to remove excess unattached dye after dyeing with good fiber reactive dyes; even boiling water won't remove fiber reactive dyes that have bonded to the fiber properly, but will help to remove just about everything else. Follow, after an extended soak as long as the water stays hot, by machine-washing in the hottest water available.

I think that running them through a washing machine cycle with household bleach wouldn't hurt, either. (Obviously I'm not an anti-bleach fanatic; I believe the amount of dioxin generated by this process is considerably less than some people imagine, and that tiny amounts of dioxin in humans appear to be significantly less dangerous than its overinflated reputation would suggest. Skip the bleach if it's not something you are willing to have in the house.)

After you've soaked and washed in really hot water, and possibly washed with bleach, I would not worry about the relatively small amounts of all-purpose dye remaining. Less dye remaining means less dye leaching out, and, besides, in spite of all their faults, all-purpose dyes have never been shown to be dangerous for wear. (In the 1970s and before, many all-purpose dye formulations included dangerous dyes based on benzidine, o-dianisidine, or tolidine, which did real harm to workers frequently exposed to high levels, but I very much doubt that Dylon has used any of these dyes since the eighties.)

As a side question: what exactly is Dylon labeling these all-purpose dyes as, these day? Is the name still Dylon Multi Purpose dyes? I'm asking because they do not market these dyes in the US. Can you get Dylon Machine Dyes in Canada? They are decent fiber reactive dyes that are popular for use with front-loading washing machines in Europe and Australia, but are not marketed in the United States, so I am wondering whether they are now marketed in Canada.

You best course of action after this will be to find fiber reactive dyes for your diapers. A good tie-dyeing kit would be a great start. (Avoid the Rit brand tie-dyeing kit, because, like all Rit products, in contains all-purpose dyes.) If, in a crafts store or fabric store, you see one of the tie-dyeing kits manufactured by Jacquard Products or by Tulip, that's a great choice. You can use other types of dye by Dylon, such as Dylon Hand Dye or Dylon Cold Dye or Dylon Permanent; these three contain excellent dyes, but they're not so good for color mixing; Dylon Permanent and Dylon Hand have all the auxiliary chemicals mixed in already, which makes then less versatile for different methods of dye application, and generally more expensive as well. There are three excellent choices for mail-ordering Procion MX dyes from within Canada, that I know about: Harmony Hand Dyes in Saskatchewan, G & S Dye in Toronto, and Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver. If you order from PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US, the dye prices are lower, but then you have to bother with delays and customs fees.

If your diapers still have a trace of all-purpose dye color, you'll want to take that color into account when you plan what colors to add with your higher-quality dye.

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