Name: Russ

Message: I bought 2 black Jeerzee t-shirts along with a tie-die kit at the local craft store. I went through the process and I let them set for 7 hours, with absolutly no change in color to the fabric.what did I do wrong and how can I do it right, please advise, Thank-you Russ

Black is the darkest of all colors, so there is no color you can add on top of it that will make a significant change. Dye is transparent, so it only adds to the color of the shirt underneath; it does not cover it up in any way.

If you want to tie-dye, using any good dye such as the tie-dye kit you purchased, you must start with light-colored shirts or fabric. The best and brightest colors require a white background. You can also get good results by starting with any light color. For example, if you start with a yellow shirt, and tie-dye it with blue and red, you will end up with a yellow-background shirt marked with green and orange colors. If you start with a light blue shirt and dye it with red, violet, and yellow, you will end up with a blue background with purple, blue-violet, and green. Each of the final colors includes the original shirt color within it.

In order to tie-dye your black Jerzee t-shirts, you will have to do a two-step process. In the first step, use bleach or a less toxic chemical such as Rit Color Remover to remove color in some parts of your shirt. In the second step, you will dye the shirt, and the white streaks left from the first step will produce brilliant colors, surrounded by the original black in the areas where you did not bleach it. The results of this two-step process look really great!

To tie-bleach parts of your shirts, tie the shirts as usual, then soak them in diluted bleach, or put them in a cooking pot with Rit Color Remover after tying, and gradually bring the temperature to a simmer. After you have produced the desired white streaks on your shirt in this manner, immediately wash the shirt.  After using chlorine bleach, which contains hypochlorite, you must neutralize the bleach to stop it from eating at the fabric, by using Anti-chlor, Bleach Stop, or hydrogen peroxide (NOT vinegar). There is no need to neutralize Rit Color Remover.

Another good way to make white areas on your black t-shirts is to use any automatic dishwasher detergent that contains black, and paint or stamp it on, or to use a Clorox Bleach Pen to draw designs on the black shirt. Wash, neutralize as above, wash, then dye, and any bleached white areas will seem exceptionally bright after you overdye them.

It's not certain that your Jerzees t-shirts will be suitable for your project. They might not bleach out like you want them to. Not all black dyes will respond to either bleach or color remover, and some respond to one but not the other. I've read that black Jerzees 363 shirts discharge to more of a brown than the desired off-white. You should also never use bleach to discharge any shirt that is not 100% cotton, because hypochlorite will damage all synthetic fibers, such as polyester or spandex. 

I know that black Hanes Beefy Tees will bleach out very well, if they haven't changed their dyes. So do black Fruit of the Loom Lofteez shirts. Dharma Trading Company sells several different dischargeable black t-shirts, if you don't have a handy local source, and they probably charge a lot less than your local crafts store does. They are also a good source of another tie-dye kit. You can buy Procion MX dyes for tie-dyeing in over a hundred different colors at Dharma, rather than limiting yourself to the three colors found in most tie-dye kits.

Shirts prepared as described above, by tie-bleaching and then dyeing, look really great. The black background makes the colored sections seem brighter, and the dye lasts a long, long time without fading. It also feels completely oft on the fabric, because you can't feel fabric dye on the fabric. This is unlike the use of fabric paint. 

Now, most fabric paints are no more suitable to your project than your first attempt to dye with transparent dyes on a black background. Most fabric paints are transparent, like dye, and will not show up on unbleached black. However, there are some fabric paints which are opaque, so that they show up well on a black background. These include the Lumiere line of metallic and pearlescent paints, and the Neopaque line of opaque fabric paints, plus any other fabric paint whose label specifically promises that it is "opaque". Using an opaque or metallic fabric paint, you can paint directly onto a black shirt and produce highly visible results, in just a single step. These results will not feel as soft as dye; often, fabric paint feels a little bit scratchy. Also, the paint will wear off after fewer washings. Follow manufacturer's instructions on heat setting the shirts with a dry iron, one time only, to make the acrylic binder in the paint grab more permanently to the fiber. Always turn fabric-painted items inside-out to launder, and wash on a gentle cycle or hand wash, to slow the inevitable wearing off of the paint. 

For more information, please see the following pages....

• Is it possible to tie-dye dark t-shirts with white ?

• How to Tie Dye on Dark Fabric

• Discharged "dyed" Mandalas: no dye added

• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?

• How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?


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