Name: Shari

Country or region: USA

Message: Hello,

Do you know if the Tulip tie-dye kits you can buy at Michael's have the soda ash mixed in them? Reason I ask is that it doesn't say and there's not a separate bag included in the kit, as I've seen in other kits. Yet, Tulip sells soda ash right next to these kits.

If I go ahead and soak the shirts in soda ash AND it turns out there's some in the mix, will it hurt the shirts?

Soaking your shirts in soda ash will do no harm even if there is soda ash in the kit already. Soda ash is the ideal chemical to use to raise the pH of a dye reaction to the perfect pH range, because its properties cause it to yield a perfectly reasonable pH even if you use twice as much as you're supposed to, or half as much. There's no harm in using too much soda ash, so it's perfectly safe to try this.

Tie the shirts either while they are still dry or after moistening with plain water, then soak them for fifteen minutes or longer in a mixture of one cup of soda ash per gallon of water. (Use softened or distilled water if your water is hard, or add a half teaspoon of sodium hexametaphosphate.) Squeeze the extra liquid out with gloved hands and apply the dye mixtures from the Tulip brand tie-dye kit immediately, or, if you prefer, let the shirts drip overnight to dry partially before applying the dye.

It looks as though the Tulip company has chosen to use sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, as a substitute for the soda ash that should be in their kit, mixed into their dye powders. This is something I have found difficult to believe! While baking soda does raise the pH and permit some dye reaction to occur, it only raises it to around 8, when  the ideal pH for the dyes in these kits would be between 10.5 and 11, over a hundred times more alkaline. If baking soda is the only dye fixative in the kit, then your colors will not be as brilliant as they should be, and a lot of the dye that you use will end up being wasted. Perhaps their reason is that the Procion type dyes will go bad within an hour of being mixed with water, if they are in the presence of soda ash. Baking soda will cause the dye to spoil more slowly, though not as slowly as if no pH-increasing chemical were mixed with ther dyes at all.

Unless Tulip also includes another high-pH chemical in their formula, without identifying it on the labels of their kits, then you will indeed get better, more intense colors if you presoak with soda ash. Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate, produces a higher pH, which activates the cotton in your fabric to make it react well with the dye.

The Tulip label for their sodium carbonate indicates that you will get brighter, stronger colors if you use it with the Tulip Tie Dye kit. I recommend that you do add a soda ash pre-soak to your use of the Tulip tie-dyeing kit. At least the kit does contain excellent Procion-type fiber reactive dyes, of the Permabril C  brand packaged by Standard Dye. You can get very good results with this type of dye; it is vastly superior to the direct dye found in all-purpose dyes such as Rit or Tintex, neither of which work at all well for tie-dyeing with more than one color. Do check the expiration date on the side of the box, if you can find one, for in some rare cases crafts stores have sold old expired Tulip tie-dye kits whose dyes were no longer strong enough to react. The stores' stock of tie-dyeing kits should be sold or replaced every year.

You can buy the Tulip brand soda ash if you like, or you can buy the exact same soda ash from the swimming pool supply store or hardware store for a considerably better price, and in a more convenient container. Check the fine print on the lower left front of the label to make sure the "pH Up" or "pH Increaser" you find at the hardware store contains something like 98% or 99% sodium carbonate. You should be able to find a five-pound plastic jug for well under $10. Alternatively, you can buy Arm & Hammer brand washing soda from the grocery store. It's a good household cleaner, and it is also another form of sodium carbonate. Use twice as much washing soda as your recipe calls for of soda ash, and the results will be just as good. If you find another brand of washing soda, make sure, before you buy it, that it is free of additives such as dyes, whiteners, and perfumes.

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