Are there any ways for the hand-dyer to improve the finish/ add life to the surface?


Name: Katherine

Country or region: Indonesia

Message: Hi Paula-

How does one *add* a sizing or attractive finish after dying a cotton fabric? My "store bought" cotton prints have a surface that look so much perkier than my dyed cotton fabrics which look quite flat and dead. But the same cotton -even poorer quality- looks "richer" in the "store bought" fabric.

Are there any ways for the hand-dyer to improve the finish/ add life to the surface? It needn't look the same as commercially printed and dyed fabric, but I don't want it to be dead looking.

Is there is anyway to "make your own"? This would be good because we do not have an array of products in Indonesia like are available in the U.S. Or perhaps I could order some kind of industrial chemical that can be sprayed on like you would spray starch from a spray bottle and iron it in?

The main difference in the fabric, I think, is mercerizartion. Mercerization is typically done after weaving and before dyeing, though it can also be done to thread or yarn. Can you buy mercerized cotton? Here in the US we do have some choices of mercerized cotton, so I hope you can find it there. I'm sure it is made there; it's just a question of finding a good source. The mercerization process takes away surface fuzziness that dims down the colors of the dyes by scattering light. It makes the colors of the dye you use appear much more intense and crisp. Or do you ever work with rayon? Rayon is made of the same sort of cellulose as cotton, but the chemical processing results in an effect similar to mercerization.

We can buy a high quality fabric softener, which will reduce any stiffness remaining after the dyeing process. Some suppliers for hand dyeing sell it under the name "Milsoft". It is much better than the grocery store fabric softeners, and lacks the horrible perfumes that most of those have. Unfortunately, it will not create a sheen, or make colors appear to be more intense.

We can use more dye to get a greater color intensity to mimic the greater color intensity provided by mercerized fabric, but there is a limit to how far you can go with this, and it won't impart the sheen of mercerization.

Doing mercerization yourself is a huge challenge, and not suitable for every dyer. It involves the use of caustic soda (also known as lye, NaOH, or sodium hydroxide), which, if it splashes on you, can cause serious burns. It's especially important to prevent splashes into the eyes because they can cause permanent blindness. It is possible to work with caustic soda safely, but it's important to do so carefully and to know what the worst is that could happen.

The difficult thing about home mercerization is that it requires that the fabric be stretched during the treatment. You can't just dump the fabric in a bucket with the caustic soda and stir, if you want the maximum resulting luster, or to prevent huge amounts of shrinkage. The process causes a great deal of shrinkage, if the fabric is not held under tension while it is exposed to the caustic soda. I've never tried it, but a couple of members of the DyersLIST mailing list have, Doug Wilson and Olli Niemitalo; their experiences can be read by joining the DyersLIST mailing list and searching the archive.

If you were to do mercerization yourself, you would have to build some sort of framework on which to stretch your fabric, and acquire some sort of tank in which to immerse them in as small a volume of liquid as is practical. Caustic soda is easy to buy anywhere, I think. You could learn the appropriate safety measures: always add caustic soda to water, never water to caustic soda; expect the water to get very hot, temporarily, when you add the caustic soda; always wear excellent googles, or a full face mask, shaped like the masks welders wear, but with transparent plastic instead of dark tinted plastic; wear a lab coat and a waterproof thick apron; work in an area whose floor can be easily washed down; always have plenty of water available for emergency showers and washing.

However, I'm really not at all sure you want to try this. I recommend that you instead look hard for sources of mercerized fabric. I will find a few examples from the US so that you can look for something similar....


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Posted: Sunday - October 16, 2011 at 10:02 AM          

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