Message: Hi Paula, thanks so much for your great site! But i couldn't find which kind of dye to use to dye new mother of pearl buttons. Do you have any suggestions?

What I've heard suggests that real mother-of-pearl is quite difficult to dye. One woman used acid dye with vinegar (Rit brand dye, for example, includes some acid dye), and found that the luster was damaged by the vinegar, but she did get some dyeing. Her buttons turned out to be pastel, lighter than she wanted. Another woman tried Ukrainian easter egg dye and was unsuccessful. I think that the protective nature of the natural pearl finish may cause it to physically resist dye.

Artificial mother-of-pearl is another matter. The plastic buttons can be dyed to pastel or medium shades by simmering in acid dye. An easy-to-obtain acid dye is in all-purpose dye such as Rit. (I do not recommend Rit dye for use on cotton, but it can be used on nylon.) The dyebath should be heated on the stovetop. Another type of dye, disperse dye, may produce better results, but is more difficult to use and can be obtained only from a few mail-order supply houses, such as http://www.prochemical.com .