Name: Diana
Message: I dyed some fabric today and would like the colors to be more intense and even. Prior to overdyeing, do I resoak these fabric pieces in  soda ash once again? Thanks

Yes. Before you can tell whether your dyed items are deeply colored enough, you have to rinse and dry them. This removes the soda ash you used in the first dyeing, so you must apply more. Soda ash is very easily removed by rinsing.

Overdyeing is a great way to get deeper, richer colors. It appears that additional dye sites are opened up by washing and drying, by physically changing the orientation of the fibers slightly, so you can get richer colors by dyeing fabric two or more times than you can get by imply using more dye in a single step.

For greater evenness in color, try using more water, relative to the amount of fabric, and stir the fabric in the dye more frequently. In low water immersion dyeing, for smoother color gradations, try adding the soda ash after the dye, rather than presoaking it as in tie-dyeing.

For dyeing a perfectly smooth solid color, use three gallons of water per pound of fabric, stir the fabric with the dye for a while (say twenty minutes) before adding soda ash, then add the soda ash in three parts, stirring constantly, and then stir for half an hour to an hour after all of the soda ash is added. This is the same method as that used for dyeing in the washing machine.

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