Message: Hi, this is a follow-up on my previous question I asked one day ago.  I went ahead and used a 5-cup to one gallon ratio for the sodium carbonate decahydrate.  Still haven't dyed yet, because I'm having a real hard time getting the fuchsia and turquoise to dissolve.  I used 4 teaspoons (cooking teaspoons) per cup for fuchsia and 8 per cup for turquoise.  I have read about the particle problem with fuchsia, and realize I may need to filter this, but I also have the same problem with the turquoise.  They sure didn't dissolve in 20 minutes, or even 4 hours.  I then diluted the dyes by adding equal volumes of tap water, making the ratio 2 teaspoons to one cup, I'm still trying to dissolve them.  I wonder if our hard water is part of the problem. 

Are you using Procion MX type dyes?

The best way to dissolve dye powder is to start by adding just a few drops of water to the dye powder. Mash and stir the water into the dye powder, adding a little more water as needed to make a smooth paste. This is called "pasting up" the dye.

Do not use very hot water to dissolve fiber reactive dye. If you are dissolving acid dyes for wool or nylon, you can use boiling water, but boiling water can kill the reactivity of fiber reactive dye. Warmer water is easier to dissolve things in than colder water is, so use lukewarm water, between 75°F and 95°F, to dissolve your fiber reactive dye.

After you have pasted up the dye, add the rest of the water you are using to dissolve the dye. Some people prefer to use a blender, dedicated to dye mixing use only, or an immersion blender; both work very well. If you use an immersion blender, be sure that your dye containers are deep enough to avoid inconvenient splashing! I usually just mix my dye powder in a measuring cup with a spoon or a small stainless steel whisk, then let it rest for a few minutes, then mix again. Usually all but a few specks of the dye will be dissolved after a few minutes of stirring, with some resting time in the middle.

If your water is very hard, which means that it contains calcium, magnesium, or other minerals, it can make it more difficult to dissolve your dye. Using bottled water is good; alternatively, you can add a phosphate-containing water softener. Use whichever you find most convenient. The water softener you want to use contains the chemical sodium hexametaphosphate. The old unscented plain Calgon powder works fine, but, as far as I can tell, it is no longer available in store. Do not use the liquid Calgon, which contains polycarboxylates instead of phosphates, as it can interfere with dyeing. Any good dye supplier will be able to sell you sodium hexametaphoshate as a water softener. PRO Chemical & Dye calls theirs 'Metaphos', Dharma Trading Company calls theirs "Water Softener", and Jacquard Products calls theirs "Calgon T". It's a good idea, if you have hard water, to add a teaspoon of this product to each liter of water you use, even adding some to the washing machine when you wash out the excess unattached dye. Hard water can make the initial washing-out of the excess dye far more difficult. The unbound dye molecules can form dimers with the calcium ions, producing an extremely difficult-to-remove dye-mineral complex, which unfortunately is not nearly as permanent as the properly attached fiber reactive dye. There is always a lot of unreacted dye that must be washed out after dyeing, so hard water can be a real problem.

I usually use two to three teaspoons of dye powder per cup of water. It is more difficult to dissolve the larger amounts. Urea, which is used to keep the dye moist while it reacts with the fabric overnight, increases the solubilities of dyes a little, sometimes enough to make a difference. Add one tablespoon (15 ml) of clean white urea to each cup of soft water, or four tablespoons (60 ml) to each quart or liter of water, and use this mixture to dissolve your dye. (Urea itself is very easy to dissolve.)

Salt also makes it much more difficult to dissolve dye. If you are adding salt to your dye mixtures for any reason, be sure not to add it until you have added as much water to the dye as you are going to, and be careful not to use so much salt that your dye precipitates out, returning to the powder form at the bottom of your dye bottles.

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