Name: Haley
Message: Hi there. Before I order any fancy tie dye supplies, I want to just try my hand at it with the most basic stuff there is. Just for practice. Any suggestions of things I could maybe get at Wal-Mart.

There's no point whatsoever in trying to tie-dye with all-purpose dye, unless you plan to boil your tie-dyes in the dyebath (actually simmer at 190 degrees F. or above), for half an hour or more. All-purpose dye, such as Rit brand dye, simply does not work in cool water. This means that you cannot practice the squirt-bottle tie-dye technique unless you obtain a decent cold water dye. Instead, if you choose to use all-purpose dye, follow the hot water recipe. All-purpose dyes can never be as bright or long-lasting on cotton as fiber reactive dyes, but they are easy to find.

Many crafts stores, including some sewing stores, sometimes carry a "tie dye kit". The dye used in tie dye kits by Jacquard and by Rainbow Rock is the most popular type of fiber reactive dye, Procion MX type dye. These kits cost about the same, per shirt, as all-purpose dye. Mail-order fiber reactive dye is much cheaper, per shirt, but for small quantities, the crafts store kits are fine. For mail-order, see my list of companies that sell dyes.

Don't even try to dye polyester shirts, because neither all-purpose nor fiber reactive dye works on polyester. It's better to use 100% cotton.

Message: I am using rit dye (powdered), would it be better to use the pot ash bath before dying to help retain color? can I put the rit dye solution into bottles to squirt onto the garmet? if so what concentration of dye to water would I use

Do not confuse the recipe for cold water dye with that for all-purpose dye! Your project will produce a miserable failure if you use the cold-water recipe with Rit dye. It's like trying to bake a cake in an ice cream freezer.

Only cold water dye can be used with the squirt bottle technique. Rit dye is not a cold water dye. Rit dye is a brand of all-purpose dye, which requires heat. The best way to use Rit or any other all-purpose dye is to prepare a cooking pot (which must never be used for food again in the future, as Rit dye is not safe for consumption), mix the dye with salt and a large quantity of water, then boil your fabric in the dyebath for an hour. You should at least heat fabric in the dyebath to 190 degrees Fahrenheit for half an hour, unless you want pale pastel colors. Water that is hot but not this hot will work less well. Room temperature water will do no better than dirty the fabric with the dye.

If you want to use room temperature dyeing conditions, you must buy the right type of dye. You may be able to buy a "tie dye kit" at your local crafts store - Rainbow Rock and Jacquard use a high quality fiber reactive dye in their kits - or you may choose to more economically buy dyes by mail-order. There is a list of companies that mail-order dye in several different countries on my web site under "Sources for Supplies".

Soda ash or pot ash will work only for the type of dye that requires a high pH to attach to the fabric. As all-purpose dye is incapable of this strong permanent bond, there is no point whatsoever in using soda ash or pot ash. It will do nothing to aid in the dyeing process, as long as you use all-purpose dye.

See "How can I tie dye with RIT dye?", in the FAQ section of my website, for instructions. If you wish to use cool water dyes, so that you can use the cold water dye squirt bottle technique, see "Sources for Supplies" to find a company to order your dye from.

Name: Jessica
Message: Hi Paula,


Let me first say, your site is the most informative one I've found, and I'd like to sincerely thank you for providing so much information in such an easy-to-understand format! My question is, however, do you happen to have available a chart for conversions between ounces and grams, liters, quarts, and gallons and that sort of thing? (For example, I'm trying to figure out what size storage container to purchase for holding Urea, and the options for the containers come in 'ounce' sizes.... I'm at a loss trying to figure out how many pounds will fit into each size container!) (Along with other similar 'size' issues I'm having!) Thank you so much for your time!

It's more complicated than you think! Some dry substances weigh three times as much (for example) as an equal volume of water, and thus require only a third the volume, while others are just the reverse, to varying degrees. So, each substance has to be calculated individually.

The fastest way to convert one volume measure to another, or one weight measure to another, is to type into google.com "ounces per gallon" or "ounces per liter" or any such thing. Try it, it's one of their handier innovations. Or, you can search with "ounces liters conversion table" to get something you can print out and use with a calculator.

But then you must multiply by the density of the substance. E.g., "grams per pound" yields 454 grams, so one pound of urea weighs that much. The density of urea is 1.323 grams per cubic centimeter, at room temperature. (One cubic centimeter equals one milliliter (ml), which my non-scientist friends assure me is not necessarily obvious.) So, urea weighs 1.323 times as much as water (one ml of water weighs one gram), and thus requires 454 divided by 1.323 ml, or 343 ml, which is just over one-third of a liter, or 1.45 cups, or a little under fluid twelve ounces, for one pound of urea.

For soda ash, or anhydrous sodium carbonate, the density, or specific gravity, is 2.53, so you can fit more, by weight, into the same size container. ("Crystal" sodium carbonate is the monohydrate, with a specific gravity of only 2.25, so it takes up a little more room.) However, I recommend buying a five-pound container of sodium carbonate from your local swimming pool supply store, or a hardware store that sells swimming pool supplies, in which case you do not need to purchase an additional container in which to store it. The "pH Up" or "pH Increaser" jug comes with a child-resistant cap, which is not a bad thing at all.

For dye, the density varies markedly depending on whether the dye powder has been diluted with sodium sulfate or with Tamol. (See "What is in Procion MX dye powder?") There is no way to tell, and no predicting.

So - you know what the easy way to do this is? If you are buying containers from a dye supplier? Just call them, and ask them what size container you'll need!

<i>Updated January 7, 2008</i>

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)

Name: Susan
Message: My daughter was asked to bring in rubbing oil to school to do a tie dye project. What is rubbing oil and where do you buy it? Thanks

What country are you in? What grade is your daughter in, in school?

I have never heard of rubbing oil, and certainly not of the use of any sort of oil in any form of tie-dyeing. There is a definition of rubbing oil at the Paint Ideas web site: "A pale, medium heavy mineral oil used with pumice stone or other abrasives as a lubricant for rubbing the dried film of finishing materials." This is relevant to painting and furniture finishing, however, not to textile work. It may or may not be the sort of rubbing oil your daughter's teachers want.

The requirements for squirt bottle tie-dyeing, which is by far the most popular form of tie-dyeing, are fiber reactive dye, water, soda ash (sodium carbonate), and, optionally, urea.

The requirements for boiling-water tie-dyeing are direct dye or all-purpose dye, salt, water, and a source of heat.

It is also possible to use fabric paint, which includes a form of paint that is called "pigment dye" although it is not a dye, to copy tie-dyeing, though the results are not the same as true tie-dyeing. However, fabric paint does not require any sort of oil, either.

Whatever your daughter's class is doing, you will need to ask her teachers for more information, because it is something different from any of the usual sorts of tie-dyeing.

Name: Leslie
Message: Hello, I have a question about using all-purpose dyes. We are only using black. I coach volleyball and I wanted to use this as a team building experience. Since we are just using black would it be okay to use all-purpose or would the color bleed onto their legs when we play? I know you stated that all-purpose would fade but we are again just using black and are not worried about the brightness. If we purchased fruit-of-the-loom tube socks would that also work. Thanks for you time.

The color will not bleed onto the players if all excess dye is properly washed out, after you complete the dyeing process.

If you use all-purpose dye, it will work best to simmer the garments in the dye at 190 degrees Fahrenheit (88 C.) or above, for an hour or more. In spite of some instructions you may find to the contrary, all-purpose dye works extraordinarily poorly when applied at lower temperatures. Even when applied at the optimal temperature, however, the washfastness of all-purpose dye benefits greatly from after-treatment with a product called Retayne (see Setting Dye in Purchased Fabric), which can be mail-ordered from most dye suppliers, or purchased from your local quilting supplies store.

If you would rather use lower temperatures for dyeing your clothing, it would be best to use fiber reactive dye. I would advise you to mail-order black Sabracron F dye from ProChem, as the black in this dye line is a little darker than that of the blacks in the Procion MX type line of dye. Sabracron F dye likes a slightly warmer temperature than Procion MX dye likes. Two good ways to be sure to achieve this are using warm water in the washing machine (see, for example, ProChem's Washing Machine Dyeing instructions), or leaving the socks in a black plastic garbage bag in the sun for a day, while they are still wet with soda ash and dye. Actually, both of these methods can help even Procion MX type dye create more intense shades.

Much depends on the fiber content of your socks, however. If they are acrylic, don't even try to dye them! (Acrylic requires either Disperse dye or Basic dye, neither of which is suitable for use by novices.) If they are cotton, they can be dyed by simmering in all-purpose dye or by applying fiber reactive dye at or above room temperature. If they are nylon, acid dye works best; acid dye is one of the components of all-purpose dye, or you can order pure acid dye from any good dye supplier (see Sources for Supplies). One thing that all-purpose dye does particularly well is dye both cotton and nylon at the same time. Nylon dyes better if you add some white vinegar to the dyebath (about 3 tablespoons per gallon), and both cotton and nylon require a lot of salt in dyeing them with all-purpose dye. The very best black dye for protein fibers such as silk is in the Lanaset line of dye; I'm not sure whether or not it works as well on nylon, but silk dyes usually do work well on nylon, though they don't work at all on other synthetics, nor on cotton. That's of no interest unless you were dyeing 100% nylon, however, and your socks are probably mostly either cotton or mostly acrylic.

In any case, dyeing black generally requires that you use two to four times as much dye as is called for for lighter shades. Doubling the recommended amount is never a bad idea, for dyeing black. You will find that, while a single box of all-purpose dye costs only about $2.75, this box will dye only about the equivalent of one t-shirt, or one pound of fabric. For larger quantities of material, the cost per pound of fabric is about six times more for the little boxes of all-purpose dye than for dyes purchased by mail-order from most of the good suppliers listed on my Sources for Supplies page.

Name: gina
Message: where was this internet published and by who was it published?
i need to know for my bibliography. this internet site has been a great help for me thanks. pleace email me ASAP...the assignment due in two days...thanks

I'm sorry that I was not able to get to your e-mail in time.

Nearly every page in my hand dyeing web site has the creation date and last modification date given at the bottom of the page. By simply clicking on the "Home Page" link, found in the navigation bar on each page, and looking at its title, you could see that it was created by Paula Burch, and by following the "work" link there, you could find far more than you need to know about me.

I hope that you were able to figure this out, since there was not enough time for me to answer you before your assignment was due.

Name: Sailaja
Message: Hi, I would like to dye my ivory coloured vellux blanket to tangerine to match the decor in my bedroom. Please advise me on how that can be done. Should I use cold water dyes or a regular dye that is used for nylon.

Don't use cold water dyes, because nylon must be dyed with hot water dyes, such as acid dye. Acid dye is named for its requirement for a mild acid, such as vinegar, in the dye bath.

You can't exactly stuff a large blanket into a cooking pot to do your dyeing on the stovetop, however, so you need to find a dye that will work in the washing machine, which is to say, at 140 degrees Fahrenheit. (If you keep your water heater turned down to 120 F. to reduce the risk of burns, you may wish to turn it up just long enough to do this dyeing job. If so, don't forget to readjust it when you are finished!)

Jacquard Products has instructions for Washing Machine Dyeing with Jacquard Acid Dyes, and Dharma Trading Company also has instructions for Washing Machine Dyeing with Acid Dye. You will need to weigh your blanket to determine how much dye you will need. You can mail-order acid dyes from most of the dye suppliers listed on my Sources for Supplies page.

Vellux blankets are beloved by allergy sufferers because of their ability to withstand being washed in hot water, to kill dust mites, so there should be no problem in subjecting your blanket to hot water dyeing in the washing machine.

Name: Azam Altaf
Message: Respected Sir,
As i'm a student of Textile Institute Of Pakistan, doing Bachelors in "Textile sciences" i need your free book of dyeing samples OR shade-book and other free stuff/material relating to wet-processing in order to increase my knowledge about this field. For this i'll be very thank-ful to you
waiting for your positive response.
[mailing address omitted]

What free book? What book? I don't have a book for sale, let alone one I'd be willing to mail to another country for free.

This web site is a huge endeavor, done at my own expense, providing free information to anyone who wants to read it. Where do people get the idea that I also have free stuff to mail to them, or even that I have the money to pay for the postage?!

Name: Victoria Richardson
Message: i've got a 100% polyester mosquito net that hangs from the ceiling and goes around and over half the bed (if that makes sense!) i am desperate to dye it another colour (pink) as it is white at the moment. is it in any way possible??

How to dye polyester is an extremely common question, so I've answered it on my web site under Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes. If you still want to do this, after reading that page, please see my Sources for Supplies page for sources of disperse dye in your own country.

Name: kim
Message: Hi I am wondering if it is possible to have a 100% poly flower girls dress dyed? Probably pink or purple...about how much does this cost? Any help would be great! Thanks

It is extremely difficult to find anyone anywhere to dye a polyester dress for you, because polyester is no fun to immersion dye. See Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes for more information on why. As of this writing, the only company I know of which may dye polyester garments is Color Creek, in Alaska.

If you want to have a dress custom-dyed, be sure to choose a natural fiber fabric, which is much easier and more pleasant to dye. However, you must be sure to choose only washable garments or fabric, as dry-clean-only items cannot be custom dyed. There are many dyers listed on the Custom Dyers page on my web site who are willing to dye natural fibers, if they are washable.

Alternatively, select a fabric in the color you like, and hire a local seamstress to sew the dress for you.

Name: Susan Musick
Message: I am interested in having a single polyester garment dyed, in the Phoenix area.

It is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to find anyone willing to dye a polyester dress for you, because polyester is no fun to immersion dye. See Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes. At this writing, the only company I know of which may be willing to dye polyester is Color Creek , in Alaska.

If you want to have a dress custom-dyed, be sure to choose a natural fiber fabric, which is much easier and more pleasant to dye. However, you must be sure to choose only washable garments or fabric, as dry-clean-only items cannot be custom dyed.

Alternatively, select a fabric in the color you like, and hire a local seamstress to sew the dress for you.

Name: John
Message: hi i just purcahed a white stuffed animal sheep i wish to dye pink. however i am not sure which type of dye would be best to use. the tage says it is 100% tylon. any help would be greatly appreciated

The important question is what fiber the material is made of. Cellulose fibers such as cotton and rayon are easy to dye at room temperature with fiber reactive dyes; nylon requires heat and acid and a type of dye called acid dye; and polyester requires an hour of boiling with a special dye called disperse dye. Is your toy sheep washable? You cannot dye anything that is not washable.

It appears that "Tylon" - described by the Ty company as an "exclusive manmade fabric that has the most luxurious feel you'll ever find on a plush toy" - may be a trade name for a type of nylon made by Tyne Plastics. (Reference: Engineering Training Services' list of "Tradenames for Plastics".) If this is true, then it is probably possible to use acid dyes to dye the material. However, it is not impossible that there are two entirely different fibers being called by the same name, in which case your sheep might be made of something that is essentially undyeable. Others have written to me of unsuccessful attempts to dye Ty Beanie Babies, after which the dye simply rinsed right out, but these were not labeled as being made of Tylon - in fact the labels did not indicate the fiber content of the surface fabric - so we just do not know for sure.

To see how to use acid dyes, see, for example, Prochem's instructions on Immersion Dyeing Nylon using WashFast Acid Dyes, or Rainbow Dyeing using WashFast Acid Dyes.

Please let me know whether or not you are successful in dyeing your toy sheep.

Donna wrote:
I need to find out if a bridesmaid dress can be dyed. If so who in Albuquerque, NM can do a professional job.

Before you can get this question answered, you must first determine whether the garment is washable, because if you can't wash it, it can't be dyed, and whether it is made of natural fibers, because it is pretty much impossible to find anyone willing to go to the trouble and mess of dyeing polyester. The only exception of which I am aware, at this writing, is Color Creek, in Alaska.

There are quite a few custom dyers who have listed themselves on my website's Custom Dyers Listing who are happy to dye washable garments that are made of natural fibers.

Name: Matthew
Message: What is the best way to "fix" the colors that I tie dyed onto my cotton shirt? I don't know the specific type of dye that we used, but someone said vinegar (is that an "old wives tale"?) and I'm not sure if that's the best solution. I would like to keep the shirt I made, but most importantly, I don't want the colors to bleed onto other items I may wash it with.

No, vinegar is not going to help. Whoever told you it would doesn't know what they're talking about.

The first thing you MUST do, if you care in the slightest about the fate of your shirt, is find out what dye you used! That's right, call the teachers or summer camp people or friends or whoever it is that bought the dye, and just ask them what brand or type of dye they used. It makes no sense to ask me, before asking the people who can give you the information you need before anyone can answer your question.

Did you use an all-purpose dye, such as Rit or Tintex brand all-purpose dyes? If so, you need to have heated the shirt while it was submerged in the dyebath, ideally for a minimum of half an hour at 190 degrees Fahrenheit or above. If you used all-purpose dye at room temperature, there is nothing you can do to save it, but if you boiled the shirt, all you need to do to improve washfastness is use a product called Retayne, from any good dye supplier or quilting supplies store. Retayne can be mail-ordered if your local quilt supply store doesn't carry it.

Or did you use fiber reactive dye, such as the Procion MX type dye used in most tie dye kits, such as those made by the Rainbow Rock and Jacquard companies? If so, and if you followed the instructions, using soda ash as directed, at or above 70 degrees Fahrenheit, then there is nothing further that needs to be done to fix the dye. You just have to wash out the unattached excess dye, by running it through one washing machine cycle in cold water without detergent (or with Synthrapol), and then a couple of cycles in hot water with detergent.

See the following pages in the FAQ section of my web site:
"How to Set Dye in Fabric"
"How can I fix the shirts I just tie-dyed with Rit® brand all-purpose dye so that they'll quit bleeding in the wash and stay bright?"
"My colors just washed out! What happened?"

Also see
"How to Tie Dye" and "Hand Dyeing - How to Do It: basic recipe for Procion MX dyes on cellulose or silk ".

Name: Mary Ann
Message: I have come across some "Aljo aniline batik dye" -- lots of it; so I'd like to make use of it. I trust I can use it on silk, cotton, wool? Does this mean I need to make the dyebath aniline? Recipe for other additives? Your website is an inspiration.

The word "aniline", when applied to dyes, means little more than the obvious fact that these are synthetic dyes. It does not even imply that the chemical aniline was actually used as a precursor in synthesizing them.

From the name, these could be any sort of cold water dye, as obviously you cannot use hot water dye in batik, because the heat of the dyebath would melt the wax. In some countries such as Indonesia, naphthol dyes are used for batik; these are a fascinating type of dye, but are considered too toxic and/or carcinogenic for craft use in the US. It is possible to use vat dyes, such as indigo, in batik, but the chemistry is complex and not suitable for dye beginners. The other main class of cool water dye used in batik is fiber reactive. Fiber reactive dyes that are used on cotton include Procion MX, Drimarene K, and Cibacron F dyes (the latter is sold by ProChem under the name Sabracron F).

Since the Aljo dye company is located in New York, it is unlikely that they would be selling naphthol dye - they don't mention naphthols on their web site - and they would be more specific if these were vat dyes. What you have there is most likely dichlorotriazine dye, the type sold widely under the brand name Procion MX, though it is now out of patent and manufactured by many different companies that have no right to this brand name. I seem to recall that some fiber reactive dye I bought from Aljo, years ago, was labeled as aniline dye. The instructions on my web site's How to Dye page are intended for this type of dye. You can use it on cotton, rayon, linen, or silk; you can also use it as an acid dye, on wool, but for that you must use an entirely different recipe, as the high pH of the soda ash recipe will damage wool, and you must use heat with acid dyes. The soda ash recipe that is used for cotton, rayon, and silk works well at room temperature or slightly above.

Don't confuse "aniline" with "alkaline". The word alkaline is often used to refer to any substance with a high pH (the opposite of acid); the word aniline refers to a specific chemical derived from coal tar. Though they sound similar, the two words actually have nothing to do with each other.

If the dyes you have come across are very old, or have been stored in a hot place, they may have gone bad. If this has happened, they will still work fine as acid dyes on silk and wool, simmered with vinegar or another acid, but they will no longer work with the soda ash recipe that is required for dyeing cellulose fibers such as cotton. (Silk can be dyed with either recipe, with soda ash or with acid.)

Name: Koosung Kang
Message: I would like to buy your dye. Could you let me know what and how I should do to purchse your dye.

Sorry, I don't sell dye. For a list of companies that do sell dye, please see Sources for Supplies.

Name: Robyn
Message: Oh please help me. I am a Craft Coordinator for my church and have a serious problem. I am scheduled to tye dye with our youth group this Wednesday. Two weeks ago during Vacation Bible School I had a tye dye project go flop and due to the expense of buying the materials I saved the soda ash solution to use for the youth Wed. night. I went to soak my shirts in this solution tonight and someone in the church had mistakenly dumped it. Is there a homemade remedy for soda ash. I read on line something about using lye. Our project is a little different from basic tye-dye. We are suppose to make our designs using tape. THerefore, you soak in soda ash first, let dry, then spray the dye over the shirt and taped area. When dry the kids were supposed to remove the tape to see their creation. I am at a complete loss as to what to do. Any advice?

Any pool supply store will sell sodium carbonate for use in swimming pools, and so do many hardware stores. This is the highest quality soda ash, and it is what I always use. Be sure to check the label for "sodium carbonate" - NOT bicarbonate!!

If that doesn't work out for you, you can substitute washing soda from the grocery store; Washing soda is also sodium carbonate, but may have unwanted whiteners and brighteners added, so is not as good as the hardware store variety, and you must use approximately three times as much, due to the extra water molecules included in this form. It's pretty good as last-minute emergency substitutes go, though.

Lye will work, but it is a lot more dangerous to mix, and you have to be a lot more careful about using exactly the right amount to get the right pH. I do NOT recommend that a non-chemist experiment with this, especially since soda ash is easier to find locally than lye is.

See my page on What is soda ash, and what's it for?.