Name: Lynne
Message: Can velvet be tie dyed? Is there a way to do it with out disrupting the nap or a way to repair the nap of the fabric after dying? What type of dye and method would you recommend?

It all depends on the specific fabric. I've dyed silk/rayon velvet by direct application or low water immersion, both very similar to the technique of tie-dyeing, using soda ash and Procion MX type dye, with no problems at all. The nap of the fabric did not need to be repaired in any way.

Don't even bother to try dyeing polyester velvet, except possibly by making transfers with disperse dye and ironing them on. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

Fabric paint on velvet, unlike dye, may glue the fibers of the pile together, since all fabric paints (including pigment 'dye', which is actually paint) include a glue-like binder to attach the pigments to the fiber.

What type of velvet are you considering dyeing? The actual fiber content is critical in deciding how, or even whether, to do this project.

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Name: Jennifer
Message: I have an oyster-colored raw silk dress that I'd like to dye a chocolate brown. I've always heard that getting silk wet will ruin it. Do you have experience dyeing this type of material? Any suggestions?

What did the women of Asia do with their silk garments in the millennia before dry-cleaning was invented? Silk is quite washable unless the manufacturers have done something to make it otherwise, such as by using water-soluble finishes or dyes, or sewing with thread or linings that will shrink differently than the silk. (Lined garments are almost never washable.)

If you are willing to take the risk, hand-wash the dress in cool water with a mild soap. If you are not willing to try this, do not even consider dyeing it. If a dress is truly not washable, it cannot be dyed, even by professionals. If the dress does survive washing, you may feel free to dye it.

Washable silk can be dyed at room temperature with cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye. It can also be dyed in the presence of heat, using acid dyes. Acid dyes are better for slick, stiff, shiny silks, but the heat may shrink and ruin the garment. Fiber reactive dyes may reduce the shine and stiffness of some silks, but this is not likely to be a problem with raw silk, and the ability to avoid heat is advantageous. Do not use all-purpose dye without steaming or boiling the dress in the dye; if you wish to dye your dress at room temperature, you must purchase the right type of dye.

The easiest way to dye a silk dress a solid color, if it is washable, and if you have a sufficiently delicate cycle on your washing machine, is to follow the instructions for Procion MX dye, which you may find in "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". The easiest way to dye it an interesting crystal pattern is by low water immersion.

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I have a batik made in ireland, which  I received as a gift in the late 1960's. it really need cleaning and probably reframing. I live in the chelsea area in manhattan (NYC). What do you suggest I do?

You have no idea of how washfast the dyes are? I do not know what dyes were being used in Ireland in the 1960s.

Usually, batik can be washed, after being removed from its frame. Wash it by hand, gently, in lukewarm water, using a mild soap such as Orvus (available in quilt stores and also in feed stores, as it is a good shampoo for horses). Hang it indoors to dry, not in direct sunlight, then iron it, using a clean cloth on each side of the batik, and take it to a professional to reframe it. (You may wish to take a picture of how it is framed, to show to the framer.)

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Name: Elle
Message: Hello. I looked through your website but have a contradiction to ask about. I have an item marked as 100 polyester knit. From your website, I would gather polyester usually needs heat to dye. But my garment says medium temperatures only. should I worry? I understand about your volume. If you have time to include any response, a short one is adequate. Like, you doubt it matters. I love the cut and the knit, hate the color.

Yes, you are right to worry. You simply cannot immersion-dye polyester at less than a boil. Polyester actually prefers temperatures well above boiling for dye take-up, so we use a rather toxic carrier chemical to reduce the required temperature to boiling, but paler shades can be reached at the boil without the carrier. However, note that this is true only for a special kind of dye. Polyester can be dyed only with disperse dye. It cannot be dyed with an all-purpose dye, such as Rit®!

You can use iron-on designs made with Transfer Fabric Crayons to decorate polyester without boiling it at all, but obviously this is not suitable for dyeing an entire garment with a single unmottled color.

I don't like the idea of boiling an already-sewn garment for an hour, as you would have to do in order to dye it a solid color. Surely the item would suffer significantly from such harsh treatment!

In this case, I think you'd better find another blouse. Note that 100% cotton, or other plant fibers such as rayon, linen, or hemp, can easily be dyed with cool water fiber reactive dyes. Do not use all-purpose dye to dye clothing, as it requires extremely hot water to work at all well, which is apt to shrink the clothing.


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Name: Julie

Message: I used Rits dye on a carpet, the dye is rubbing off. I used my steam cleaner over and over but it still comes off. Can you make a suggestion?

All I can think of to do is repeat the steam cleaning, if there is no other way to rinse the carpet. It is essential to never use Rit® or any other type of dye on anything that cannot be rinsed adequately.

Can you pull up the carpet and take it outside to rinse with a garden hose? That's probably your best move, but then you will have to stretch it back into place, as it was when it was originally installed.

Perhaps you should contact the manufacturers of the dye with which you treated your carpet. Here is a link to the Rit® dye web site's contact page.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]

Name: Kristy
Message: Hi Paula,
I enjoy your site very much! I am planning a tye dye project in which I am using one color. I'd like to have the color cover most of the shirt, except for the places that have been rubberbanded. I know I could apply the dye with a squirt bottle, but would I also achieve the effect I want by first tying and soaking the shirt in sida ash, and then just simply immersing the shirt in a bucket of the dye? I plan to use a a procion dye from Dharma.

Yes, that will work just fine. In fact, this is the original form of tie-dyeing. It is traditional to do this sort of tie-dyeing a little differently, though, without using the soda ash as a presoak, but instead adding the soda ash after the dye has had a chance to soak into the fiber. First add water (and, if needed, water softener) to a bucket, then add salt (which is not used in direct application of dye), then the fabric, then soda ash. Here's a link to a good recipe from PRO Chemical & Dye.

So if this is possible, how much dye to water should I use? How long would the shirt soak? Would the rubberbanded areas effectively stay white over a long soak in dye?

Larger amounts of water, with lots of stirring, result in smoother coloring on the solid-color background. Smaller amounts result in uneven coloring. If you don't really care either way, the smaller volume is easier.

If your kitchen is hot, you don't need to leave the dye to react as long as you would if it is only 70 degrees F. ProChem's recipe is for only 60 to 90 minutes. Longer time will do no harm, though, and in some cases may give brighter or more intense colors.

Another question...have you ever tye dyed with the low water immersion method? It might be neat to see the different color gradiations with tye dye patterns. Any tips there?

Yes, I often fold a garment as for tie-dyeing, then jam it tightly into a bucket so that the folds are more or less maintained, without any tying at all, for an effect that is more subtle than tie-dyeing but still somewhat controlled, or I tie and then jam the garment into the bucket. It's so easy! Just follow the LWI recipe, with or without salt as you prefer, using a tied garment. Always add the soda ash a little while after adding the dye, for more beautiful color gradations than you can get by pre-soaking in soda ash. Add soda ash first for less of the interesting blending of different colors.

If you want different shades of just one color, in low water immersion dyeing, you must pretty much stick to the pure, unmixed colors (see "Which Procion MX dyes are pure, and which are mixtures?"). Premixed colors of dye tend to spread out and separate into different colors in LWI. The results are usually pretty wonderful! It is amazing what you can get by using a black or grey mixed dye for LWI dyeing.

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Name: Amanda
Message: Is it possible to dye a swimsuit? I have a white one and it has gotten stained from the seat in my kayak? I was hoping to die it red or black. Thanks

It is possible, but you must use the right kind of dye. Your dye choice depends on what the fiber content of the bathing suit is. Lycra itself will not dye, but both cotton and nylon are easy enough to dye.

If your bathing suit is mostly cotton, with some Lycra, you should dye it with cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye.

If your bathing suit is mostly nylon or polyamide, with some Lycra, you should dye it with a type of dye called acid dye, such as Jacquard acid dyes. Since Lycra is heat sensitive, you should use temperatures lower than the otherwise optimal boiling water, and while dyeing you should be very gentle with the bathing suit; Lycra is a thermoelastic polyurethane, and can be damaged by heat, especially by rough treatment in the presence of heat.

For solid single-color dyeing, using either fiber reactive dyes for cotton or nylon, see "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". For rainbow-dyeing cotton, see "How to Dye".

You can also buy cotton/Lycra swimsuits specifically for dyeing with fiber reactive dyes; see, for example, Dharma Trading Company.

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Name: Mary

Message: I am using Procion MX Dyes and am trying to use black on the bottom of a shirt and yellow on the top.

As long as I keep the colors separated (in the sink) they are fine, but as soon as I try to wash the shirt in the machine the black bleeds all over the yellow.

Since I want a very deep black I am using 2 Tbs to 8 oz water and am using urea in the dye mix.

Do you think that Retayne or Dharma Dye Fixative will stop this bleeding?

I am concerned about Retayne because it requires very hot water and by the time I get to the hot water washing, I already have severe bleeding.

Any advice you have will be greatly appreciated.

No, Retayne or similar products are not at all what you need here. They assist in fixing unfixed dye to the fiber (which is very important when using all-purpose dye, and quite unnecessary when properly using high quality fiber reactive dyes), but they do nothing to stop the dye's spreading before it is fixed.

A thickener for your dye will help to stop it from spreading before you wash it. The most popular thickener for use with MX dyes is sodium alginate.

To stop back-staining during the washing-out, the missing ingredient is extra time. The most important thing is to allow the dye to fully react with the fiber. You are using soda ash, correct? If so, all you need is to leave the dye reaction another 8 hours or more, but preferably for an extra day. The point is to make sure that there is no Procion MX dye left on the shirt that is still capable of reacting with the fiber. If you keep the shirt warm and moist long enough, in the presence of soda ash, the dye will all react either with the shirt or with the water itself. If you wash the shirt too soon, some unreacted dye may remain - ready to permanently stain other parts of your shirt.

Many dyers believe that the special detergent Synthrapol in the wash water also helps to prevent backstaining. It certainly does no harm, and is an excellent detergent for dye removal; you should be able to purchase it from your dye supplier (or see my list of different companies that sell dye).

If MX dye which has reacted with the water gets on the ligghter regions of your shirt, it will temporarily stain it, but washing several times in HOT water with a good detergent such as Synthrapol should remove all of this loosely-associated dye. Only dye that has not yet had time to react before washing should produce permanent stains.

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Name: Georgia
Message: Hi--love your site and your tie dye is beautiful. My question, however, has to do with your great "unlikely photos"--how did you do it. My daughters and I especially love the picture of your son riding the cat. We'd love to "copy" you and do something similar. We have a digital camera and photoshop--can we do something similar. If youdon't care to respond, thanks for providing such a great site anyway. Thanks.

For that picture, I used an old program, Adobe Photodeluxe, which came with my camera, I think. Now I recommend Photoshop Elements, but of course the full-size Photoshop program can do this, too.

Obviously, the first thing to do is cut out the figure, in this example the one of my son, and place it on a layer in front of the other picture, in this case the picture of the cat. This means you need a program that allows you to somehow remove the background around a figure, and that allows you to make a collage of two or more pictures on different layers, which end up as one image.

You can't combine just any two photographs, though. The boy riding the cat had to be riding something else in the original life picture. In this case, I took him to a playground and had him pose on various pieces of equipment. The picture I used with the cat was originally one of him sitting on a sort of dolphin mounted on large springs. The picture that ended up showing my boy lying on and peering over the edge of a mushroom started out with him lying on top of a large turtle-like playground animal.

It is difficult to take a photo that is the side view of a cat! As soon as the cat sees you, it has to come and say hello. This picture is particularly amusing because the siamese cat in the picture is a very small cat, in reality.

For the picture of my son riding a bird, I copied the picture of the bird and trimmed off everything but the wing in front from the front copy, then placed the copy with the entire bird positioned behind the picture of my son. In that case, I also had to cut out all of the background behind the bird, and replace it with a simpler and more suitable sky background.

In addition, even if the figures are posed in the same relative position, they still will not look right unless the light is coming from the same angle in both pictures. You may have to take a lot of pictures to get two that are sufficiently identical in lighting to put together. For the picture of my younger son in an eggshell, first I took a picture of him posing in an immense flowerpot at the local garden supplier. Then I printed out the picture, large and at a fairly poor quality, and took it outside with a freshly-cracked eggshell. I moved the eggshell around until the angle was exactly right to match the picture of the boy, then snapped the picture and took it inside to edit.

To add shadows, sometimes the automatic drop-shadow feature that many photo editing programs have will work, but often the result looks totally unreal. To fill in with appropriate shadows, add a new layer that is between the background and the foreground figure, and use a soft brush to color in a partially opaque grey of the right shape. It is important to do this as a separate layer so you can easily delete it and start over, without messing up the background so that you have to go back to a previously saved backup version. A little bit of dark shadow directly under a figure goes a long way towards making the entire picture more convincing.

I'd love to see the pictures that you end up making!


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Name: Colette
Message: I have a batik print that I want to get framed. I've had it for years, so it is very wrinkled. The framer wants me to get it pressed before he frames it. Is it safe to iron batik?

Yes, it should be quite safe. The fabric is usually cotton, and the dyes are not harmed by the heat of the iron. If any wax remains in the cloth it will come out when ironed; if this seems likely, be sure to place a clean but valueless cloth on each side of the batik while pressing it.

The only risk to the batik would be the same as the risks to any cotton fabric, in ironing. It is not difficult to avoid burning the fabric.


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Name: Jim
Message: Help....I have used your search button and found no responses so I thought I would ask the expert. I have an Air Dancer. If you don't know what that is, it is an advertising banner this is blown up by an electric fan. Now, the material it is made of is .75 ripstop nylon. It is faded something horrible. It looks like it used to be black with florescent greet edges. Now, its a dull brown looking mess. Is there a way that you know of to re-dye this material and make it look presentable again? Any advice you could provide to me would be greatly appreciated.

Ah, so that's what they're called. My young son was calling one we saw a wind puppet.

Most dyes and paints will fade in direct sunlight - some almost immediately, others after a few months. Redyeing is a good solution. You'll want to choose as lightfast a dye as possible. The lightfastness ratings for some dyes are posted on my lightfastness page, but it is often difficult to determine which generic name on the list belongs to which dye that is sold. The class of dye to use for nylon is called acid dye.

I believe that one of the very best blacks for nylon, wool, or silk is the Lanaset Black B, also known as Jet Black. Lanaset dyes are also sold under the brand names Sabraset and Telana. Note that some Lanaset dyes, including the black, contain chromium, so be careful about exposure to the dye solutions. You can get good results by painting the fabric with the dye, then wrapping it in plastic wrap and steaming it for half an hour to set the dye. The Lanaset black is the deepest, richest black dye of any sort that I have used.

You may mail-order Lanaset Black dye from PRO Chemical & Dye. Study their recipes (for immersion dyeing and dye painting) to see what other supplies you will need. I am not sure how large of a bundle your nylon may make; this may complicate the steaming process. If it is very large, you may need to adapt a carpet-dyeing recipe for the steaming step.

To get the fluorescent green edges, if you do not wish to have a solid black only, you should use a fabric paint, rather than a dye; you can apply this after completing the dying and after-washing process. PRO Chemical & Dye also sells fluorescent textile paint, by the cup, pint, quart, or gallon; call them (1-800-228-9393) to ask for their advice as to which product to buy. If the frluorescent paint you buy is transparent, rather than opaque, you will need to leave the currently green edges undyed, when redyeing the black, so that the paint will not have to be applied on top of black.


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Name: Keith
Message: Hi, could you please let me know if you purchase or homemake a non-toxic food grade dye to temporarily stain your skin for tatooing? Similar properties to that of henna or that can be airbrushed and lasts longer than just washing off. Can anything be added to food color that temporarily sets it and stains the skin for a few days? THANK YOU!

I do not know of any such additive, sorry. In theory, perhaps a small amount of an acidic food such as vinegar might help, as food dyes are in the class of dyes called acid dyes, but I have seen no evidence that this will (or will not) increase the effectiveness of food dye on skin.

In my experience, ordinary food coloring takes many washings to remove from the skin completely, after having been applied by airbrush, but it does smear easily in the presence of even the slightest amount of moisture. It is important to avoid touching light-colored furniture or objects while wearing food coloring on the skin.

Beware of "black henna", by the way. I have read that the synthetic hair dyes that are often added to real henna to make black designs on the skin may be quite hazardous. Alternative shades of henna that are prepared by mixing natural indigo powder with natural henna powder are much safer.

I have seen "Temporary Tattoo Making Kits" on the web which use inkjet prints to create the tattoo. I do not approve of this practice, as inkjet inks are not tested for safety on the skin and might possibly cause problems similar to those produced by the synthetic dye PPD found in black henna. Your plan to use food coloring is much sounder. It is not necessary for the dyes to be food-safe, for use on the skin, as there are some dyes which are considered safe for use on the skin though not in food, the D&C colors. Look at the cosmetic-safe colorants at the Coloration Station; I have never purchased from this company, but am impressed by the range of their cosmetic-safe colorations.

Safe food coloring may also be purchased in the form of marking pens; try a web search for the brand 'FooDoodler', for example. (Try drawing faces on marshmallows before microwaving them for a few seconds - they expand in a way that amuses children very much!)

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Name: David
Message: I soaked my Dharma PFD fabric in soda ash at room temperature. I mixed 1.5 ounces of #44 Better Black with 2 cups of water and 1/2 tablespoon of urea. I wrang out the fabric, poured the black directly on the cloth, stored overnight in closed container. I only got a medium-deep shade of purple. Any ideas what I should look at first?

The first thing you should do is call Dharma Trading Company. They are the ones who profited from your spending the money on their fabric and their dye; therefore, it is only right that they should be the ones who spend the money on providing you with technical support.

However, I went ahead anyway, and asked the obvious question: How much did the fabric weigh, approximately? The answer was,

I used direct application to 1 yard of fabric, then let it sit in the die overnight.

This still doesn't say much about how much weight of fabric you used. The weight of fabric is critical in determining how much dye is required. Many times more dye is required for a yard of heavy cotton fleece than for a yard of thin cotton lawn, for example. You must know the weight of your fabric in order to know how much dye to use.

Almost all black dye mixtures will produce a shade other than neutral grey when diluted too much. (I know of one rare exception to this among the Procion MX type dyes, but it too produces colors when used in LWI.) If you wish to obtain a true black, you must use more dye. In addition, if you wish to obtain a single smooth shade, you must use a higher ratio of water to weight of fabric than if you are pleased with the mottled effects produced by a low water ratio, as in low water immersion dyeing.

Dharma's web site has a table giving the amounts of dye needed to dye a given weight of fiber, for each of their dyes. It indicates that 36 grams of their 'Better Black' mixture is capable of dyeing up to one pound of cotton fiber. A different quantity will be required for dyeing silk; unfortunately, you did not indicate what fiber you were dyeing. Each dye performs differently on every different fiber.

If you used a large enough quantity of dye per pound of your fabric, as per the recommendations of your dye supplier, then the question will be, what went wrong? Since you appear to have a northern-hemisphere e-mail address, it's probably not the common problem of too cool a reaction temperature, given that you are writing in what is the summertime here, though air conditioning can cause problems. It could be that the dye is old, or has been stored under warm conditions or not sealed tightly enough, and has gone bad. It could be that you'd do better if you added salt. It could be that you failed to use enough soda ash. In fact, you don't mention soda ash anywhere in your message. Could it be that you omitted the dye fixative? Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate, is absolutely essential for dyeing cotton with Procion MX type dyes.

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Name: Jeff
Message: I am looking to dye about a dozen white cotton shirts to make black spots that look like a cow pattern. Besides drawing the spots on with a marker or squirt bottle of dye, is there a method to do a 'partial immersion' or some form of dip dyeing? I'm also wondering if I can reuse T-shirts by putting the spots over the old prints, would enough black Procion MX dye be likely to obscure them well?

The biggest problem is that there is no single-dye Procion MX dye (or any similar dye) that is black; the blacks that can be purchased are all mixtures of several different colors, and used in large concentrations to get them dark enough. This means that, typically, direct application of dye will result in colors separating out at the edges. You can solve this either by thickening the dye with a good amount of alginate (here's a link to Fiber-art.com's alginate), or by using a black fabric paint instead (e.g., black Neopaque at Fiber-arts.com).

You may also wish to avoid working with wet fabric. By far the most popular method of direct dye application (such as in tie-dyeing) involves pre-soaking the fabric in soda ash (dissolved in water) and then applying the dye to the damp fabric, but wet fabric encourages colors to run. You can instead line-dry the shirts after soaking them in the soda ash (so that the dry soda ash stays in the fiber), or you can mix the soda ash with the dye immediately before you apply it.

Partial immersion can work, but tends to produce non-homogeneous patterns, not quite what you seem to be aiming for here. You can pour the thickened dye or fabric paint into a shallow plastic container and dip sections, or dip a sponge into the dye and apply it to the fabric that way, or use a large sponge paintbrush.

I often dye screen-printed t-shirts, though generally with no attempt to obscure the writing. The writing will always be detectable in the right light, even if you use a very dark dye, but sufficiently dark blacks should blend in fairly well with black screen-printing on the shirts for many purposes. It all depends on how perfectly cowlike your results have to be.


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Name: Monika
Message: I am interested in dying a 100% crepe dress. It is black with large white flowers in the fabric. I want to dye it black so that the flowers are black on black and much more subtle. Can I do it myself? Does crepe hold color? Any help would be appriciated.
I could send it to someone to do if you have any recommendarions.

I'm very sorry, but I simply cannot comment on how to dye a garment whose fiber content is unknown.

Crepe is a weave, not a fiber. It can be woven from many different fibers, including wool, silk, and polyester. The dyes and techniques used to dye wool or silk are completely different from those used to dye polyester, and the methods used for silk are often quite different from those used for wool.

The only hope for even thinking about this, since you indicated that the label of your dress offers no help, would be to determine the fiber content by the burn test. See the Sew News Library or Fabrics.net for more information about how to use this test to identify a fiber.


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I have a second question about dyeing: Can you use an airbrush? I am doing large items (beach towels -3'x6') and am getting finger cramps from spraying. The only reason I'm asking is because I haven't seen any airbrushes advertised on any dyeing site. Hmmm. Your answer will be great appreciated.

Yes, dye solutions can certainly be applied with an airbrush. Since the dye actually dissolves in water, it is less, rather than more, apt to clog the sprayers than the usual airbrush ink.

Airbrushing is more dangerous than using hand sprayers or hand-painting with dyes. The very tiny particles of dyes can easily be inhaled, and they are so tiny that they can remain suspended in air for long periods. When they dry, you have dye powder, which as we all know should never be inhaled or otherwise ingested. I would recommend the use of an airbrush only in a special vented spraying cabinet, or out-of-doors, with the user to be wearing an approved respirator at all times. (It is important that the air in a spraying cabinet be well ventilated, and that none of the air in the cabinet be allowed to mix with room air.)

I do not know whether the hazards of airbrushing dyes are greater than or less than the hazards of airbrushing fabric paints or other inks, since both should never be breathed. Presumably whatever precautions you use with other airbrushing mixtures are just the same as those you'd need with dyes.


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Name: kellie
Message: I have been trying to find a professional who can dye three dresses that I have for my bridesmaids. The fabric is white Jacquard. If I can't get it done professionally I will have to do it myself. What would be the best dye to use at home?

'Jacquard' refers to a woven-in design; it can be made with silk, or, less expensively but less beautifully, with synthetics. What fiber are your dresses made of?

As far as I know, nobody is willing to dye 100% polyester dresses for you, except for one company in Alaska to which you can mail your dresses; see Color Creek Fiber Art. However, you cannot dye them yourself, either. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

If your dresses are made of an easily dyeable fiber, such as silk, cotton, or rayon, you can dye them, but only if they are washable; see "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". You cannot dye anything that is not washable, for reasons that should be obvious.



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Name: Elizabeth
Message: Hello,
I've searched your site, and cannot seem to find an answer to my question. I've recently purchased a beautiful, rich purple, batik dye outfit, and I want to know how to set the color so that it does not fade through washing, etc. My sister thinks to maybe soak in vinegar before the first wash. I am hesitant to do anything until I have the correct information. The directions that came with the outfit say "hand batiked in Bali, 100% rayon, hand or machine wash, line dry to prevent shrinkage". There is nothing about what you might do to prevent fading. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Don't use vinegar; it won't help a bit, and might hurt. Washing in cool water and line-drying in darkness will help to retain color. Be sure to store the outfit in the dark, to avoid light-induced fading.

The only other thing that I can honestly recommend is a commercially available dye fixative called Retayne, which helps to seal the dye into the fiber. It can be used only on fabrics that can be immersed in water without being immediately ruined.

Retayne may be purchased from your local quilting supply shop, or by mail order from most of the companies listed on my Sources For Supplies page.

This is a frequently asked question, from the FAQ section of my website; see "How can I set the dye in the clothes I just bought?".


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Message: How do you avoid "red spot?" I use Dharma Dyes and get "red spot" with certain dyes. I have found that increasing temperature helps to dissolve the red better but of course I have to over-dye the item. As I dye in Mass quantities for my company, it would be wonderful to cure this problem. Thank you for your time.

Short answer: either avoid the use of all mixtures containing the offending dye, or find a more dependable dye supplier.

So far, in my experience, 'red spot' has always been caused by the use of bad batches of one specific dye, everywhere listed under the name of fuchsia, more specifically known as known as red MX-8B or reactive red 11. Unfortunately, this particular red dye is way overused as a mixing color, though the better-behaved dye red MX-5B (reactive red 2, or 'light red' [at Dharma], 'mixing red' [at PRO Chemical & Dye, a.k.a. ProChem], and '034 magenta' [among the Jacquard dyes]) can nearly always serve as an excellent substitute, being extremely close in color. Dharma uses fuchsia in many different mixed colors, such as midnight blue, and when a bad batch of fuchsia has been used in the mix, you will find red dots on your fabric, or orange dots in your mixed golds, or red dots in your mixed purples. This is often not a great problem in direct application methods such as tie-dye, but absolutely ruins some projects requiring a more predictable deposition of color.

All of the various dye retailers, such as Dharma and ProChem, buy Procion MX type dyes that have been manufactured at various factories, mostly in Asia. Procion is out of patent now and is manufactured by many sources. It seems that any company that purchases dye can get stuck with a bad batch now and then, at least if they do not test the quality of a given batch before accepting delivery of it; for some reason, so far, it appears that this particular fuchsia dye is the only one that has this tendency to go bad in this way. When a company inadvertently sells a poor quality product, they should replace it, free of charge, with one of acceptable quality. Check the return policy of your dye supplier before you buy fuchsia dye from them, and avoid companies that refuse after thirty days to replace defective batches of dye that they have sold. Sometimes fuchsia is okay at the time of purchase but goes bad within a couple of months, even when stored carefully, though properly stored MX dyes should stay good for a minimum of one year.

Good batches of fuchsia dissolve with a little difficulty, but nothing serious. Any remaining lumps should be easily removable by filtering the mixed dye solution through either a coffee filter (held in a funnel that won't be reused for food) or a scrap of sheer nylon stocking. However, there are two problems with the answer of filtering the dye solutions. First, it really is a pain to have to do it, as it is just more mess and more time required in mixing dyes. Second, it does not always work. Sometimes enough clumpy dye particles get through, from a particularly bad batch of fuchsia, that the problem persists in spite of repeated filterings. It is far better to either find a more reliable source of fuchsia, and any mixed colors containing fuchsia, from which to purchase your dyes, or to mix your own colors while substituting red MX-5B for the problem red MX-8B.

There are twenty or so different colors among the Procion MX type dyes; most dye supply companies sell only about eleven of these, and then fill in the gaps with mixtures, some prepared by the manufacturers, and thus uniform from one dye seller to another, while others are proprietary mixtures, prepared in-house. The color mixtures that have MX codes are generally the same whether you buy them at Dharma or Prochem or RG&S (Jacquard); see the MX dye comparison chart at <http://www.pburch.net//dyeing/FAQ/pureMXcolors.html>. The in-house mixtures cannot be precisely compared to the in-house mixtures sold by any other supplier. If you make a habit of using any of these, you will have to experiment until you find a substitute for the mixture you like. To mix your own, you will save a lot of time, in learning what colors mix to form which other colors, by consulting Olli Niemitalo's amazing online MX Dye Mixer. You can generally do quite well by substituting Jacquard's '034 magenta' or ProChem's '305 mixing red' (red MX-5B) for fuchsia (red MX-8B).


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Message: I have been unable to find this answer. I have been given a small (18"x18") batik from South Africa. While it may not be valuable, it has great sentimental value. I have been unable to find out the best way to preserve and display this piece. Any direction is most helpful.

A piece of great sentimental value certainly deserves to be treated at least as much respect as a piece that costs a great deal of money.

Protecting it from both light and oxygen will help to extend its life. When you display it, be sure to do so where sunlight never falls, as bright light will fade most dyes. Artificial lighting is almost invariably far less bright than sunlight, and thus less damaging.

Do not treat the fabric with a UV protectant spray, as such treatments may in some cases actually accelerate fading, depending on the specific dye that was used. Framing the piece behind glass, perhaps glass that has been treated to be even more opaque to UV light than ordinary glass, would be a good idea.

Many dyes react with oxygen in the presence of visible light to produce damaging oxygen radicals. Framing the piece with glass will help to prevent oxygen, including damaging ozone, from reaching the dyes and damaging them.

Some poorly-fixed dyes will run when wet, and all fabric is damaged slightly with every washing, so it would be best to protect the batik from anything that might need to be washed out.

How exactly to do the framing depends on your finances and your ingenuity. You can take it to a professional framer that has experience with archival care, or you could yourself use stitches in the edges of the fabric with undyed cotton thread to stretch it over a wooden frame or a piece of glass, then enclose it with glass, perhaps using silicone sealant at the edges of the glass to keep out changes of air. You may wish to avoid the use of glues that contact the fabric, and to avoid the use of any papers, mats, or other materials with a low (acid) pH.


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Name: DIANA
Message: I AM BATIKING FOR THE FIRST TIME.
YOU MENTIONED THE USE OF AN ELECTRIC SKILLET IN ORDER TO KEEP THE WAX AT A CONSTANT TEMPERATURE.
DO YOU MELT THE WAX DIRECTLY IN THE SKILLET OR DOES IT SIT INSIDE A CONTAINER AND THEN PLACED IN THE SKILLET?

I place the wax directly in the skillet. When I am finished, I unplug the skillet and let it cool completely, allowing the wax to solidify inside the skillet, then store it that way. I do not like to use a container in boiling water to melt wax because it does not get hot enough.

If you use beeswax and/or regular food-grade paraffin for batiking, as most people do, the skillet may be cleaned out later and reused for food, though it's enough of a pain that you won't want to do this often. Although dyes and dye auxilliaries are in almost all cases unsafe for use in food preparation equipment, both beeswax and the paraffin sold for use in sealing jars of jams and preserves are food safe. Some synthetic microcrystalline or sticky wax, used as a substitute for beeswax, is also food-grade; check before purchasing. Genuine beeswax melts at a lower temperature than synthetic waxes and may therefore be easier to work with.

Be careful to keep the wax temperature low enough that it does not smoke, approximately 240 degrees F. (115 C.). Wax that is hot enough to smoke may damage your lungs and presents a serious fire hazard. A wax fire cannot be put out with water, but may sometimes be smothered with the skillet's lid.


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Name: Katy
Message: I am wondering how to dye color images to white nylon opaque tights. I would like to know what dye to use, how I should put the image on (stamp / drawing the image onto the tights with dye/ etc.) How I should wash them after dying without the dye running. I have no idea how to do this and I would really appreciate your help.

Nylon may be dyed with acid dyes or stamped or painted with fabric paints, but I think that the easiest and most fun way to do your project may be to create dye transfers using a special kind of dye called disperse dye.

Disperse dye is commonly used to dye polyester, which cannot be dyed with any other type of dye, but it will also work with nylon.

The way to do this is to draw or paint or stamp with disperse dye on paper, then iron the design onto the tights. After ironing on the design, you may re-color the paper, to iron on again, if you wish to have repeating identical designs. The dye may be purchased in the form of 'Transfer Fabric Crayons' (not to be confused with wax crayons, which will not work!!), or as dye powder which can be mixed with water to make paint.

While the fabric crayons can often be found in fabric stores or crafts stores, even giant stores such as Walmart, the paint must be mail-ordered from a dye supplier; many such suppliers are listed on my Sources for Supplies page.

For more information on the use of disperse dye, see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes"; the information on how to create iron-on disperse dye transfers applies to nylon as well.


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Name: Chasity
Message: I put a red shirt (not new) In with my wash and it put red spots on a bunch of my clothes, Is there any way i can save those clothes? Any products i could try using or anything? Please help!!
Thank you, Chasity

Try washing the clothing in HOT water. If that does not work, you can purchase a product called Rit brand Color Remover, available next to the Rit brand all-purpose dye in many grocery stores and pharmacies. You will need several boxes for a large washing machine load. It may lighten the color of the clothing while it removes the offending red dye, but it's better to have lighter-colored clothing than stained clothing.


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Name: kelly

Message: I have an 8 x 10 foot off-white, nylon, shag rug that will no longer come clean due to foot traffic (ground in dirt) and spills. I would like to dye it a light yellow or sage green. I would like to do it myself outside, if I can find a process that will give me an even color. Have you any suggestions on the best dye and process?

If the problem is dirt, the rug is probably no longer an even color. Dye is transparent, so any color you dye the rug will leave the darker regions darker and the lighter regions lighter. The result will be a dirty rug of a different color.

If it's okay with you that the darker areas will remain dark, you can usually use acid dyes to dye nylon, following the same sort of recipes often used for wool. See PRO Chemical & Dye's directions for "Dyeing and Painting Carpet using WashFast Acid Dyes". This recipe uses a carpet steamer as a source of heat; acid dyes must be heat-set in order to attain a long-lasting bond with nylon or wool. An alternative form of heat-setting, without a steamer or the use of the stovetop, is explained in their "Garbage Bag Dyeing with Wool using PRO MX Reactive Dyes", a recipe in which fiber reactive dyes that are typically used on cotton in cool water actually function as acid dyes.

Nylon can usually be dyed with acid dyes or with all-purpose dyes, since they contain acid dyes. If the nylon has any sort of stain-resistant finish, however, which is something that would really improve a rug, then the dye will not be able to get into the fiber, because anything that resists stains will also resist dye.

A major problem for you will be the fact that you must always throughly rinse anything that you dye. If you do not rinse out the dye, it will rub off onto anything that touches it. It might be difficult for you to rinse your rug after dyeing it, since it's so big, but if you can't rinse it, you should not dye it.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]

Name: Sharon
Message: I have just recently been given some Vaki dyes the ACID, Washfast and Lightfast. Do you know anything about them particullay mixing? I am anxious to try them as there are so many colours to choose from.

I am not familiar with the VAKI brand name, and cannot locate it in a web search. However, I can tell you a little about acid dyes.

The most important thing to note is that acid dyes are for animal fibers only: wool, silk, angora, cashmere, etc. No plant fibers, such as cotton, rayon, or linen, may be dyed with acid dyes.

Even those acid dyes which are labeled "washfast" may not necessarily be very washfast. "Washfast" may be part of the name, rather than a guarantee of quality. Some acid dyes are much more washfast or lightfast than others, but it is difficult to predict the properties of any particular dye unless you have its generic name (see "Lightfastness of Different Types of Dyes").

There are many different types of acid dyes. Some are not compatible with others, one interfering with the fixation of another, so it is generally best to use acid dyes within a particular brand name, which have been selected to work well together, instead of mixing different acid dyes from different suppliers.

If there is a telephone number or address included with the acid dyes you have received, it would be very advisable to contact the manufacturers to ask for advice on how to use the dyes. If that is not possible, try looking at the instructions for other acid dyes which seem similar. PRO Chemical & Dye is an excellent source from which to buy dyes, and they give a lot of instructions for their washfast acid dyes on their web site.

For more information on different types of dyes, see the "About Dyes" section of my website.


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Name: joann
Message: i have a 90%nylon 10%spandex dress that is black and i want to change the color to white. is it possible? and if so how

No, this project is highly unlikely to succeed. Chlorine bleach will, of course, destroy both the nylon and the spandex. Rit brand Color Remover can be used on nylon, if you are careful, but it is very unlikely to produce the degree of color removal for which you are looking.



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A lot of it should come off by Friday, whatever you do. Try a loofa or a pot scrubber if you're desperate, but don't scrub too hard or your hands might get sore from too much exfoliation. See "How can I get the dye off my hands?", which is first on the list of my FAQs.


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This is interesting to me, because so many people write to me with questions about how to fix carpet stains and bleach spots. I will be happy to mention your product, though I can't personally endorse it since I have not tested it.


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Name: bettye
Message: I have a white rayon lace dress that I would like to dye sage green. Is this possible?

If the dress is washable, this should be a very easy project. Rayon is made of cellulose, just like cotton, and dyes very nicely with cool water fiber reactive dyes. (Do not use all-purpose dye unless you are willing to use simmering hot water, which is apt to shrink or otherwise damage your dress.)

The easiest way to do this is to do the dyeing in a washing machine that has a delicate cycle. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". If the rayon is fragile, as rayon tends to be when wet, or if you do not have a 'hand wash' cycle setting on your washing machine, you may do the dyeing in a large net lingerie-washing bag.

Note that there are always risks in dyeing purchased clothing that was not sold for the purpose of dyeing. Occasionally, one panel will take the dye darker than the other panels of the garment. The dress must be perfectly clean before dyeing, as any invisible stain may block the dye from a small portion of the fabric, and permanent press finishes will also interfere with dyeing. However, usually this sort of project does work.


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Name: Cristi
Message: I want to dip dye the bottom of my wedding dress hot pink. Can I do this myself? What kind of dye should I use?

Is it washable? You cannot dye anything that is not washable!

What fiber is it made of? Polyester can be rather a pain to dye; see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes". In contrast, cotton, rayon, linen, and silk are very easy to dye with cold water fiber reactive dye.


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Name: Carl
Message: I think I've viewed all your very informative comments on fixing colors on cotton fabric. All your answers seem to begin with the assumption that the garment was purchased from a store or created by someone with a phone or email address who can provide an answer to the type of dye used. I just returned from Guatemala with some cotton shirts and scarves created by the indigenous weavers. The colors on these articles are brilliant and I'd like to maintain their look as much as practical. Do you have any feedback or experience as to what types of dyes are used by indigenous Guatemalan weavers? I'm guessing you've never had this question before... Thanks.

No, I get asked all the time how to fix dyes on tourist items purchased in Guatemala, India, Mexico or other countries, which depends totally on the question of exactly what dye was used, but there is no good answer.

Many people imagine that indigenous weavers use natural dyes, but often, in fact, they use synthetic dyes, often inadequately labeled . An individual may not even know what kind of dye he or she is using, or have any idea of how to use it correctly! Hot water dye used in cool water, or fiber reactive dye used without a high pH fixative such as washing soda, will just wash out. So will many natural dyes, especially if not mordanted correctly. If you don't know what kind of dye was used, you cannot know whether there's any hope of fixing it to make it more permanent.

If the problem is that the dye is not very washfast, but it's washfast enough to allow at least one immersion, you can try Retayne or a similar product, as explained on "Is there any way to "set" dye in purchased clothing?". This is the best approach if they items seem okay for now. You can buy Retayne by mail-order from any good dye supplier (see Sources for Supplies). If the item cannot even be immersed once without the dye running, then don't ever wash it, just hang it on your wall as an objet d'art.

If the problem is crocking, which means rubbing off onto other clothing, furniture, etc., when dry, then there is nothing that can be done to fix the dye. The best you can hope for is to wash it separately until enough of thew dye is removed to make it safe for your surroundings. Crocking is a common problem with indigo; indigo must be applied in repeated weak dippings, but those who are lazy, or don't know how to use it, or who actually like blue skin (yes, there are cultures which prize blue skin!) will often use a single strong dipping, resulting in dye that ruins nearly everything it touches.

Washing in hot water with detergent is the best way to remove excess dye. Washing in cool water helps to avoid removing it (so there is less dye transfer between garments in the laundry, in cool water).

Name: cee jay

Message: Hello. I'm hoping you can help me. I am new to batik and tie dye etc but have been a professional artist for over 30 years so I am determined to master my challenging problem. Please tell me how to make a large gradation dye from the bottom of the tshirt (for example) up to lighter at the top. Just one large sweeping gradation. I reallllly appreciate your help. WIll stand by for your email response. Thankyou so much. ; )

I find that this is easier to get a smooth gradation when I apply the dye fixative (soda ash) after applying the dye to the fabric, rather than before. This allows the dye to spread and smooth out before it attaches permanently to the fabric.

Get a number of plastic squirt bottles, or else some sort of dye pots plus large foam brushes, and mix your strongest dye concentration (using a fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX dye), then put half of this into the next bottle and dilute it with an equal quantity of water (or urea + water), mix that up, then take half of that to put in the next bottle, etc. Then squirt or brush horizontal stripes of the dye until the gradation is as you want it, but much darker since the dye will be lighter after washing out. Then fix the dye by painting on sodium silicate (water glass) solution, which is a product sold as AfterFix, ProFix, etc., from good dye suppliers, or a strong solution of soda ash in water (1 cup or 250 ml of soda ash, per gallon or 4 liters). Adding as much salt as can dissolve to the soda ash solution will help to prevent the dye from running much, if that is an issue. Then keep the shirt moist and warm long enough for the dye reaction to complete, 24 hours at 70 degrees F. (21 C.) or perhaps 4 hours at 90 degrees F. Urea mixed into the dye and dilution water will help to keep the fabric moist, or you can wrap it in plastic if necessary.

Mickie Lawlor's book "Sky Dyes" contains information on gradiants and similar effects, but it focuses on fabric paints rather than dyes.

Name: David
Message: Sorry for such a stupid question. But, what in the world is a tjanting?
I tried to look up a definition for this word and found nothing.
Also, big thanks for the web site. It's very helpful.

A tjanting is a device used to apply melted wax to the fabric, in batik. It's usually made of brass, and has a small reservoir, with a hole on the top for filling, and a point for the wax to flow out of, like a pen.

There are good pictures at PRO Chemical & Dye.

Name: Larissa

Message: I read your website about dry clean only polyester - I am looking at dying something called "georgette polyester" - it is machine washable and I'm wanting to dye something that is periwinkle to navy blue. Is this something that is easily done since it is machine washable? What steps would I take? Any information you could give me would be very helpful.
Thank you

Yes, you can dye washable polyester, if you get the right kind of dye and boil them together. See "How to Dye Polyester" to learn how to dye polyester or acetate.

Polyester is not nearly as easy to dye as cotton. Dyeing cotton with fiber reactive dye is a breeze, but not so dyeing polyester with its own dye. You cannot dye polyester with any dye that works on natural fibers. Rit dye won't work, Procion dye won't work, and acid dyes won't work.

Polyester can be dyed a solid color only by boiling it for an hour with a special dye called disperse dye. You'll need a very large non-aluminum cooking pot (either stainless steel or enamel) to do the dyeing in, but you should never reuse a dyepot for food, so this is the biggest expense. You can order the disperse dye from PRO Chemical & Dye in the US (they also ship internationally), or Batik Oetoro in Australia. A new brand of polyester dye introduced in 2008 is Jacquard's "iDye Poly", which can be ordered from Dharma Trading Company in the Us, or Fibrecrafts in the UK.

You can also apply dye designs to polyester, using an iron or heat press. This is much more fun than dyeing polyester a solid color. The dye is available in the form of disperse dye crayons, which look surprisingly like ordinary wax crayons. (Don't let them get mixed up!) You color your designs on paper, then iron them onto your fabric. See "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers" for examples and instructions.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]

Name: Laura
Message: Do you know where in the US one can order DEKA dyes? Dharma Trading does not carry them anymore. If not, do you have a European contact you have ordered from before?

I appreciate your help on this matter,

DEKA dyes cannot now be purchased anywhere in the US. They can be ordered from Europe. See my listing of dye suppliers around the world. George Weil Fibrecrafts, in the UK, sells DEKA dyes. I ordered from this company once and found that the dye I received, in my case a special fiber reactive dye, was of high quality and quite satisfactory, though the delivery was slower than from a company in Germany.

You might want to consider another sort of dye, which can be ordered at lower expense from within the US. DEKA L Hot Water dye is an all-purpose dye, and thus for most purposes is inferior to fiber reactive dye, and DEKA Silk Paints are not superior to other silk paints.

UPDATE: Chicago Canvas & Supply (Illinois - phone 1-773-478-5700) now sells DEKA L dyes (a type of all purpose hot water dye).

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Name: AJ
Message: I am an artist and have recently started working with wood and using RIT dye to stain. I have had great results color wise but I am concerned about archival issues and I was wondering what kind of fading I might expect down the road and whether you might be able to recommend another type of dye that would be more light fast and still provide the wide range of colors I've been able to achieve with the RIT; or if there might be a way to treat the wood post dyeing to prevent fading.

This is a difficult question. My first concern is whether the all-purpose dye might rub off of the wood, staining clothing; this is called crocking. Is there any problem with this, in your tests, perhaps with both dry and damp fabric?

All-purpose dye is typically a mixture of two types of dyes, acid dye and direct dye. The lightfastness of these mixtures will probably vary quite dramatically from one color to another. I do prefer using dye that is labeled as to its exact contents so that we can look up its lightfastness. If you know exactly which fiber reactive, acid, or direct dye you are using, you can request data on its lightfastness from the manufacturer - there are standardized tests for this in the dye industry - or start by examining my list showing lightfastnes data for many of these dyes. (Data obtained from the manufacturer should be more reliable than my data.)

Acid dye would not be your best choice, as acid dye is best on protein fibers, such as wool. Both fiber reactive and direct dye should be suitable for wood, especially if sealed afterwards with a polyurethane or other coating. See ProChem's "Dyeing Wood using PRO MX Reactive Dyes".

If you apply dye, with or without a UV protectant coating, to appropriate scraps of wood, and then leave them out in the sun for a while, or even in a sunny window (though window glass does filter a great deal of UV light), you will probably see noticeable fading on some but not others. In some cases, a UV protectant coating will actually accelerate fading in visible light, so it is essential to test any coatings you intend to use.


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I live in Brasil, and I never to listen about soda ash, nobody know the translation for it and I have many doubts about it. I used to fix the colours using a liquid quimical fixer to clothes. The colours stay for a time, but quickly lost your bright. Do you know how can I find soda ash in Brasil or the translation for it?

I am certain that you can find soda ash in Brasil. It is known by chemists here as sodium carbonate; the international chemical symbol for it is Na2CO3. It is NOT the same thing as sodium bicarbonate, or NaHCO3, which we use in baking cakes. A very common use for sodium carbonate is in swimming pools, to increase the pH. Sodium carbonate will easily produce a pH around 11, but the pH of a solution of sodium bicarbonate will not get much above 8.

However, sodium carbonate is only good for fiber reactive dye. What kind of dye are you using? Sodium carbonate is not very useful if you are using a hot water dye. (It is also not useful for fabric paint.) Most hot water dyes are never very permanent on cotton, and paints will wear off eventually because they sit only on the surface of the fiber.

In English we have different words for fabric dyes and fabric paints. Dyes combine chemically with the fiber. Paints contain a mixture of a pigment that does not, in itself, adhere to the fabric, plus a sort of glue to make it stick. Some dyes last much longer than paints, and dyes feel softer on the fabric. The very best dyes will last as long as the fiber!

The best dyes for staying bright, on plant fibers such as cotton, rayon, or linen, are the fiber reactive dyes. Some fiber reactive dyes work at room temperature (70 degrees F. or 21 degrees C.), and are called cold water fiber reactive dyes. Good types of cold water fiber reactive dye include Procion MX, Cibacron F, and Drimarene K. They are very easy to use, with sodium carbonate. I do not know of a source for buying any of these dyes in Brasil. (Please let me know, if you do!) If you want to try Procion MX dye, you can mail-order this type of dye from PRO Chemical & Dye in the US. They will ship internationally. Another type of fiber reactive dye is vinyl sulfone dye, also known as Remazol dye. This is a good type of dye, too, but it prefers higher temperatures in order to react with the fiber.

Your liquid chemical fixer might be sodium silicate, which also produces a very high pH. It can be used with any of the cold water fiber reactive dyes. Sodium silicate is recommended by the Tobasign people for use in fixing vinyl sulfone dyes, which they sell under the name of Tobasign dye. They call the sodium silicate "Tobafix". Tobasign is in Spain, and will ship anywhere. Expert dyers in the US say that the colors of this class of fiber reactive dye are brighter if the fabric is heat-treated with steam after the dye has been applied to the fabric; the process is much like cooking vegetables with steam, with a small amount of water in the bottom of a covered cooking pot, but for a longer period of time (30 minutes). Apparently it is also possible to use a high-pH chemical to fix this type of dye, but the results may not be as bright or as permanent as they would be if you steam the dyed items. This is the same type of dye that PRO Chemical & Dye sells as "Liquid Reactive Dyes", so you may examine their recipes. Their name for the high-pH liquid fixative is "PRO Fix LHF". They also mention "pot ash", which is potassium carbonate, or K2CO3. See "Vinyl sulfone fiber reactive dyes" for more information about this type of dye.

It is very important to understand which type of dye you have, so that you may select the right temperatures and chemicals for the dye reaction. See "About Dyes" for explanations of many different types of dyes.

Name: Karen
Message: I am curious. I see the designation 'dyed with low-impact dyes' frequently on goods made from organic cotton or hemp. What are these low-impact dyes, and why are they considered low-impact on the environment?

It's a good question. I doubt that there is any standard definition of this term, and certainly there is no certification in the US that a low impact dye was actually used when claims are made that it was. However, apparently there is certification in Europe as to whether dyes meet something called the Oeko-Tex Standard 100.

Dyes which contain metal ions can be assumed to be more dangerous to the environment than those which do not, and dyes which require large amounts of rinsing may be considered higher impact than dyes which use less water.

Many Procion MX dyes contain no metal ions, but some do; the very popular Procion Turquoise MX-G contains copper, perhaps 1 to 5% by weight. The MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheets) for each dye should indicate which metal ions are present in the dye. Low impact dyeing should presumably be restricted to the use of dyes and dye mixtures which omit the ones that contain heavy metals.

The large amount of water required for washing out unattached dye makes Procion MX dyes higher-impact than other fiber reactive dye classes such as Cibacron F or Drimarene K.

Natural dyes are often not at all low-impact, depending on the specific dye and mordant used. Mordants such as chromium are very toxic and high impact, but alum is better because it is far less toxic. The extremely large quantities of natural dyestuffs required for dyeing, typically in a weight equal to or double that of the fiber itself, makes natural dyes prepared from wild plants and lichens very high impact indeed. I do not have the information necessary to compare the environmental impact of the (hypothetical) farming of renewable plants such as woad, instead of other crops, to that of chemical syntheses using natural gas or petroleum as raw material. Modern farming practices require a remarkable quantity of petroleum fuels.

Name: Terry
Message: Hello. I have a 6'x9' jute or hemp rug that needs help! Over time there are now darkened and lightened spots (not a ton of them) that I thought might be fixed with fabric dye or paint. Do you possibly have ideas and a product that would work? I'm thinking I would take it into the yard or on the deck to do the work. thanks, tav

You probably cannot produce a solid color, but if you aim for a mottled effect with more than one color, it should cover up the different spots. Both dye and most fabric paints are transparent, so the areas which are lighter before will still be lighter afterwards.

If you can really rinse the rug, cold water fiber reactive dye will probably work well. Both jute and hemp are plant fibers and should react with fiber reactive dyes the same as cotton. One type of cold water dye that is very popular is Procion MX dye. You usually have to mail-order this dye to get a good price on a substantial quantity. The dye in a 'tie dye kit' is usually this type of dye.

All-purpose dye is not recommended for this project, because it requires hot water for dyeing.

If you can't really rinse the rug out well, don't use any sort of dye. You really have to wash out all excess dye after dyeing, no matter what kind of dye you use. Diluted acrylic paint or fabric paint should work, though. Fabric paint feels nicer than diluted artist's acrylics. You might use a pint each of each of two or more colors.


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I live in South Bay California and have a green dress I wish to dye black; however, because of the polyester I have not been able to succeed. These sites you have listed do not show what area they are in. Anything close to home would help. Thank You

Sorry, no matter where you live, you'll have to mail your dress to a distant location to have it dyed for you.

Nobody will dye a dress that is not washable. The only company I've read about that indicates a willingness to dye a 100% polyester dress is Color Creek, in Alaska. You can mail your dress to them, after contacting them via their web site to make arrangements.

Name: Rhiannon
Message: Hi

I have just come across your site and wondered if you could help me with some advice.

I purchased a Gap Wrap Sweater from Ebay last week and the colour of the sweater in the photograph was more of a "leaf" green but when it arrived today it seems almost a fluorescent bright yellow/green - not my taste at all.

Therefore I was wondering if I could dye it the shade of green that I want?

It is 85% cotton and 15% cashmere

Washing instructions are: machine wash (cool/cold cycle) gentle.

Can it be done and what dyes do you recommend?

I was stymied by this question because I was thinking that the cashmere in the mixture would be damaged by the high pH required to dye the cotton, but then someone posted to the DyersLIST mailing list that they often use cold water dyes, such as Procion Mx dyes, for 15% wool/85% tencel blends, without damaging the wool.

For a solid color, you might use the washing machine dyeing instructions for cotton on "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". The high pH will dye only the cotton, not the cashmere, bur dyeing 85% of a mixture is usually enough.

You must use a cool water dye in order to avoid shrinking the sweater. You can use Procion MX dye at room temperature.

To overdye a yellow-green in order to achieve a leaf green, I'd advise using a blueish green dye mixture. Here's a link to a possible example.

I don't recommend the use of all-purpose dye, because it requires very hot water, which would shrink the sweater.

Name: Daphne
Message: Our dance studio is doing a dance which requires a costume of tie dye tights, the tights are made of supplex and lycra. Please tell me if that is possible, and if you have any suggestions.

Yes, it should probably be possible. Since supplex is a nylon fabric, you can use acid dyes. Since acid dyes require hot water, you cannot use the squirt bottle technique that is commonly used in tie-dyeing cotton with cool water dyes.

You can use the PRO Chemical & Dye's Kiton Acid Dye Rainbow Dyeing instructions, or their instructions for "Rainbow Dyeing using Sabraset/Lanaset Dyes".

Alternatively, you could use fabric paint, rather than dye. The Dharma Pigment Dye System, which is a type of fabric paint, can be used on nylon.



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Name: Bob
Message: Can I use baking soda as a replacement for soda ash in a swimming pool?
Thank you

Sorry, I think you'd better get instructions from someone specializing in swimming pool chemistry. You probably can, but you'd probably need to use much larger quantities. I can't tell you more. I'm a dye expert, not a pool owner.

Name: kaz
Message: how did tie dye start and when did it begin? please reply as i need this information for homework.

Everything I know about the history of tie-dye is already on my website, in the FAQ section. See "A Few Notes on the History of Tie Dye ".



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Name: Cate
Message: Hello, What a wonderful website that you have! I am thinking about dying sheets this summer using the low water Immersion technique. I absolutly love the example that you have of the blue and purple. I went onto the prochemical website and didnt know how much dye to order for this project. I would much rather have too much dye than not enough. They had a deal on Rainbow Gradation kits and a nine dye set kit. (both are the MX dyes that you recommended) I was wondering if you could clear things up for me about what to order. Thank you VERY much.

If you get too much dye, I'm sure you'll find a good use for it!

Here's a page at Fiber-Arts.com on "Tie-Dye: How much Dye?".

PROchem also has a page of LWI instructions which indicates quantities. They also state, "Two ounces (58 gms) of dye will color 14 yards of cotton muslin to a medium shade in a solid shade dye bath, or 12 T-Shirts."

Weigh your sheet set (perhaps by weighing yourself with and without it). If you like the depth of shade shown on the color chart at 4% OWG, say, then multiply the weight of your sheet set by 0.04, and that's how much dye you need, total. This is easier to do if you convert the weight of the sheets to grams (450 per pound). For example, ten pounds of sheets = 4536 grams, so you'd need a total of 181 grams or 6 ounces of dye to dye ten pounds of 100% cotton sheets. (I have no idea how much a set of sheets weighs.) You'd need twice that for black, or much less for pastels.


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