Name: Pam
Message: I'm sorry if you discussed this in your site already.  I couldn't find the answer.  After soaking the fabric in soda ash, do you apply the dye  while the fabric is still wet from the soda ash, or do you apply the dye after soaking it in the ash then allowing it to dry?  I have always tie dyed with those kits.  But people are asking me to show them how to tie dye and the kits are too expensive so I want to start doing things "from scratch" like you describe in your site.  Thanks for the great info.

You can apply the soda ash either way. You will want to try both ways and compare them for yourself, because some people prefer one and some prefer the other. Sometimes I have soaked a shirt in soda ash and then line-dried it before applying dye. I usually prefer to tie the shirt either when it is dry or when it is moistened only with plain water, then soak it in the soda ash solution (1 cup of soda ash per gallon of water, or 60 ml per liter).

Letting the soda ash dry can make it easier to get very fine detail in your tie-dyeing, and it's good for directly painting on the fabric. (If you try painting with a brush, don't dip your brush back into your bottle of dye unless you are going to use it all up within the hour, as the little bit of soda ash that gets on the brush is enough to start the dye reaction.) Some people find that they can get more intense colors if they allow the soda ash to dry in the shirt before they dye it. The drawbacks are that you might find the dry soda ash in the material to be irritating, and you have to plan farther in advance of dyeing.

The kits that contain fiber reactive dye, such as the tie-dye kits made by Jacquard, Tulip, Dritz, or Rainbow Rock, work well, and they are an excellent introduction to using good dyes, but you will find that Procion MX dye is much less expensive when purchased in larger jars, and you will have a much wider choice of colors.

Here's a link to a page with more information about soda ash, from my FAQ:

What is soda ash, and what's it for in dyeing?

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