Name: Amanda

Message: Hi there,  I've been on your website for some time reading all this great useful dying information!  very helpful, I dye all the time at least twice a week.  Lately I've gotten into dying silk with RIT dye and have avoided the fiber reactive dye because of the extra work involved and the fact that Ive read the soda ash can damage the silk.  I haven't tried the vinegar method yet because I like the ease of the RIT dye, it turns out perfectly in the washing machine.

My question is:

The silk is coming out stiff after hanging to dry or drying in the dryer.  I dyed some of my silk with tea and it came out with the original beautiful soft hand and sheen so I know it's the dye thats making it stiff.  Is there anyway to avoid this with RIT dye?  

next question:  If I have to use another kind of dye, what should I use to retain the softness and luster of my silk?  again the main problem is stiffness, it's too stiff after dying.


Rit all-purpose dye is said to contain an acid dye, a direct dye, a great deal of salt, and some anionic and nonionic surfactants - essentially detergents. 

There are two possible answers to the problem you're having with stiffness in the silk after dyeing with all-purpose dye. One would be to use vinegar to correct the pH of the silk. Silk does not like to keep a high pH. Rinsing it in vinegar water after dyeing can be helpful. However, it would make more sense to include the vinegar in the dyeing step. The strong acid dye in the all-purpose dye mixture should work much better in the presence of an acid such as vinegar. How much vinegar should you use? The manufacturers of Tintex® High Temp all-purpose dye recommend the use of 1 cup (250 ml) of white vinegar per 10 liters of water when dyeing wool, silk, or nylon. A standard washing machine load is twenty gallons, or eighty liters, so it would call for eight cups (two liters) of ordinary distilled white vinegar. (The label on the vinegar should indicate that it is of 5% strength, or 5% acidity.) Alternatively, you can use 3/4 cup of citric acid powder (200 grams) instead of eight cups of vinegar. (Dyeing in a cooking pot uses more economical quantities than dyeing in a washing machine.)

The other answer is to restore the hand of the silk by using an unscented industrial-strength liquid fabric softener after you have completed all dyeing. Don't bother with grocery store fabric softeners unless you have no other choice. Some of the liquid fabric softeners in the grocery store are not too bad, but they are weak, and they are full of undesirable strong perfumes and other additives. It would be best to mail-order a better fabric softener. You can order it under the name of PROsoft K from PRO Chemical & Dye, or as Milsoft from Dharma Trading Company. These are two dye supply companies which sell many different types of highly superior dyes, much better than the Rit dye you've been using, and far cheaper, too, per ounce of fabric dyed. Requesting a catalog from each company right now would be a good move; you can also order online, but having the catalog in hand is very helpful.

All-purpose dye is, as you've discovered, more satisfactory on silk than it is on cotton. However, it is wasteful. You almost never need to use both direct dye and acid dye in the same project, and the dyes in the mixture that you don't need tend to end up going down the drain. It is also less wash-resistant than other dyes. The direct dye in all-purpose dye is extremely susceptible to fading in the wash, and the type of acid dye used in Rit dye, known as acid leveling or strong acid dye, is the least wash-resistant of all commercial acid dyes.

What I think you would rather do, to preserve the shine of the silk as much as possible, is to use high quality acid dyes. The best acid dyes are the Lanaset dyes; next after them, I recommend PRO Chemical & Dye's Washfast Acid dyes, and next after them, Jacquard Acid Dyes. On silk, all of these are vastly superior to all-purpose dye, and, because they are concentrated, they are less expensive as well. (Lanaset dyes are expensive per ounce, but if you look to see how much dye it takes to dye a pound of fabric, they are cheaper per use than all-purpose dyes such as Rit, and the other acid dyes are less expensive than the Lanasets.) 

You will notice that the instructions for the good acid dyes almost always call for much more heat than you have been using. Rit dye, too, works much  better with high heat, though not as well as the other types of acid dyes; it is not really designed for use at the relatively cool temperatures available in your washing machine, and works better in a simmering dyebath at 185°F. There are instructions available for using Jacquard Acid dyes in the washing machine, though. (See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".) These instructions should work equally well for ProChem's Washfast Acid dyes, though hotter water will enable any acid dye or all-purpose dye to perform better. Applying dye on the stovetop produces superior results, but requires that you obtain a large non-aluminum cooking pot that you plan to never again use for food.

You're avoiding fiber reactive dyes because soda ash can make silk softer and less shiny; while it does not take away all of the shine, it does change the texture a little. You can also use fiber reactive dyes on silk with an acid such as vinegar or citric acid, but that makes sense only if you are buying them to use on cotton or rayon, as well. If all that you really want is acid dye, you may as well just buy a superior acid dye. There is no extra work involved in using fiber reactive dyes instead of Rit dye! Fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye, are much less trouble to use than all-purpose dye, because they do not require hot water, and only require soda ash or (on silk) vinegar to set the dye, in the washing machine or by other methods. (Soda ash is a common household ingredient, found in most laundry detergents, though you need to use pure soda ash for dyeing; it is readily available wherever pool supply chemicals are sold.)

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