Name: Marcia
Message: Hi, I was given an all-cotton messenger bag and it's an eggplant color. I'd love to try and dye it so it's an olive color, or even brown since I don't care for purple. Do you have any tips or ideas for me? Thanks very much.

If it does not contain any sort of stain-resistant or water-resistant coating, and if you can wash it, you can dye your messenger gab a dark brown or black with fiber reactive dye. Olive would be impossible, since dye is transparent, so the purple would always show through any olive-colored dye.

The most popular fiber reactive dye is called Procion MX dyes. Order some Procion MX dye and soda ash from Amazon or any of the dye suppliers listed on my page of dye suppliers around the world. I would recommend against all-purpose dye because it is a hot water dye. However, it would probably be good enough for a bag, which is infrequently washed.

Tightly-woven canvas can be difficult to penetrate with dye. It helps if you soak it overnight in water with a tiny amount of detergent added, before applying the dye.

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Name: ronnie
Message: I HAD A PERSON DO SOME TIE DYE TSHIRTS FOR MY FAMILY AND THAT PERSON MOVED. I NEED SOMEONE TO TIE DYE 10 TSHIRTS. I HAVE A SAMPLE OF THE TYPE OF PATTERN I WANT.  I LIVE IN SANTA MONICA CALIFORNIA.  DO YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO CAN DO THIS FOR ME?  CAN YOU DO IT?  I WILL MAIL THEM TO YOU.

I can't do it for you, but there are many wonderful dyers who can. Please look at the listing of "Find A Custom Dyer", under "More" on the menu bar on the dyeing pages on my website. Here is a direct link:
http://two.guestbook.de/gb.cgi?gid=641741&prot=tammvx

Alternatively, many (though not all) of the people listed on my "Other Galleries" page (under "Links" on the menu bar) will happily sell you ten matching tie-dye t-shirts in any pattern and any combination of sizes. Please see under "specifically tie-dye", on the following page:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyelinks.shtml

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Name: Candace
Message: I can't find an answer to my question. I hope you haven't answered this already. Is there a way to tye dye a babies' onesie that is 100% cotton using homemade dyes? Thank you.

No. All home-made dyes will wash out of the cotton. The only way to get natural dyes to stay in cotton for any significant number of launderings is to mordant extensively with metal ions. The best mordanting procedure for cotton is to boil it with alum, following a good recipe; after that, boil it in tannins; and finally, boil in alum again. After all that mordanting, you can then boil the garment at length with an equal weight of natural dyestuff. Even after all that work, this is not a suitable procedure for baby clothes, which require frequent washing, and it is not impossible that alum might irritate delicate skin. There is probably a reason why baby clothing before the modern era was almost invariably white.

The safest dyes for baby clothes are the fiber reactive dyes. When properly used, which is not difficult, the dye actually becomes one molecule with the cellulose fiber, so that it cannot leach out onto the wearer's skin. The most popular fiber reactive dye is called Procion MX dye. Order some Procion MX dye and soda ash from Amazon or any of the dye suppliers listed on my page of dye suppliers around the world, or buy a tie dye kit that contains Procion MX type dyes. Follow a good recipe for applying the dyes, and then, after the dye has reacted overnight with the 100% cotton and the soda ash, wash several times in the hottest water, so that you can be sure that all unattached dye has been removed.

I would not recommend that you use all-purpose dye, such as the Rit® dye available in stores everywhere. All-purpose dye tends to wash out a little with every washing, and we imagine that it might rub off on delicate skin, or bleed in the wetness that is so often found around babies. There is no published evidence that clothing dyed with all-purpose dye is in any way harmful to babies, but I do not like the idea. Commercial clothing is commonly dyed with dyes similar to the dyes found in all-purpose dye, and finished with a dye fixative to prevent color run in the laundry; the dye fixative is probably harmless to wearers, but it has never been tested for safety when the wearer chews upon it, as babies often do chew their clothing.

You can use food coloring to dye 100% wool garments. 100% wool is popular for use in the more expensive diaper covers, and it is fun to dye them with food coloring or Kool-aid drink mix. However, you absolutely cannot dye cotton with food coloring, as it simply will not stick.

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Name: Amanda
Message: I am pretty sure your answer will be no.  I just want to check.  I have a wedding dress (nothing expensive) that I would like to reuse.  The labels says: 100% silk bodice; 60% rayon, 40% nylon (skirt) and then there is a lining: 100% polyester.

Is there any chance this COULD work out, if I was ok with taking a risk and losing the dress?

The biggest problem is in washing, which is an inevitable part of dyeing. The silk and the rayon are likely to shrink significantly, while the polyester is not. I had a dry-clean-only skirt once that I washed, only to find that, after washing, the synthetic lining was much longer than the skirt. (I've had much better luck with unlined garments.) Much worse, the seams and the darts of your wedding dress are likely to pucker when the inside shrinks less than the outside. If that happens, the only solution is to throw the dress away.

If you wash your dress, and it survives, then perhaps you can dye it. Don't even consider dyeing the polyester lining, as it is impossible to dye without extensive boiling that would shred the dress. Silk and rayon can be both dyed with cotton dyes; silk and nylon can be dyed with acid dyes. An all-purpose dye would dye all three, the silk, the rayon, and the nylon, at once, though the different fibers are apt to become slightly different colors. All-purpose dyes are noted for extremely poor washfastness, but could work out for an occasional wearing followed by dry cleaning. They work best when used with heat, but there are instructions for washing machine dyeing. The cooler water available in a washing machine (unless you have one of the European self-heating washing machines) will not work as well for all-purpose dye, causing it to be even less washfast than if the most appropriate temperature were used, but will damage the dress less. You will need to add some vinegar, for an acid to help dye the silk and the nylon, though it will have no effect on the cotton.

I don't think that this will work, since your dress is unlikely to survive washing; however, if it does survive washing, you can consider trying all-purpose dye, such as Rit, Tintex Hi-temp, DEKA "L", or Dylon Multi-Purpose dye, keeping in mind that the dye will run badly if the dress is laundered.

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Message: Which kind of inkjet printer is best for printing on fabric treated with Bubble Jet Set? Is it better to use a dye-based printer, like most inkjets, or is it better to use one of the new Epsons with pigment-based ink?

The pigment-based ink in the Epson C82 printer may be better for use in works which will never be washed, because pigments tend to be less prone to fading by light than dyes are.

However, if you are printing something which will be washed, such as fabric for a quilt, you are better off using a dye-based inkjet printer with Bubble Jet Set. Although the pigment-based inks are resistant to minor water exposures, they reportedly tend to get rubbed off in the washing process. This means that any ordinary inkjet printer is more suitable for fabric printing than the new Epsons.

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Name: cara
Message: Hello i have studied your site at lenghth, and have desperately sought to resolve my issue. I have just got married and have a lovely 3/4 lenghth cream satin dress i would love to dye and wear again any ideas please. thanks

No idea, without knowing what the fiber content of the satin is, nor what its washing instructions may be. "Satin" is a weave that can be made from any fiber; it is completely uninformative to say that a dress is made of satin.

Silk satin is easy to dye. So is cotton satin. Nylon satin is not too bad. Polyester or acetate satin dresses are essentially undyeable. A "dry clean only" dress is not dyeable.

See my page on "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

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Name: Karen

Message: I have spent the last hour perusing your WONDERFUL site, but have not found the answer to my question...I've always made fresh dye solution pre-mix before every dying session (Urea, water softener, kelp, hot water). Does this solution "keep" under any conditions or should it always be made fresh and any excess thrown away--this method I learned from the true tie dye folks but they do not mention the longevity of the solution like the do for the actual dye solutions and soda ash solutions...any thoughts would be appreciated! And thanks so much for all your work on this side...I have learned a ton just in my 30-40 minutes of looking for an answer to my urea question!

Yes, you can keep the urea/alginate mixture for some time. Just sniff it before use. If it smells of ammonia, then the urea is starting to break down, and you should throw it out and prepare a fresh batch.

It's best to refrigerate the mixture if you want to keep it for more than a day or two. Let it come to room temperature before adding dye to it.

I'm glad you're enjoying the site.

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Message: Hello!
I hope that I have not missed the answer of this question in your shop. We are an internetshop in Sweden recently opened, you can visit us at www.kinn.com. 

Several clients have asked for Procion MX dyes, and I am trying to find an European supplier. Do you know who is the Wholesaler of Procion MX dyes in Europe? Do you know how to reach the fabricant - what is the name of the company?

I hope you are the right person to help me.

Dichlorotriazine dyes, which are what Procion MX dyes are, are manufactured by many different dye manufacturers in Asia. The European company that owns the Procion MX brand name is Dystar, but I've heard that they no longer manufacture them. Their web site lists four other classes of fiber reactive dyes under the name of Procion (Procion H-E, Procion H-EXL, Procion PX, and Procion XL+), but no Procion MX dye.

The European resellers of Procion MX type dyes that I currently know about are listed on my "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World" page; scroll down for the section on European companies. You can see that a number of dye retailers are importing Jacquard brand Procion MX dyes from the US, apparently including Patchworkshop.de, Fibrecrafts.com, Quiltundtextilkunst.de, Rainbowsilks.co.uk, and Zijdelings.com. Some other dye retailers, including Quiltundart.de and Atelier für handgefärbte Stoffe, sell Procion MX type dyes not found in the Jacquard line, such as blue MX-7RX (Colour Index reactive blue 161); here in the US this and a couple of other blue dyes are called the "German Blues", and we have assumed they were manufactured by BASF, but now that Dystar has taken over the dyes formerly produced by BASF, I do not know. Synesthesia Pigments & Dyes, in the Czech Republic, apparently manufactures their own dyes, but they have only a limited range of Procion MX type dyes, which they call Ostazin S. Their prices are truly excellent, though, vastly lower than those of the small jars of Jacquard dyes. If you are willing to repackage dye powder, your best prices by far will come from buying larger containers from dye manufacturers, whether in Europe, Asia, or the US, but if you do not wish to bother with repackaging dyes, the small jars offered by Jacquard and other US companies may be more suitable, as other dye suppliers have apparently found. I believe that the two-ounce jar size is the most popular, but dye manufacturers supply larger containers. I think that Synesthesia sells one-pound (half-kilo) packages, or at any rate certainly one-kilogram packages, but I think that Dystar sells only five-kilogram and larger containers of each dye color.

In many cases, it is more economical for an individual in Europe to mail-order two- to eight-ounce (60 to 250 gram) packages of dye internationally from PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, paying international shipping fees, than to buy 50 gram or 100 gram packages from any of the European dye retailers, because the prices charged by the latter are far higher. I don't know to what extent the customs tariffs in various countries may contribute to retail costs.

Good fiber reactive dye alternatives to Procion MX dyes, which like the Procion MX dyes can be used at warm room temperatures and do not require steaming on cotton, include the Cibacron F series by Ciba-Geigy, the Drimarene K dyes manufactured by Clariant and used in Dylon dyes, Levafix E by Dystar, and Vinyl Sulfone (Remazol) dyes. (Remazol is a Dystar trademark, but, like dichlorotriazine dyes, vinyl sulfones are made by many manufacturers.)

Also see "Who is the manufacter of Procion MX Dyes?", from the July 7, 2006 entry in this blog.

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Your website is a huge help!

Okay--here's my problem.  I tie dye several times a year using Rainbow Rock dyes, usually with groups of 60-100 kids (school, scouts, church).  We're doing 100% cotton t-shirts, and using the direct application from squirt bottles with multiple colors of dye.  When I went to get the dye,  I found that both of our craft stores and fabric store no longer have the "refill" packs with just the dye, urea, and fixer.  Anyway, the new package under the name Tulip, costs the same but only makes 4 oz. rather than 16 oz.  It includes a bottle and other stuff which I do not need.  This will quadruple my cost.  So, I'm thinking of trying Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye.

It sounds like you may have more than a week before you are next going to do this. Is this correct? If so, you will find your costs much reduced, in the long run, by buying your dyes by mail-order. In addition, the dye will be fresher, and it will be available in many more colors! There is no downside to mail-ordering your Procion MX type dye. All serious dyers purchase their dye by mail-order.

Dylon Permanent dye is a good-quality fiber reactive dye, but it is rather expensive for the amount that you get. The same is true of the Rainbow Rock and Tulip dye, of course. The real problem is that it is mixed for immersion dyeing solid colors, not for tie-dyeing, and already contains the equivalent of soda ash mixed in, in an amount suitable for that form of dyeing. I recommend that you order Procion MX Reactive Dye from Grateful Dyes, PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company; this is the same type of dye found in the Tulip and Rainbow Rock tie-dye kits. There is a long list of different mail-order dye suppliers around the world on my site.

How much should you order? I like to use eight teaspoons of dye, or approximately 20 grams of dye, per 16-ounce squeeze bottle, though many other dyers prefer to use half as much. A two-ounce jar of dye powder contains enough dye to refill your 16-ounce squeeze bottle about three times per jar, if you like very intense colors like I prefer, or almost six times per two-ounce jar for a medium color intensity more like what your Rainbow Rock kits probably yielded. If the jars are kept tightly closed and not exposed to heat, the unused dye powder should stay good for at least one to two years. You will also want urea, which is optional, and soda ash for the dye fixer. You will no longer be limited to turquoise, fuchsia or magenta (which PROchem calls "mixing red"), and yellow (the one PROchem calls "sun yellow"), but will also be able to add any other color that strikes your fancy, though you'll certainly want to continue getting turquoise, magenta or fuchsia, and yellow. Black is very popular as a fourth color choice since it makes the other colors really pop by contrast (use a whole lot more black dye powder than you would of other colors, sixteen teaspoons of dye per 16-ounce bottle). I personally love to use all of the single-hue unmixed colors, such as 'grape' and the cerulean blue PROchem calls 'intense blue', which you can see listed for various companies on my pure MX dyes chart.

Here are my questions--
How should the dye be mixed for brightest colors?  The package only has directions for tub/bucket dying.  Do I just mix the package (1.75 oz.) with the 4 cups of water that the package says, or do I use less or more?  Do I need the salt?

For tie-dyeing, I would prefer to make a stronger mixture, perhaps mixing each packet of "Dylon Permanent Dye" with one cup of water, or even half a cup of water. (I have not tried this myself.) Another line of dye made by the same manufacturers, "Dylon Cold Water Dye", is different, since it lacks the soda ash or TSP mixed in, and can be used exactly according to the Procion MX dye recipes given on my site, or your old Tulip dye recipe. You do not need to add salt for tie-dyeing, though if the salt is already mixed in it will do no harm. It is even more important with Dylon dyes, which are mostly Drimarene K type dyes, than with Procion MX dyes, to ensure that the shirts are in a warm place when they react overnight, because the dyes are slightly less reactive and require more warmth to react.

The amount of dye in one 1.75-ounce packet of Dylon Permanent Dye is supposed to be sufficient to dye half a pound of fabric, or one t-shirt. In contrast, a two-ounce jar of Procion MX type dye powder is supposed to be sufficient to dye twelve t-shirts. To get the same concentration of dye with the Dylon Permanent that I like to use with Procion MX dye for tie-dyeing, 20 grams per 16 ounce bottle, would require eight packets of Dylon Permanent Dye per 16-ounce squeeze bottle. The concentration of soda ash or TSP would be way too high with this much Dylon Permanent Dye, though, since it is mixed with the dye. Best to compromise with a somewhat weaker dye mixture.

How long will the dye stay active?  Your site said since it is already mixed with fixer, to use it immediately.  The kids will be coming through in groups over a period of 2 hours--wil it be okay for this long?

No, it will probably not last for two hours. The Dylon Permanent dye web site indicates that the dye will be dead within an hour of mixing with water, since the soda ash or TSP is already mixed in. If you use this dye, be sure to mix a fresh batch of dye up at least once every hour. It would probably be better to do this every half hour, to make sure the dye is really fresh and ready to use.

The package says to have the fabric damp.  We've already tied the shirts dry, since I thought we would be soaking them in fixer.  Do they need to be damp, should I leave them dry, or does it matter?

Probably best to just dampen them with water.

How long should the dye remain on before rinsing?  I was planning on overnight; the Dylon package says 1 hour in the tub of dye.  How long is necessary?  How long is optimum?  Will it hurt to be left on longer than an hour before rinsing?

Overnight would be best, to be sure every bit of dye on the shirts has reacted. There is no harm in leaving it overnight, and it may prevent backstaining the lighter regions of the designs with the darker sections of wet dyed fabric.

I would really appreciate any answers you can give.  I was thrown a curve ball with the new packaging; I did my last group 2 months ago and had no idea things were changing.

Good luck. I'm glad that you are not considering using all-purpose dyes. That would be a real mistake.

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[Updated June 8, 2008.]

I just read your article entitled HOW MANY DIFFERENT COLORS ARE THERE?  It was very interesting.  I had no idea there were so many! 
 
Perhaps you can help me with a color problem.  I make jewelry and various crafts.  I've always loved color, and the varying shades and hues, and try to incorporate as many as possible into my various designs.  I have tried to learn as many colors as I could through 50 years of living.  And I like to be as accurate as I can when I describe to a customer exactly which color an item is that they are purchasing.  But in selling my items, it is rather difficult at times, especially on the computer with different monitors showing varying degrees of each, or on the phone when a customer wishes to place an order, to help them understand the color I'm selling or thinking of for a custom-made item.  Some colors can be described by saying, "Apple Red" or "Cotton Candy Pink", etc.  But showing them would be much easier.  So I have been on a quest, so to speak, for a book or fashion guide that might list all the colors created so far, or within the known human spectrum.  I thought that perhaps, with your knowledge of color, you might be able to steer me in the right direction.  Would you have any idea on where something like this might be found?

This is a very interesting question. There are so many different color names in use, many seemingly random, probably more every minute. When you look at furnishings or clothing in a mail-order catalog, many of the color names are not descriptive at all. For example, a recent Sundance catalog sells sweaters in "storm" (apparently a blue grey), shirts in "river" (apparently a dark indigo blue), and wooden storage units in "buttermilk" (a most unbuttermilk-like shade of green - spoiled buttermilk?).

My first impulse is to answer your question as a computer display designer. Here is a link to a chart showing the colors in the RGB system, such colors as "dim gray", "dodger blue", or "Navajo white". That scheme is obviously far too limited for your purposes, but still worth a glance. The RGB color system is essential for displaying your web pages the way you want them to look, but no use at all in dye mixing, because color mixing with it is additive, whereas color mixing with dyes, as with paints, is subtractive.

A large number of people grew up learning their colors from crayons, so it's somewhat useful to look at the names used by the largest crayon manufacturers. Crayola lists the history of each of their colors, including the ones that were removed from their system in 1990.

The way professional designers solve this problem, typically, is to buy a commercial system, such as the Pantone Matching System. This is rather expensive, well over $100 per year just for a set of color chips in the Pantone system. You cannot simply buy a used copy, because the colors are said to fade over time, so you are supposed to acquire a new set each year. A Pantone color chip set does not apply names to the colors, only numbers, but you will sometimes see color names defined by reference to the Pantone system. For example, check out the Pantone Fashion Color Predictions for next spring, 2007 [PDF link], illustrated in the picture to the left. They are, from top to bottom: Silver Peony, Tarragon, Opal Gray, Golden Apricot, Hollyhock (as though hollyhock flowers did not come in many different colors!), Green Sheen, Grapemist (a very ungrapelike blue), Café Crème, Strawberry Ice, and Sky Blue; the numbers used for these colors in the Pantone color chips are listed along with this year's names for them. Buying the latest Pantone updates on color predictions for the future can cost quite a lot of money, unfortunately. I find it maddening that the professionals in this field have so much power over what colors people use or wear, and yet, at the same time, this is widely agreed to be essential for anyone to be able to easily buy different pieces that work together in color, such as socks or a tie that match an outfit. [This illustration is used solely for the purposes of journalism, should be assumed to be inaccurately represented on your monitor, and does not imply any endorsement or approval of this image by the Pantone company.]

Alternatives to the Pantone color system include the Munsell color system and the Natural Color System (NCS). The Munsell system color chips appear to be even more expensive than the Pantone system, but look for a textbook called The New Munsell Student Color Set, by Jim Long and Joy Turner Luke. It lacks the color names but looks interesting nonetheless. Here is a link to a wonderful site about the NBS/IBCC Color System color system, with cross-listed color names and color chips. On that page is a list of letters of the alphabet, which each lead to lists of a vast number of different color names (e.g., see the list for color names beginning with B), with numbers for each; the numbers link to the pages on which the rational color names for these colors appear. It's an excellent system; it would be wonderful to be able to buy printed color cards for it, since the colors that appear on a monitor are not necessarily the same as the colors that will appear on a different monitor. Still, it's an excellent place to start. I think it might meet your needs.

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I'm hoping that you don't mind that I am emailing you with my question (I was searching websites and came across yours).  I have seen t-shirts that have been dyed with coffee, different types of alcohol (beer, wine etc) and chocolate.  Can we do this at home as well?  The colours are very beautiful and was wondering if this is possible.  Would the t-shirts be  coloured to start with or would a natural dye made with say chocolate produce this result?  I would love to hear back from you if you have the chance.

The problem with those shirts that you have seen is that they are kind of a scam. Note that when they say they are dyed "with" or "from" those natural substances, they do not specify that they used *only* those substances. My guess is that they may have added a tiny bit of the food or drink in question to either a dyebath of synthetic dyes, or, more likely, synthetic pigment "dyes" (which are not actually true dyes); then again, they may have omitted the foodstuff altogether.

You simply cannot dye cotton to be truly washfast with beer or wine or chocolate. You may be able to get a light stain, but not a reliable wash-proof dye. Unlike proper dyes, the coloring agents in these foodstuffs have little affinity for cotton, and will not stay. Coffee and tea can be used as dyes, but they are not permanent on cotton and will gradually fade, if you launder them. Most pigments found in foods cannot in themselves dye cotton at all well, though they can in theory be glued to them by using a binder such as is used in fabric paint. (You can dye cotton with grapes, if you mordant with alum and then with tannin and then with alum again, heat the cotton with the grapes repeatedly for several days, avoiding boiling since boiling will turn the grapes brown, but I would not advise you to wash a shirt dyed this way.)

Here's an example. The company Crazy Shirts Hawaii sells wine-colored t-shirts described as follows: "Like fine wine, this T improves with age. We color our soft 100%-cotton T with specialty dye made from red wine, and the result is deep, rich and full bodied." However, as famed tie-dyer Michael Fowler pointed out in a discussion of this subject on his old Tie-dyed.com forum, if you look closely at the picture, you can see from the color of the tag in the neck of the shirt on their site that this is a pigment-dyed shirt. Real dyes will not "take" on the synthetic material of the tag, but the fabric paints known as pigment dyes will. The primary pigment in the shirts cannot be the anthocyanins that naturally color wine, because these chemicals are unstable when laundered (or even during the dyeing stage) and will end up turning brown, not improving with age by any means. It is pretty much certain that the "specialty dye made from red wine" contains a large proportion of wine-colored synthetic pigment. There's probably little difference between them and any other wine-colored pigment-dyed t-shirt from any other vendor.

Another example: "A tangy favorite! Our Key Lime dye dips into Florida Key Limes to get that tart citrus green. With it, we dye our creamy-soft 100%-cotton Crewnecks and Scoop Necks and add imaginiative CrazyShirts designs." Of course, ripe Key limes are not green at all; they are yellow. Furthermore, Key limes are no longer commercially produced in Florida; the Key limes we see for sale in the US come from Mexico. Unripe Key limes would be a terrible dye, because chlorophyll simply does not work at all well as a dye. Throughout history, green clothing and green tapestry yarn have been prepared by dyeing twice, once with the natural blue dye indigo, and then again with a yellow dye such as weld. Green plants were not used as a source of green dye, because the color produced is muddy and tends to fade or turn brown in the light. To add more humor to the claims about how these shirts were dyed, the "Key lime" shirts are a bluish green, certainly not the color of any lime, and not the color that a green plant produces if one insists on using it as a dye.

A practical issue concerning dying t-shirts with food is the sheer quantity of the foodstuff required. To dye fiber with a natural dye, you typically need to use at least an equal weight of natural dyestuff to fabric, somethings two or three times as much. Imagine - if it were possible to dye a t-shirt with chocolate, you'd need one to three pounds of chocolate for every pound of fabric! Even if the color of the chocolate were not just a stain that would wash out, would it be worth spending the money on that much chocolate, without even getting to eat any of it? Picking on Crazy Shirts Hawaii yet again: "The darkest, mellowest Rum is smooth as velvet - and that's what we use in our specialty dye for our Rum-Dyed Ts." Can you imagine using an entire quart of expensive dark rum to dye one t-shirt? Nobody does that! And a good thing, too, because the color produced could only disappoint you. Cotton is a fiber that is far more difficult to dye than wool; many natural dyes that work on wool are practically useless on cotton. Beer and rum are not going to produce exciting results even on wool, though.

In contrast, red dirt really can be used as a dye, though the only long-lasting color to result, iron buff, is a tan color, not the exciting bright red color of clay that inspires people to want to use it for dyeing. The easiest way to get a long-lasting bright color from red clay is to use it as a pigment and mix it with a clear acrylic binder manufactured for use in fabric paint, such as Versatex Clear Extender. A traditional Japanese alternative would be to use freshly made soy milk as a binder, though the results are less resistant to laundering; see Table Rock Llamas for one set of instructions.

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Name: Manoj
Message: How to make a nice jet black reactive MX Dye ? What should I start using: which blue, orange and red?

It's a lot of trouble to mix your own black. It's not practical to mix black if you are starting with only light, bright colors, such as reactive blue 140 (turquoise MX-G) and reactive yellow 86 (yellow MX-8G). You would have to use such a huge concentration of dye that you would not be able to get it all onto the fabric in just one round of dyeing.

To mix black, you need to start with dull, dark mixing primaries. Start with a dark navy. The easiest navy to find is Blue MX-2G, reactive blue 109 which ProChem calls mixing blue and Jacquard and Dharma call cobalt blue. There are other single-hue navies in the MX line, but they can be harder to find. Reactive blue 168 (blue MX-4GD) and reactive blue 9 (navy MX-3R) are also good navies to start with. You can start with a pre-mixed navy blue if that's what you have on hand; it will contain mostly a single-hue navy, anyway, plus one or two other dyes. Use a large amount of it. You need to end up with two to four times as much dye, per cup, as you would normally use for other colors than black.

Once you have your navy, add the dullest color you have that's opposite on the color wheel. The opposite of blue is orange. If you have any reactive brown 23 (brown MX-GRN), which ProChem calls burnt orange and Jacquard calls rust orange, use that. If you don't, you'll have to use a bright orange such as reactive orange 4 (orange MX-2R), which ProChem calls strong orange, Jacquard calls brilliant orange, and Dharma calls deep orange. Or just add any orange or golden sort of yellow you have on hand, until you get the color right. If the color is too greenish, add some red. If it's too purple, add some yellow. Just keep the color wheel in mind, and add whatever the 'opposite' (complementary) color is. It takes a lot of trial and error to mix your own perfectly balanced black. That's why most of us buy our blacks pre-mixed. It can be done, though, if you have some dull, dark colors on hand.

You cannot tell for sure by looking at it exactly what color your mixture of dyes is. If you paint it on a piece of test fabric, it may look like a true black, but then one color might wash out a bit more than another, so what you end up with is not quite black, but more of a dark navy, or dark brown, or dark purple, or dark green. You need to actually dye some fabric of the same fiber content that you are planning to dye, as a test, wash it out, and see how it looks. It's like making sausage: you can't taste-test the raw meat, so you have to cook some up in order to judge how to correct the seasoning. If you don't want to leave the fabric to react overnight as usual, pop it into a plastic bag and heat it briefly in a microwave oven until it is very hot, watching closely so you can stop the cooking before the bag bursts with the steam. (NOTE: the fabric must be wet. Dry fabric will catch on fire if you microwave it!) Let it sit for a few minutes being very hot, then, after it cools a bit, wash it out by hand in hot water, perhaps using a strainer to keep the small swatch of fabric from going down the drain of the sink, until the water runs colorless, so you can see what color it is.

The procedure is the same for mixing a black for use on silk or cotton, but the relative proportions of each dye color in the mix will be different. Each dye mixture must be standardized separately for every different fiber type.

My own favorite fiber reactive black is the remazol black, reactive black 5, because it is a single color, instead of a mixture like the Procion MX blacks, so it does not separate out into different colors. It needs a bit more warmth than Procion MX dyes, but can be used at a warm room temperature.

[Much of the text of this answer previously appeared in a posting I made on September 2, 2006, on the iTieDye forum, in response to a similar query from a different person.]

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Name: connie
Message: hi I just tye dyed 22 projects and heard about synthrapol. I live in a small town.....and I can't find it....Is there any thing else I can use to keep my colors from bleeding?

Synthrapol does not keep colors from bleeding. It's just a good brightener-free detergent. What keeps your colors from bleeding is using the right kind of dye. Never use all-purpose dye, such as Rit dye, for tie-dyeing.

If you use proper fiber-reactive dye for tie-dyeing, such as Procion MX dye, the soda ash sets the dye. Washing two or three times in very hot water is what removes the excess unattached dye. Synthrapol is nice for this step, but not essential. Rinse the projects in cool water before washing in hot water.

If you made the huge mistake of tie-dyeing with all-purpose dye, you will need to buy a special dye fixative such as Retayne. Buy this by mail-order from any good dye supplier. Buy good fiber reactive dye by mail-order from the same companies. You can order Synthrapol, too, if you like. See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World for a list of different companies that you can buy your dyes and dyeing supplies from, by mail order.

For more information on how to keep your tie-dyes from bleeding, see the FAQs on my web site:

o "What is Synthrapol? Is there any substitute?"

o "How can I fix the shirts I just tie-dyed with Rit so that they'll quit bleeding in the wash and stay bright?"

o "What is Retayne? Commercial Dye Fixatives"  


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Name: Rachel 
Message: I looked through your site and did not find an answer to my question, hopefully I looked hard enough and you will not be answering it for a second (or third) time. I run a very small tie dye business from my house and would like to beging tie dying leotards. Unfortunately it has been very hard to find 100% cotton leotards. I wonder if you would tell me if I will have more success (using ProMX dye) with one of the following fabric mixes: Cotton/Lycra; Cotton/Nylon; Cotton/Poly/Spandex; or Cotton/Spandex. Most of my options are at least 75% cotton. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my e-mail, I have found your site to be very useful


Essentially, all that matters is the percentage of cotton. You're not going to be able to dye polyester or spandex. (Lycra is just a brand name for spandex, a type of polyurethane also known as elastane, so it makes no difference whether they contain Lycra versus spandex.)  

75% cotton will usually dye adequately, though the color you get may be slightly paler or duller than that of 100% cotton. 80% or 90% cotton is better: get the highest cotton percentage that you can. 90% cotton dyes just about as well as 100% cotton. Often the spandex fibers are actually wrapped in cotton, so you see them only when the fabric stretches, anyway.

Avoid polyester whenever possible, because it is not dyeable except under harsh conditions that destroy spandex, and it's too much trouble anyway, as polyester is far more difficult to dye than cotton. Nylon requires low pH conditions to dye, the opposite of cotton, as well as additional heat, so it will be more convenient not to bother with dyeing that, either.

Spandex is very heat-sensitive, so it is important to use cold water dyes when dyeing lycra blends. Your choice of the Procion MX type dye that PRO Chemical & Dye sells as PRO MX dye is an excellent one. You should do very well in dyeing 90% cotton/10% Lycra or 88% cotton/12% Lycra with this type of dye.

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Name: Barbara 
Message: Hello, I have several tie dyed items I purchased from Bermuda while on vacation. They are the most nicest tie dye I've ever seen nice bright vivid colors. But a way I can wash them. So they wont run while washing? I will lookforward to your e-mail.

If they were dyed properly, using fiber reactive dyes, you can wash them however you like, though it would be wise to wash them separately from your other laundry the first time or two. Fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX dye will last for many washings even if washed in the hottest of water. Do not use bleach, however, as it can ruin the colors.

If your items were dyed using inferior all-purpose dye, or natural dyes, then they will run in the wash. You cannot solve this problem with home remedies such as vinegar or salt; the only real answer is to use a special dye fixative, such as Retayne, which you can buy from your local quilt supply shop, if you're lucky, or by mail-order from most of the companies listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World page.

For more information, see these two pages: "FAQ: Is there any way to "set" dye in purchased clothing?" and "Commercial Dye Fixatives (Retayne, Raycafix, Dyefix, Dharma Dye Fixative....)".

Since your tie-dyed items are exceptionally bright and vivid, it is very likely that they were dyed with good fiber reactive dyes, as these are among the brightest of dyes in common use. All-purpose dyes produce less beautiful colors. Natural dyes would have been labeled as such.

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Name: Shawn
Message: The [Fiber-arts.com] website is under construction but I would like to order the tye dye video to use with a Family Studies class I am teaching. We are dying t-shirts. Please give directions on purchasing. 


There are two tie-dye videos that I recommend. (I must locate the broken link you found so I can update it!) 

Michael Fowler's "Art of Tie Dye" is a single DVD, not a series, and can be purchased from Amazon.com, via the following link:
http://tinyurl.com/pyavo

The other tie-dye video I recommend is actually a series, with even more and clearer instruction than in Michael Fowler's video, though Michael Fowler's video looks more professionally finished. If you want a beginner's introduction to tie-dyeing, you should get 'Tie Dye 101', which can be purchased from Amazon.com through the following link:
http://tinyurl.com/okfq6

The more advanced video by the same people, the True Tie Dye company, is called Advanced Tie Dye Techniques:
http://tinyurl.com/ndbrh
It's actually a two-disk set, showing how to tie dye hearts, arrows, peace signs, mandalas, lotus blossoms, suns, and more.

It is also possible to buy all of the True Tie dye videos as a single set, the "Learn How to Tie Dye" complete 3-volume set, which includes "Tie Dye 101" AND "Advanced Tie Dye Techniques"; see the following link at Amazon.com:
http://tinyurl.com/rhm9g

If you prefer to order the "Tie Dye 101" and "Advanced Tie Dye Techniques" videos directly from True Tie Dye, instead of through Amazon.com, here is the link to their site:
http://tinyurl.com/grnku
They do sell internationally, and they sell their DVDs in both international formats, so it is best to order directly from True Tie Dye if you need the PAL video format which is used in Europe.


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Name: Isaac
Message: I did a search and didn't find anything. Is it possible to tie dye ultrasuede light (facile)? Ultrasuede is a 100% microfiber synthetic suede, I think it's made from polymer fibers. If it is possible to dye it what should I use for it, and how? 

"Polymer" is an interesting description. A polymer is any long chain molecule made of many repeating units. Examples of natural polymers include the proteins in silk and wool, and the cellulose in cotton and linen. Examples of synthetic polymers include nylon, acrylic, and polyester. I don't believe that there is such as thing as a textile fiber in the world that is not made of a polymer of some sort, except for true metal fibers made from such materials as stainless steel.

Fortunately, there are legal requirements to divulge the fiber content of fabrics being sold. According to online fabric stores, Ultrasuede® light, or Ultrasuede® Facile, is made of 100% polyester. It is different from other polyesters in feel and appearance because of the size of the fibers - exceptionally narrow fibers are called microfibers - and in the non-woven character of the cloth.

Polyester can be dyed in two ways. One is by extensive boiling, with a special kind of dye called Disperse dye, plus a carrier chemical which helps to make up for the fact that polyester dyeing works better at temperatures well above the boiling point of water. The other is by heat transfer, similar to the transfer presses used to print t-shirts commercially, again with Disperse dye. You cannot dye polyester with the same dyes you use for cotton, silk, or wool. They will all just wash out.

Boiling Ultrasuede Facile may present problems. The care instructions I have seen for it advise machine washing in cold water or dry cleaning. It is usually a very bad idea to boil any fabric whose care instructions say to use cold water only. Perhaps there is an important finishing chemical which will be removed or destroyed by boiling water, or perhaps the fibers have been crimped by heat in such a way that they stay in the fabric, but will fall out of the fabric if boiled again.

You should be able to create tie-dye-like heat transfers, using Disperse Dye paints. You can buy Disperse dye at PRO Chemical & Dye or Aljo Dyes in the US. Look at the links describing this process on my page, "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dye".

Another possibility is to forget about dyeing, and instead do some tie-PAINTing. This is probably a better idea, especially for the polyester dyeing novice. See my page, About Fabric Paints, for more information about fabric paints, and the difference between fabric paints and dye. Dharma Pigment "Dyes" are a type of fabric paint which the manufacturer recommends for use in tie-dyeing polyester. The enormous advantage of this product, as compared to Disperse Dye, is that it does not require boiling!

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