Name: Judy
Message: I am dying a chemist lab coat.  I want it to look like red and blue tie dying with some white (school colors).  Can this happen??  I have ritz die and I was going to use rubber bands and dip in a bucket???  I am having trouble visualizing the outcome.

What is your lab coat made of? If it is 100% cotton, or at least 80% cotton, it should dye well, if you get some better dye. If it contains much polyester polyester, red dye will only make pink, and blue dye will make baby blue, which would not be right at all.

Do you have Rit dye? Rit is a brand of all-purpose dye. (Ritz is the name of a hotel, a camera store, and a brand of snack crackers.) All-purpose dyes such as Rit require nearly-boiling water to make a good attachment to cotton. To get a good intense red with Rit dye, you should simmer the fabric in the hot dye bath for half an hour - this means *cook* the fabric in the dye water. This can be quite difficult to do without getting dye on the other parts of your lab coat that you want to be white or the other color. For instructions on how to do this correctly, see "How to Tie Dye with All Purpose Dye". You will have to be very careful: if you get red and blue on the same parts of the lab coat, you will get purple!

To get a good bright red and blue on cotton, do not use all-purpose dye. Use a good fiber reactive dye. This is so much easier than using all-purpose dye, because it does not require hot water at all! Warm room-temperature water will work quite well with fiber reactive dye. Your local craft store, or a fabric store such as Joann's, might carry Dylon Cold Water dye or Dylon Permanent Fabric dye, which are acceptable fiber reactive dyes. (Avoid Dylon Multi Purpose dye!) If you are very lucky, you may find Procion MX dye in your local crafts store. Iollow the directions on the package, or, if you are sure that you have fiber reactive dye, use the "How to Dye" recipe on my website. If you have a little more time, you can mail-order Procion MX dye from almost any of the different companies listed on my "Sources for Dyeing Supplies" page.

If your lab coat is more than 20% polyester, you should not even try to use dye. Use red and blue fabric paint, instead. Fabric paint is a kind of paint which is much softer and nicer on fabric than ordinary artist's paint, which is very rough, stiff, and scratchy. It is not as soft or nice as fabric dye, but you will be happier with red and blue fabric paint than with pink and baby blue fabric due.  You may be able to buy fabric paint at your local crafts or fabric store, or you can mail-order higher quality fabric paints from the same list of different companies that sell dyeing supplies.



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