Your website is a huge help!

Okay--here's my problem.  I tie dye several times a year using Rainbow Rock dyes, usually with groups of 60-100 kids (school, scouts, church).  We're doing 100% cotton t-shirts, and using the direct application from squirt bottles with multiple colors of dye.  When I went to get the dye,  I found that both of our craft stores and fabric store no longer have the "refill" packs with just the dye, urea, and fixer.  Anyway, the new package under the name Tulip, costs the same but only makes 4 oz. rather than 16 oz.  It includes a bottle and other stuff which I do not need.  This will quadruple my cost.  So, I'm thinking of trying Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye.

It sounds like you may have more than a week before you are next going to do this. Is this correct? If so, you will find your costs much reduced, in the long run, by buying your dyes by mail-order. In addition, the dye will be fresher, and it will be available in many more colors! There is no downside to mail-ordering your Procion MX type dye. All serious dyers purchase their dye by mail-order.

Dylon Permanent dye is a good-quality fiber reactive dye, but it is rather expensive for the amount that you get. The same is true of the Rainbow Rock and Tulip dye, of course. The real problem is that it is mixed for immersion dyeing solid colors, not for tie-dyeing, and already contains the equivalent of soda ash mixed in, in an amount suitable for that form of dyeing. I recommend that you order Procion MX Reactive Dye from Grateful Dyes, PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company; this is the same type of dye found in the Tulip and Rainbow Rock tie-dye kits. There is a long list of different mail-order dye suppliers around the world on my site.

How much should you order? I like to use eight teaspoons of dye, or approximately 20 grams of dye, per 16-ounce squeeze bottle, though many other dyers prefer to use half as much. A two-ounce jar of dye powder contains enough dye to refill your 16-ounce squeeze bottle about three times per jar, if you like very intense colors like I prefer, or almost six times per two-ounce jar for a medium color intensity more like what your Rainbow Rock kits probably yielded. If the jars are kept tightly closed and not exposed to heat, the unused dye powder should stay good for at least one to two years. You will also want urea, which is optional, and soda ash for the dye fixer. You will no longer be limited to turquoise, fuchsia or magenta (which PROchem calls "mixing red"), and yellow (the one PROchem calls "sun yellow"), but will also be able to add any other color that strikes your fancy, though you'll certainly want to continue getting turquoise, magenta or fuchsia, and yellow. Black is very popular as a fourth color choice since it makes the other colors really pop by contrast (use a whole lot more black dye powder than you would of other colors, sixteen teaspoons of dye per 16-ounce bottle). I personally love to use all of the single-hue unmixed colors, such as 'grape' and the cerulean blue PROchem calls 'intense blue', which you can see listed for various companies on my pure MX dyes chart.

Here are my questions--
How should the dye be mixed for brightest colors?  The package only has directions for tub/bucket dying.  Do I just mix the package (1.75 oz.) with the 4 cups of water that the package says, or do I use less or more?  Do I need the salt?

For tie-dyeing, I would prefer to make a stronger mixture, perhaps mixing each packet of "Dylon Permanent Dye" with one cup of water, or even half a cup of water. (I have not tried this myself.) Another line of dye made by the same manufacturers, "Dylon Cold Water Dye", is different, since it lacks the soda ash or TSP mixed in, and can be used exactly according to the Procion MX dye recipes given on my site, or your old Tulip dye recipe. You do not need to add salt for tie-dyeing, though if the salt is already mixed in it will do no harm. It is even more important with Dylon dyes, which are mostly Drimarene K type dyes, than with Procion MX dyes, to ensure that the shirts are in a warm place when they react overnight, because the dyes are slightly less reactive and require more warmth to react.

The amount of dye in one 1.75-ounce packet of Dylon Permanent Dye is supposed to be sufficient to dye half a pound of fabric, or one t-shirt. In contrast, a two-ounce jar of Procion MX type dye powder is supposed to be sufficient to dye twelve t-shirts. To get the same concentration of dye with the Dylon Permanent that I like to use with Procion MX dye for tie-dyeing, 20 grams per 16 ounce bottle, would require eight packets of Dylon Permanent Dye per 16-ounce squeeze bottle. The concentration of soda ash or TSP would be way too high with this much Dylon Permanent Dye, though, since it is mixed with the dye. Best to compromise with a somewhat weaker dye mixture.

How long will the dye stay active?  Your site said since it is already mixed with fixer, to use it immediately.  The kids will be coming through in groups over a period of 2 hours--wil it be okay for this long?

No, it will probably not last for two hours. The Dylon Permanent dye web site indicates that the dye will be dead within an hour of mixing with water, since the soda ash or TSP is already mixed in. If you use this dye, be sure to mix a fresh batch of dye up at least once every hour. It would probably be better to do this every half hour, to make sure the dye is really fresh and ready to use.

The package says to have the fabric damp.  We've already tied the shirts dry, since I thought we would be soaking them in fixer.  Do they need to be damp, should I leave them dry, or does it matter?

Probably best to just dampen them with water.

How long should the dye remain on before rinsing?  I was planning on overnight; the Dylon package says 1 hour in the tub of dye.  How long is necessary?  How long is optimum?  Will it hurt to be left on longer than an hour before rinsing?

Overnight would be best, to be sure every bit of dye on the shirts has reacted. There is no harm in leaving it overnight, and it may prevent backstaining the lighter regions of the designs with the darker sections of wet dyed fabric.

I would really appreciate any answers you can give.  I was thrown a curve ball with the new packaging; I did my last group 2 months ago and had no idea things were changing.

Good luck. I'm glad that you are not considering using all-purpose dyes. That would be a real mistake.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]