Name: Linda

Message: I am interested in using color dyes that will not stain the skin. I want to use the dye for some kids activities; therefore, I need a good dye that is washable and easy for mums to remove. I don't want to have to use gloves. Is there any such product out there?

There is no textile dye that does not require the use of gloves. All dyes, except for food coloring, should be assumed to be toxic, even if the labels make claims that they are non-toxic, because it is highly unlikely that the dye has been properly tested for long-term safety. Even certified food coloring, which is safe when spilled on the skin, can stain the hands badly enough that it would be odd to do without gloves while using it.

High quality cool water dyes are easy to use with disposable gloves and aprons. Many people have worked with groups of children wearing gloves, to tie-dye using fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye. If this dye does get on the skin, it takes several days to wear off. However, the results on cotton with these dyes are far better than the results which can be obtained in any other way.

Food coloring can be used to dye wool or silk, but it cannot be used to dye cotton. It will just wash out of cotton, no matter what you do to try to fix it into the fabric. Dyeing wool yarn with food coloring is an excellent project for children. Heat is required, in the form of a microwave oven, or a steamer, or a black garbage bag (with the wet dyed yarn in it) left in a sunny window for several days. See "Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers".

There are some fabric paints whose labels make claims that they are non-toxic. It is still unwise to expose the skin repeatedly to large amounts of these paints; however, fabric paints that are labeled as non-toxic are much safer than paints which are colored with obvious poisons such as lead, cadmium, or chromium. Always wash all paints off immediately if they are spilled on bare skin. Most fabric paints must be fixed to the fabric, after drying, by pressing with a hot iron.

A very nice safe easy project for children involves the use of Iron-on Fabric Crayons, which contain a kind of dye which works only on synthetic fibers. The children color the dye crayons onto paper, then an adult uses a hot iron to transfer the design from the paper to polyester or nylon fabric. This project requires the special fabric dye crayons; it will not dye the fabric if you use ordinary wax crayons. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes"; scroll down to "Novel forms of disperse dyes". Fabric crayons, unlike other forms of dye, do not generally stain the skin, because the dye they contain will not adhere to natural materials.

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