How can I tye dye with 200 kids at my campground?

Name: Geri

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Message: I am tye dyeing with 200 kids at my campground. I don't see info in dyeing in big buckets for a non-toxic mix on cotton shirts. I need help. I'm in a time crunch!

Big buckets? Do you mean you will have the kids tie and then drop their shirts into buckets of a single color of dye, instead of doing the usual modern multi-color tie-dye?

First off, let me recommend strongly against all brands of all-purpose dye, including Rit dye, for tie-dyeing. It is not non-toxic (though fortunately the older formulations containing carcinogenic dyes were discontinued in the 1980s), it gives poor results for tie-dyeing, its colors run and bleed together, it lasts through few washings before fading, it's very expensive since each $3 packet of dye will dye only two shirts, and it requires scalding hot water, which is unsafe for children to work with.

The best choice for tie-dyeing with kids is a Procion MX tie-dyeing kit, which contains fiber reactive dyes. However, the kids must be capable of following directions so that they do not drink the dyes or intentionally apply them to their own skin or to other children. Some brands of kits that contain Procion MX dyes are labeled non-toxic, though most are not. To quote from an earlier blog entry on this site, from September 27, 2008:

"Procion MX type dyes are considered non-toxic when used properly, that is by people who are old enough and sensible enough not to put the dye in their mouths or squirt it on each other. However, the Jacquard Products tie-dye kit [like Dharma Trading Company's kit and ProChem's kit] does not carry an ACMI Non-toxic Seal on the label. The same ingredients are found in the Rainbow Rock tie-dye kit (produced by a different manufacturer), which does bear a nontoxic label with a reference to the ASTM D-4236. This does not guarantee that a product is completely non-toxic, but it does indicate that it is free of known acute or chronic health hazards other than those indicated on the label.

"You will need the MSDS pages if it is necessary to officially show how toxic or non-toxic the dyes are. This must be supplied by the manufacturer of your kit. [If] you are using the Jacquard Products kit, you can look at this link to the MSDS pages at Blick Art Materials [PDF]. Here is a link to the new MSDS clearly including the "nontoxic" seal [PDF] for the Rainbow Rock tie-dye kit, which contains the exact same ingredients. It is easier to read and also less alarming, but it's for the same product by a different manufacturer. MSDS pages are also provided by PRO Chemical & Dye and by Dharma Trading Company, which are the two most popular (and economical) sources of Procion MX dyes."

You can equally well apply Procion MX dyes by high-water-ratio immersion dyeing in large buckets, if you buy your Procion MX dye in jars from a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company instead of buying kits. This method is less popular because people love multi-colored tie-dyes, but it can be used to keep the kids completely away from the dye. The constant stirring required to get a smooth solid color in garment-dyeing is not needed when dropping tied garments into the bucket. For a 25-gallon trash can, dissolve 20 cups of salt in 20 gallons of water (salt is not needed for the squirt-bottle method of tie-dyeing), and add four ounces of Procion dye powder, having first mixed the dye powder carefully in a quart of water. After all of the shirts have been added to this bucket, add two and a half cups of soda ash (purchased with your dyes) which you have predissolved in water, and mix well. Leave the shirts for an hour or longer to react, stirring occasionally. Do not wait to add the shirts until after the soda ash has been added, because the dye will stay good for only a limited period of time after you add the soda ash, and is most effective in the first half hour after adding the soda ash.

The soda ash used to fix these tie-dye dyes is not non-toxic; it is a fairly mild alkali, the same one that is found in all laundry detergent powders, and can be irritating to the skin or eyes, so gloves should be worn to prevent contact. If soda ash is splashed onto the skin, it should be rinsed or wiped off, to prevent later redness and dryness of the skin. If the soda ash is not removed, then thorough washing afterwards with water, followed by the application of hand lotion, will help to sooth irritation.

You should have the kids tie their shirts with rubber bands when the shirts are still dry, or dampened only with plain water. Attach some sort of label. (Pinning on a label made of a piece of Tyvek envelope labeled with a Sharpie permanent marker works well; use stainless-steel or brass safety pins to attach the labels, instead of rustable pins. Any sewing store should have these safety pins.) Drop the shirts into a large plastic trash can half-filled with soda ash and water mixture (use one cup soda ash per gallon of water) to soak for fifteen minutes or so, then have an adult fish out the shirts and squeeze out extra moisture. After this point, the children should be wearing waterproof gloves. (Be sure to warn the parents not to send the kids in good clothes for this day of camp.) Each should place his or her shirt on the work surface (tables covered with plastic tablecloths work well, with plenty of paper towels or rags nearby to soak up excess), then squirt dye from bottles supplied by you onto their shirts. They should then pop their shirts into a plastic bag, take them home, allow the dye to react with the shirts overnight, then wash the shirts out the following day, doing one cool-water wash and then two or three hot-water washes to remove the excess unattached dye.

Procion dye is sold in the form of powder. Do not give dye powder to the children to mix up; instead, you or other adults should dissolve the dye in water (while wearing dust masks) and place it into the plastic squirt bottles that come with the kit. If the kit you use comes with the soda ash in a separate bag, then you can mis the dye a day or two in advance of the day the kids will be using them. If, on the other hand, you buy a kit that has the soda ash already mixed in with the dye powder, you must mix the dye in with the water only at the last minute, immediately before use. This seems inconvenient to me when working with children, so I would much rather get the sort of kit that calls for a separate soda-ash presoak, such as the kits made by Jacquard Products or the kits you can order from Dharma Trading Company or PRO Chemical & Dye.

Be sure that all of the items you try to dye are 100% cotton, or nearly so, and then none are marketed as being stain-resistant (and therefore dye-resistant). Garments that are 50% cotton/50% polyester will dye in pastel colors. 100% synthetic garments will not take the dye, except for rayon, which dyes very much like cotton.

An alternative to dye which gives markedly poorer tie-dyeing results is to substitute a thin fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment "Dyes", for the dye. Many fabric paints are labeled "non-toxic" though in fact their toxicity is probably quite similar to that of the Procion dyes, if anyone is foolish enough to eat them. Fabric paint does not require soda ash to set it, but it does require heat-setting. This can be done by pressing every shirt (after it has dried) with a hot iron so that each part of it is exposed to high heat for a minute or so, depending on the manufacturer's instructions, or by putting the (already dry) shirts into a commercial clothes dryer on "hot" for half an hour. Home clothes dryers tend not to produce high enough temperatures to set the fabric paint permanently.

I recommend you order two "Tie-Dye Big Group Kits" from Dharma Trading Company or two "Tie Dye Party Packs for 100 people" from PRO Chemical & Dye. They do have expedited shipping if necessary. Buy lots of extra pairs of size extra-small waterproof gloves, either the reusable dishwashing type, or the disposable latex or nitrile or vinyl type. Blick Art Materials carries latex gloves in kids' size for ages 6 and up. If all you can find are size small, you might want to make sure you have rubber bands to hold them onto the wrists of the smaller kids.

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Posted: Monday - June 18, 2012 at 12:05 PM

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How can I tye dye with 200 kids at my campground?

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