Name: Richard
Message: I want to dye one pair of cargo pants of all cotton material. Can I soak them in a large bucket in dye? What is the simple way to do this?? I would like olive green.

Are they a light color to begin with? If they are white, this should be easy to do, assuming that the pants have not been treated with a stain-resistant or permanent-press finish.

Do not use all-purpose dye for this project. It has many drawbacks, including running badly in the laundry, fading quickly, and requiring boiling hot water for the most effective application. Instead, acquire some fiber reactive dye. Look for Dylon Permanent dye in your local fabric store, or mail order some Procion MX dye from any of the suppliers listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World page at http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml.

The easiest way to dye a garment a solid color is in the washing machine. To use Procion MX dye in the washing machine, you will need to buy the dye, a large quantity of salt, and some soda ash. See the instructions on the How to Dye in the Washing Machine page at http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/washingmachine.shtml.

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Name: Jennifer
Message: Can I use Procion MX or acid dyes on acrylic yarn?

Acrylic yarn cannot be dyed with fiber reactive or acid dyes. Both types of dye will wash out of acrylic yarn. You must use either disperse dyes (for pale to medium shades) or another class of dyes, known as basic dyes. Both need to be "cooked" into the fiber, raising the temperature slowly and carefully between 60 and 70°C (140 and 158°F). See the following pages for more information:

Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye

and

Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes

Disperse dyes can be used on most synthetic fibers, not only polyester.

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Name: Ann 
Message: We soaked the shirts in the ash mixture before we rubber banded them.  Do we need to wash them out,  dry them and then rubberband them first before we soak them in the mixture now? We might have made a mistake we're not sure?

It is fine to soak in soda ash before rubber banding the shirts for tie-dyeing. It makes no difference to the dyeing; the only issue is protecting your hands.

It is difficult to apply rubber bands to clothing that is wet while wearing gloves, and it is important to protect your hands from the strong drying action of the soda ash mixture by wearing gloves. As a result, many people like to tie their garments either when they are still dry, or while they are moistened only with water, before they have been soaked in soda ash. It keeps the soda ash off the hands. One friend who tie-dyed without gloves found that she and her sons both developed hundreds of tiny splits in the skin of their hands, because of the soda ash: they should have worn gloves.

If you must expose your bare hands to the soda ash solution, as by tying wet soda-soaked garments without wearing gloves, before sure to work as quickly as is practical, and rinse your hands well, immediately afterwards. A skin moisturizer may also be helpful, later on, if your skin gets irritated. People with oily skin generally have less trouble with soda ash exposure than people who have dry skin already.

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Name: Tricia

Message: My children brought home tie dye shirts from camp. The leader said to soak them in salt water or vinegar before washing them or they would lose their colour. I did read on your site about soda ash but I don't want to purchase the product as it is a one time use. Can you recommend a way to set them using home based ingredients such as the vinegar or salt. If so how long do I soak them in it and do I dilute it with water?

Soaking in vinegar or salt will not help to fix dyes in cotton t-shirts. The dyes will run just as badly if you do try either or both of these household products as dye fixatives.

Soda ash, or washing soda, is an inexpensive product with many household uses, including as a laundry booster, but it will not help with all-purpose dye. It should already have been used when the dyes were applied if they were a higher quality type of dye. For tie-dyeing, soda ash should be applied BEFORE the dye, but only if a better type of dye than all-purpose dye was used.

If the shirts were dyed properly with a good tie-dye kit, containing a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, and soda ash, then there is no need for you to set the dye, because the dye will already have been set. Good kits include the Jacquard tie-dye kit and the Tulip brand tie-dye kit; Dylon Permanent or Dylon Cold Water dye can also be used. Avoid the use of the Rit brand tie-dye kit, because it contains all-purpose dye.

If the shirts were dyed with a poor quality dye, such as all-purpose dye, then nothing can be done to set the dye except to purchase Retayne or a similar commercial dye fixative. All-purpose dye cannot be rendered permanent on cotton by any home treatment. It must be fixed with Retayne or another commercial dye fixative to keep it from running in the laundry.

If your childen's shirts were dyed with all-purpose dye, but not fixed with Retayne, then you should wash them, by hand, as infrequently as possible, separately from one another or any other garment, in cool water. They will inevitably run in the wash, but using cool water will help to reduce the running of the dye. Do not use warm water to wash anything that has been dyed with all-purpose dye.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]

Name: claudia
Message: Hi Paula, congrats for your site. I'm from Brasil and it's impossible to buy colorants here in small amounts. Do you know someone here that sells reactive corants? I bought some from Dharma co. but the shipping is very expensive. I work with pigments and corants at the same time.

I'm sorry, but I have have never been able to find a Brazilian source for small amounts of fiber reactive dyes or other high quality dyes. There may be a good source near you, but if so, I do not have any information about it. 

Dharma Trading Company does not usually ship to anyone in Brazil; did you get someone else to mail their dyes to you? 

I recommend PRO Chemical & Dye for their high quality, excellent custumer support, and willingness to ship internationally. Please contact them to find out what shipping charges would be. They are listed in the North America section of my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page at http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml.

The closest distributor to you that I can find for Jacquard brand dyes, which is another excellent source for retail dyes, is in Chile, not very close at all.

I'm sorry that I cannot give you a better answer.

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Name: jo
Message: my daughter for senior school project wishes to dye pantyhose(recycled) and create a braid rug. What is the best dye and procedure for this. We are in Sydney Australia.

Pantyhose that are made of 100% nylon are the best for this, because the nylon is easily dyeable with acid dyes and heat. Pantyhose made with a blend of nylon and spandex may be damaged by heat, but with care you should be able to use them in a rug as well. Do not attempt to dye nylon with cold water dye recipes.

In order to preserve the original character of spandex fiber in a garment, it is best to keep it at cool temperatures, 40°C (104°F) or lower; this is important when dyeing whole garments. When dyeing pantyhose for a rug, however, it is not important to maintain the original shape of the garment, so warmer temperatures may be used. Spandex will accept some acid dyes at temperatures up to 60°C (140°F). Higher temperatures than that will tend to degrade Spandex and must be avoided, even for rug-making.

An ideal source in Sydney for a wide range of high quality dyes is Batik Oetoro (see their link under Australia on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World page at http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml). They sell two ranges of acid dyes, the regular one which should be used at almost boiling temperatures (87°C or 190°F) or above, and a "low temperature" range which will produce pale shades at 50°C (120°F) or dark shades at 70°-75°C (160°-165°F). You can also use an all-purpose dye, because all-purpose dye contains an acid dye as well, though the results are less certain than with a high-quality acid dye; look for Tintex High Temp Dye or Rit brand dye.

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Name: KAREN

Message: Hello! My daughter is doing a 6th grade science project on natural dyes (specifically fruit) on wool yarn premordanted with alum and cream of tartar.She insists on comparing two fruits for their lightfastness. She is REALLY excited about this and refuses to modify her project by comparing cotton vs wool with one fruit. Is it reasonable to assume that if one fruit was more acidic than the other (measured by PH paper) that it would form a stronger bond to the protein fiber?

It's certainly a reasonable hypothesis to start with, though I don't think it will prove to be correct. In science it does not matter whether your hypothesis ends up being correct or incorrect, though, as long as you ask the question and come up with an answer. 

I believe that the actual identity of the natural dyes within a fruit matters a great deal more than the actual pH. Cream of tartar is an acid, also known as tartaric acid, so you might have the acid pH anyway. It does not matter if you have plenty of acid, if the colored chemicals in the fruit have no affinity for the fiber.

Comparing a vegetable to a fruit is another idea that Kristen could consider. Most people who don't dye expect beets to be a good dye, but they are not. I think that most fruits are likely to produce better dyes than beets. 

It's good that you're using wool yarns. Too many kids do science projects trying to use fruits to dye cotton. It should work so much better with wool. This is because wool is made of a string of many different amino acids, each of which can attract different dyes, whereas cotton is made of long strings of nothing but glucose molecules, so there is little variation.

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I feel like I know you, from following posts in DyersList -- I know I trust your opinion! I wonder where you stand on the relative merits of Cibacron/Sabracon vs ProMX dyes for dyeing cotton fiber and yard goods.
 
I've been dyeing protein fibers+yarn+yard goods with Sabraset for pushing 15 years now, and feel very confident about my ability to blend desired colors and obtain reproducible results. Is the Sabracon palette comparable to Sabraset? (...and therefore possibly a quick and easy transition for me to make?)
 
Do people use the ProMX line because more ready-mixed colors are available? Or does the line have other qualities to recommend it?
 
If you were getting ready to set up a corner of your studio for dyeing cottons, which would you choose?

I'm afraid that the Sabracron dyes do not have very much in common with the Sabraset dyes. They are both high-quality series of dyes, but the individual dye colors are not very much equivalent. Of course you've learned a considerable amount about color mixing by now, that can be applied to any dye system.

I have a small preference for Procion MX dyes as compared to Cibacron F (Sabracron), because there is a wider range of single-hue unmixed dye colors, not to mention a great many more pre-mixed colors, and they also tend to cost a bit less. The Cibacron F dyes cost 50% to 100% more, per ounce, than the Procion MX dyes from the same source. Cibacron F dyes require a little more heat than most Procion MX dyes, so it's even more critical to find a warm place to let them react, if your dyeing studio is cold, though that's not difficult if you devote a little thought to it. There are many more retail sources for small quantities of Procion MX dyes, though this is not all that significant since ProChem is still my favorite. The Cibacron F dyes have their advantages, however. They are each about equal in tinctoral strength, so it's easier to decide how much to mix to get different colors, and I think they are better for people who measure their dye by volume rather than weight. (I often do this.) Overall, the two types of dye, Procion MX and Cibacron F, are very similar, and I use them interchangeably or even mixed together. I love them both, for the same reasons.

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Name: windsor
Message: Hi I was wondering if you knew of any myths or legends associated with tie dyeing. I have a project in my advanced textiles class where we have to do tie dye techniques and then write a research paper. I unfortunately can't find any fables or myths to go along with the process. If you have any ideas that would be great! Thank you!!

Sorry, I don't know of any. The closest thing I can think of is when Achilles was dipped into the River Styx to make him immune to injury, but the heel he was held by wasn't protected. That was magic, not dye, of course.

There's a listing that includes a number of children's books about weaving, spinning, and dyeing under "Library" on the website of the Contemporary Handweavers of Houston: scroll down to find books categorized under "Fiber Fables and Stories".


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I'm looking at purchasing some silk knit yard goods that contain 6% lycra. What kind of dye is required to color lycra, and is the fiber easily damaged by high heat?

Lycra is supposed to be easily damaged by high heat. I have not been able to find out exactly how *much* heat. Industrially, it is dyed at 160°F, using acid dyes, but applying this much heat to a ready-made garment would probably be a mistake, because apparently the fibers are set with heat. The garment might become misshapen if dyed this hot. All garment washing instructions for spandex-containing garments  call for the use of cool water, generally not to exceed a temperature of 105°F. I'm not sure whether yardage would be less of a problem than readymade garments. My choice for dyeing lycra/silk garments would be a cool water fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX or Cibacron F, used with soda ash just as for dyeing cotton or rayon, because I want to avoid having to use heat at all. The lycra itself will not be dyed, but for fabrics containing no more than, say, 12% spandex, with the balance being a natural fiber, usually dye very acceptably even though the spandex threads remain white. The lycra usually does not show at all except when the fabric is stretched.

Here is a link to a page that I wrote a couple of months ago about spandex:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/spandex.shtml
This is the first time I've published the link.

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