Name: Jamie

Message: I recently purchased 100% linen drapes and hankerchief 100% linen sheer panels.  They are an off white cream color and would prefer them to be white.  What products and/or processes can I use to bleach or remove the color from linen material to make them white?

I cannot recommend that you try to bleach natural-color linen drapes at home. It would be better to buy white drapes to begin with. Most drapes that you purchase are labeled "dry clean only". Is this true of the ones that you have purchased? If so, you should probably not even try to wash the drapes at home, let alone subject them to harsher treatments such as bleaching. 

Although linen is a natural fiber, mostly made of cellulose, and can withstand hypochlorite bleach (ordinary chlorine bleach) as well as any other fiber, this chemical is quite toxic and damaging. If you use too much, you may cause the fabric to fall apart or to show wear surprisingly quickly. Any treatments that have been applied to the linen to give it a particular texture, or stain resistance or permanent press properties, may be damaged by the bleaching process, or they may simply repel the bleach and prevent it from having its full effect.

If you do decide to go ahead and bleach your drapes, use a top-loading washing machine to do it in. The washing machine must be large enough for the drapes to move freely. Do not overcrowd the washing machine. Put the drapes into the empty washing machine to determine how many will fit with sufficient room to spare, then remove them and fill the washing machine with water. Mix the bleach into the water carefully and thoroughly before adding your drapes. If you use a front-loading washing machine, follow the manufacturer's recommendations for the quantity of bleach to use, since there is so much less water in a front-loader to dilute it.

After bleaching with hypochlorite bleach, it is best to neutralize the bleach in order to prevent it from continuing to eat at your fabric. You should purchase some Anti-Chlor for this purpose. See "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?", for more information about neutralizing the harmful effects of bleach.

Finally, you will see that even fully bleached linen is not as bright as you expect to see in a white. This is true of any natural fiber, even after bleaching. You will need to apply optical brighteners, which are otherwise invisible fluorescent dyes, in order to brighten your fabric. You can purchase this as Rit Whitener and Brightener, or from Dharma Trading Company as "Optic Whitener". This product should be applied in the washing machine in very hot water, preferably around 160°F.


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

Name: Linda

Message: Hello, I dye rayon Venice lace, using mainly Tintex dyes, and small paint brushes. I dry it in my home oven at about 100°C max. My questions are, is it dangerous to cook in the oven after using it in this way, and also, would the colour stay in better if I used a fixative? 
If a fixative is a good idea, which one would be best?

What kind of Tintex dyes are you using? Here in the US, the only Tintex dye is a form of all-purpose dye. I would very much recommend against using all-purpose dye for your purposes. However, I see from your email address that you are in Australia. In Australia, Tintex sells more than one type of dye. Tintex Hot Water dye is an all-purpose dye, very ill-suited to your needs, but Tintex Low Temperature Dye is a type of fiber reactive dye, which can work very well.

Rayon, or viscose, is a form of regenerated cellulose. This means that it dyes just like cotton. Do not confuse it with acetate, which has been chemically treated so that it is entirely a synthetic material.

All-purpose dyes are extraordinarily poor at lasting during washing, unless you treat them with a cationic dye fixative. It is much easier to use a higher quality dye, including any sort of cool water fiber reactive dye, because that means that you do not need to find the cationic fixative and go to the extra step of applying it. Fiber reactive dyes form a permanent chemical bond to the cellulose. They do not wash out the way all-purpose dyes do. They are easier to use and produce longer-lasting brilliant colors.

Drying dye in the oven is not a good idea. All-purpose dye requires moist heat, not dry heat, to attach to cellulose, though even under the best circumstances it will not form as permanent a bond as fiber reactive dyes will. To dye with all-purpose dye, is best to either immerse the rayon in a boiling water dyebath for half an hour to one hour, or to wrap it up, still very wet with dye, in plastic wrap, and steam it for half an hour as though you were cooking vegetables. Note that you should not use your cooking pots for dyeing, because all-purpose dye and other dyes, and in fact all dye other than food coloring, is considered unsafe for use in tools intended for food preparation. However, I doubt that there is any problem with using your oven in the way that you have been using it, as far as safety is concerned, as long as you keep the oven clean; it is just not an effective way to fix dye.

Cool water fiber reactive dyes are superior for dyeing any cellulose-based lace. You do not need to apply heat at all. Instead, you use soda ash, which is the active ingredient in washing soda, to set the dye by raising the pH of the fabric. This is very easy to use and produces brilliant permanent colors. Use dilute dye for delicate pastels.

There are several different types of fiber reactive dye which will work well for your purposes. Two very popular types are Procion MX dye and Drimarene K dye.  Procion MX is better for using at rom temperatures as low as 21°C (70°F); Drimarene K is better if you wish to mix your colors in water in advance and store them in the refrigerator in dissolved form for up to one year. Since you are in Australia, I recommend that you mail order either of these dyes from either Batik Oetoro or Kraftkolour, both of which are located in Australia. For contact information for these and other dye sellers, see my page of "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

You can follow the recipes in "Hand Dyeing - How to Do It: basic recipe for Procion MX dyes on cellulose or silk", or follow the instructions your dye retailer provides. You can hand-paint by adding the soda ash directly to the dye, using the dye/soda ash mixture up within an hour or so, or you can pour out just enough dye for one use and hand-paint it onto lace which has been presoaked in soda ash (first dissolved in water). (The paint brush will carry enough soda ash back to your dye paint to cause it to spoil within the day, so do not put your brush into a container with more dye than you plan to use in one day.) A third choice is to let the dye dry and then paint on liquid sodium silicate. See "What is soda ash, and what's it for in dyeing?" for more information about using soda ash or its substitutes with fiber reactive dye. Note that you should not use soda ash with Tintex or other all-purpose dye, because it does nothing useful and will not make the all-purpose dye more long-lasting, unlike fiber reactive dye.

If your lace is actually made of actetate and not rayon, then you will not be able to use any ordinary dye at all on it; neither all-purpose dye nor fiber reactive dye will work on acetate. In that case, instead, either use disperse dyes to dye it like polyester, or use a fabric paint such as Dye-Na Flow instead of dye.


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

Name: kathryn

Message: Hello,
I am presently interested in understanding how the acetylating process makes bamboo into a yarn-worthy fiber and also how soy protein is altered to make into yarn. Jan thinks you can help me in this area. I'd appreciate any input you'd like to share.

I had not heard of the acetylating of bamboo fiber until now. Most bamboo fiber is a form of rayon, as far as I have been able to find out. Rayon is a regenerated cellulose fiber which can be dyed like any other cellulose fiber, such as cotton. When rayon is acetylated, it turns into rayon acetate, also known as acetate, a fiber which no longer has the comfortable natural characteristics and easy dyeability of rayon. 

Apparently a small fraction of the available bamboo fiber on the market is prepared using enzymes to digest the plant and separate the fibers, in a way that retains the original cellulose fibers of the bamboo plants, much as cotton retains the original fiber length and other characteristics produced by the cotton plant. However, most commercially available bamboo fiber is a chemically regenerated cellulose and thus similar to any other rayon. The chemical processing requires sodium hydroxide and carbon disulfide. 

It is clear that regenerated cellulose from bamboo can be subjected to the same acetylation processes used to produce rayon acetate from other sources of cellulose. I do not know how large the amounts of bamboo acetate actually being produced might be. The chemicals used in this process are acetic anhydride, acetic acid, and sulfuric acid. An excellent article on the bamboo fiber industry is available at the the Organic_Clothing blog, dated September 27, 2007.

I would not want to buy bamboo acetate yarn, myself, because I don't like rayon acetate in general. It can't be dyed except with the same special dyes that are required for polyester, and it does not absorb moisture for comfort in the way that rayon does. That said, as a predyed synthetic yarn, bamboo acetate may be desirable in other ways. The texture is likely to be quite different, smoother and silkier, I would guess.

The bamboo top fiber that I purchased from Mielke's Fiber Arts dyes marvelously, like other (nonacetylated) rayons, and has very long fibers. It seems strong. It can be dyed with any dye that works on cotton, and takes cool water fiber reactive dye very well. I don't know whether it is the regenerated cellulose or the rarer natural bamboo fiber that is not regenerated chemically. What I have heard about purchased garments made with bamboo is that they do not wear well at all; this is typical of rayon fabrics. Rayons in general are very weak when wet and are therefore subject to wear during laundering. (Tencel, a trade name for lyocell, which is another cellulose fiber regenerated by a different chemical process, is supposed to wear better due to greater wet strength, but my experience with readymade Tencel clothing was that it showed wear long before cotton garments of the same age, in spite of the care I took in laundering.)

I have an excellent 1995 book called "Cellulosics Dyeing", edited by John Shore, which I mail-ordered from the Society of Dyers and Colourists in the UK for £9 (used copies of this book sold in the US tend to be hugely overpriced). It gives a brief (two-page) description of the aceylation of regenerated cellulose to make acetate. Here is an excerpt:

The chapter goes on to explain that the technology of viscose production is too complicated to be discussed in that book.

As far as soy protein fiber is concerned, I found it to be a little more difficult to dye than other protein fibers, that is, the same concentration of the same acid dye produced a much lighter color on the Soy Silk® unspun fiber that I purchased than it did on some real silk top that I dyed for comparison. The Silk Latte® azlon fiber made from milk was similar ("azlon" is the generic term for any regenerated protein textile fiber). They both felt lovely, but were inferior for dyeing purposes. I don't know whether this is because of the different amino acid profile of the proteins used to make the fibers, or whether it has to do with the texture or any chemical or physical treatments that may have been applied in processing.

I have seen many claims about how environmentally friendly the soy silk manufacturing process is. Unfortunately, I have seen plenty of similar claims made for regenerated cellulose bamboo (for example) which are clearly not at all true, so it is difficult to know what to believe. One site after another blithely claims that "the soy protein is liquefied then extruded into fiber in a chemical free process." In fact, it appears that acetylizing may be an important part of this process, and that the fiber may be a byproduct of the soybean oil industry, rather than the tofu industry as is so ubiquitously claimed; this is logical given that the soy oil industry in the US is vastly larger than the tofu industry here. The best source of information I've been able to find on soy protein textile fibers is at the website of a Swiss company, Swicofil AG Textile Services.
It says, 

However, I cannot tell how closely this description may apply to the fiber sold under the brand name Soy Silk®. I cannot even determine which country the Soy Silk® fiber is manufactured in. Can you? That might be a very useful clue. China seems likely, since so much textile material is coming from China these days.


The owner of the soysilk website, SWTC, Southwest Trading Company, claims that Ingeo® corn fiber can be dyed successfully with Rit® All Purpose Dye. This further casts their credibility into doubt.  Ingeo®, a brand name for polylactic acid, is said by industry sources to be dyeable only with disperse dyes, the special kind of dyes manufactured for use on polyester, acetate, and other synthetic fibers. Rit® is an all-purpose dye, which means that it is a blend of direct dye for cellulose fibers and acid dye for protein fibers. I myself did not test Rit dye on Ingeo, but I did try one acid dye and one fiber reactive dye. Both left the fiber completely white after rinsing. I suspect that the particular Rit dye color that Southwest Trading Company used may have temporarily stained the Ingeo fiber, but I very much doubt that it would stand up to laundering.


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

Name: Lance

Message: I have a faded cotton shirt with a monogram sewn directly onto the shirt. is it possible for me to redye but keep the monogram?

It depends on what fiber the thread used to stitch the monogram is made of. A monogram stitched with cotton or rayon thread will take whatever dye your shirt would, but this would be unusual. More commonly monograms are stitched with nylon or polyester thread. If the thread is polyester, no cotton dye will permanently color it. However, if it is nylon, you must be careful to avoid all-purpose dye mixtures, such as Rit® dye, Tintex Hot Water dye (which is called Tintex® Easy Fabric Dye in the US), or Dylon® Multi-Purpose dye, any of which which will dye both nylon and cotton at the same time. 

I recommend that you use a cool water fiber reactive dye, along with a high-pH dye fixative such as soda ash. You can use Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye. Since you are in Australia, you will want to mail order this dye from either Batik Oetoro or Kraftkolour, both of which are located in Australia. They can also sell you all needed dye auxiliaries. For contact information for these and other dye sellers, see my page of "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".


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

Name: Nancy

Message: I have a set of new dark red towels and would like to set the color as much as possible before I use them.  Is Retayne the best product to use for this application?  I assume I wouldn't use hot water when I apply it or do I have to?

Yes, Retayne is the best solution to towels that bleed in the laundry. Similar products are often used in the textile industry, which is one reason why dye bleeding in the laundry is not as frequent a problem as I recall it's having been when I was a child. It is possible that your towels have already been treated, if you have not yet seen them run.

When using Retayne, follow the instructions on the label. It is normally applied in hot water, so only items of the same color should be treated in one washing machine load or bucket. Afterwards wash in cool or lukewarm water to avoid stripping out the Retayne, which hot water may do.

You may be able to find Retayne at your local quilter's supply store or a fabric store such as Joann's. If not, you can mail-order it from almost any good dye supplier; see my list of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

Fading of dyes over time can also be caused by the chlorine compounds used to treat your water. I have noticed significantly more fading since my municipality switched from chlorine to chloramine for disinfection. Using Anti-chlor (sodium or potassium metabisulfite) in the rinse water of the laundry, every time the items are washed, would undoubtedly reduce fading, but that's more trouble than I am willing to go to.

Fading due to light is an entirely different matter. Susceptibility to light can be avoided only by careful dye selection, not by any treatment that can be applied. Retayne and similar treatments against bleeding in the laundry can actually accelerate light fading! You must not leave your towels in direct sunlight, if you want to keep them from fading. Dry indoors, not on a sunny clothesline outdoors.


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

Name: Angela

Message: Hello, I have a project using polyester fringe.  It's white and I need to dye it a medium to dark shade of blue. What product(s) do I need to do this?  I've already tried the Dylon for cotton/polyester and it didn't hold.  Please let me know what I can do.  Thanks in advance for your help!!! 

In order to dye polyester, you must have a particular kind of dye called disperse dye. Disperse dye works only on synthetic fibers, not on natural fibers such as cotton. Unfortunately, the Dylon dye recommended for cotton/polyester blends dyes only the cotton portion of the blend, and is of no use for 100% polyester. Polyester is just too different, chemically, from natural fibers. You cannot dye polyester with any ordinary dye, such as fiber reactive dye or all-purpose dye, that can work on cotton.

You will have to purchase this dye by mail-order. Look for "disperse" on my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around The World .

Disperse dyes can be applied through extensive boiling or by heat transfer. For more information about disperse dyes, see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes."

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

Name: joan

Message: I am dyeing silk fabric with natural dyes like tumeric, coffee etc. How do I fix these dyes with natural substances (I want to avoid chemicals). It salt good or a heat treatment good? Please give me the step by step process. Thanks

You cannot avoid all chemicals. Everything, natural or not, is made of chemicals. The important thing is to avoid toxic, dangerous chemicals. Some toxic and dangerous chemicals are all-natural; some are synthetic. Foods are the most convenient chemicals to use in dyeing, since it is safe to use them in your regular cooking pots. (Even natural dyes should not be used in your regular cooking posts if they are not foods, because some natural dyes and many mordants are poisonous.)

Heat is useful for most recipes in dyeing silk. The only dyes that really do not need heat involve the use of synthetic cool water fiber reactive dyes. Everything else should be simmered gently (around 180°F or slightly lower, to avoid damaging the silk). Salt will not help to make dye more permanent on silk. Depending on the dye, it may be possible to dye silk without heat if you soak the silk in the dyebath for several weeks at a time, stirring occasionally.

Turmeric, a popular yellow spice, is a natural direct dye and does not need any fixative at all. It fades in the light, so you will probably need to redye your turmeric-dyed items every year. That's what the monks in Tibet do. The chemical that gives turmeric its color is called curcumin; it appears to have anti-inflammatory properties when eaten. You can mix several tablespoons of turmeric into a couple of gallons of water in your largest cooking pot, boil it for half an hour or an hour, strain the water through a coffee filter to remove particles of turmeric, add your silk to the resulting colored water, and gradually bring the temperature of the dyebath up to 180°F, stirring constantly, while using a thermometer to make sure that you do not overheat the silk. Hold the temperature for half an hour or longer, then let the silk cool in the dyebath. Afterwards, wash thoroughly in cool water, until no more dye comes out of the fabric.  You can follow a similar recipe with very strong coffee, or walnut hulls.

Most natural dyes other than turmeric and walnut require mordants. Most mordants are toxic metals. However, the most popular mordant is alum, because it is not dangerous like most other mordants. Alum is a mineral, either aluminum potassium sulfate or aluminum acetate, often sold in crystal form as a supposedly "natural" antiperspirant. Acids, such as vinegar, are not mordants, but they are required for most dyes on silk, all the same, in order to adjust the pH; however, they are not needed for turmeric or walnut hulls. You will need a good recipe for mordanting your silk with alum in order to use most natural dyes effectively. It is generally best to apply the mordant in a completely separate step, before applying the dye.

Each different natural dye requires its own recipe. You could produce a lot of ugly beige or dirty-looking off-white silks while trying to figure out how to use them by trial and error. I strongly recommend that you get a good book about natural dyes, such as Jenny Dean's Wild Color, Jill Goodwin's A Dyer's Manual (second edition only), or J. Lile's Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing. This will help to save you from a lot of unnecessary mistakes and a lot of wasted time. Perhaps your local public library has some books that will help you. 


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

Name: Liz

Message: Hi there. Firstly thank you for a wonderful informative site. we have gone through as much of your site as possible and not found a solution to our problem.  We have spiral tie-dyed 100% cotton tablecloth with a hot water fibre reactive black dye, aiming for a grey by adjusting our salt and soda ash quantities. Yet although we achieve our grey there is a significant amount of a rusty pink hue that shows through in the lighter areas. How can we achieve a consistent grey without the pink? Secondly how can we neutralise the pink on the currently dyed cloths without losing the grey?  We thank you for your time in reviewing our questions and look forward to hearing from you soon! 

What kind of hot-water fiber reactive dyes are you using? Are they Procion H, Drimarene X, Levafix, Cibacron, Novacron, Kayacelon, or what? Knowing this can sometimes make a difference.

Most black dyes are mixtures of several different colors of dyes. If the different dye colors separate out on the fabric, as often happens in tie-dyeing, you will get multiple colors. If you dye a paler color than black with them, you will usually get some color other than a neutral grey. Some blacks dilute to dark blue, some to dark purple.

To neutralize a pink, try overdyeing with a little green. Look at a color wheel, and try the opposite color.

To get a solid color grey, it is best to avoid black dye, and instead use a mixture which has been standardized to produce a neutral grey color. Look for a dye color with "grey" in the name. To get a lighter color of any dye, it is better to use less dye, rather than less salt or soda ash, because results are more predictable, although you will still get the same "off" colors. I do not recommend adjusting soda ash or salt concentration in order to adjust the final intensity of the dye.

To get shades of neutral grey in tie-dye, you will do best to use a single-color black. Yes, there are a few of these. The one I have used is reactive black 5, which is a Remazol dye. Remazol dyes require warm to hot water, 40°C to 60°C (104°F to 140°F). The advantages of using a single-color back are huge, because in tie-dyeing you do not get any halos of unwanted color. See "Vinyl Sulfone Fiber Reactive Dyes" for more information about Remazol dyes in general.

Where can you buy Remazol dyes? Your IP address indicates that you are probably in South Africa. Unfortunately, I do not know any dye suppliers in South Africa, but I know that Dystar, the original maker of Remazol dyes, does sell dyes there. (I would be grateful if you could tell me about your dye suppliers, since I get asked about this sort of thing.) Ask your current dye supplier if they carry reactive black 5, or Remazol black, or vinyl sulfone black. This particular dye is the most popular reactive black dye in the world, in the textile industry, so you ought to be able to find it. You can also mail-order Remazol dyes from Tobasign in Spain, Batik Oetoro in Australia, or from Granat Farvekompagniet in Denmark, but it is usually more economical to find a local source. (Here is a link to my page of contact information which lists all of the above companies.) Although I like the Remazol dyes sold by PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, I don't recommend that you order them, as they are sold there already dissolved in water, the weight of which will make it more expensive to ship internationally.

In North America and Europe, we can also buy reactive black 5 from some local shops, under the Dylon brand name. Some Dylon black dyes are mixtures, but a couple of their dye lines include reactive black 5. Dylon Permanent Dye, Dylon Hand Dye, and Dylon Machine Dye all contain reactive black 5. Other Dylon black dyes which do NOT include this dye are Dylon Multi Purpose, Dylon All-In-One Colourfast Fabric Dye. "12 Black" is usually reactive black 5, but "8 Black" or "Ebony" is a mixture of several colors.

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

Name: LeAnne

Message: We want to dye sheets a brown/black color in the washing machine.  I have your instruction on how to do that.  What I need to know is that can we use RIT dye that can be bought at Hobby Lobby and just follow your instructions or do I have to buy Jacquard Procion Dye?  Please let me know so I can buy the appropriate thing.

No, don't use all-purpose dye. It performs badly. It runs in the laundry every time you wash it, and it fades quickly. Fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye, perform far better.

If you do buy Rit dye, you MUST NOT use the instructions for Procion MX dye. Soda ash will not help all-purpose dye work better. All-purpose dye works best when cooked on the stovetop with the fabric at 190°F (just below a boil) for half an hour or longer. Although it can be used with hot water in a washing machine, the results will fade quickly. You need to mail-order and apply a product called Retayne (from any good dye supplier) if you want to make all-purpose dye last at full color intensity for more than a few washings.

Procion MX dye is much more economical than Rit dye, if you buy 8-ounce or one-pound jars. You would need to buy many packets of Rit dye in order to have enough to dye sheets. Each packet of Rit dye is good for up to one pound of fabric for pale to medium colors, or one-quarter pound to half a pound of fabric for black. You can dye up to 8 pounds of fabric in the washing machine at a time.

The problem with good dyes is that you have to either buy them by mail-order, or, if you are very lucky and your crafts store even carries them, you have to buy tiny jars which are rather expensive for any large project. Crafts stores rarely carry good dye, and never in economical jar sizes.

For a dark brown or black, you need to use a large concentration of dye. If you are using a good fiber-reactive dye such as Procion MX dye, you will want to use between 15 and 30 grams of dye (one-half to one ounce of dye, or roughly 2 to 4 tablespoons) for every pound of fabric you have. If you have eight pounds of sheets (a reasonable limit for one washing machine load, you will need 120 to 240 grams of dye, which works out to be four to eight ounces of dye. When working with quantities this large, you will save a lot of money if you buy your dye in 8-ounce jars. Check out these links for buying eight-ounce jars of black Procion MX dye or brown Procion MX dye via Amazon. The cost is approximately eleven to fourteen dollars depending on color, plus seven dollars for shipping, for an eight-ounce jar of Procion MX dye. You can also order your Procion MX dye from any of the dye suppliers listed on my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

If you use all-purpose dye instead of fiber reactive dye, for eight pounds of fabric, you would need to use at least 8 boxes of dye for a pale to medium color, or 16 to 32 boxes of dye for a dark to black color. Since a box of all-purpose dye, such as Rit® or Tintex®, costs approximately $2.99 per box of dye at most stores, this could be a very expensive project. It's just not worth it. Use a fiber reactive dye, instead, which will cost less money, be easier to use since you don't have to use near-boiling temperatures, and, most importantly, will last a hundred times longer in the laundry without fading.

By the way, the fiber content of your sheets is very important in determining how well they will dye. Neither all-purpose dye nor fiber reactive dye will work at all on polyester, so a 50% polyester/50% cotton sheet will dye only half as intensely as a 100% cotton sheet. Surface treatments, such as permanent press finishes, will also interfere with the dyeing process.


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

Name: karen

Message: I make and hand dye silk veils using rit dyes purchased in a craft store.  Sometimes I use the washing machine for the base color and then dip dye the edges, etc.  I am generally pleased, but when I try to dye the ends totally black, I get all sorts of color variations - example:  yellow veil with black edges comes out with olive green edges.  How do I correct this?  Also, what type of dye is really easiest and best to use on silk?

The best quality dyes for silk are the Lanaset dyes. These are expensive, per ounce of dye, but they are very washfast, and you do not need to use as much of a Lanaset dye to get a similar intensity of color as you would need to use from any other type of silk dye. You will almost certainly need to mail-order this dye; most crafts stores do not carry much in the way of high-quality dye.

In particular, the Lanaset Jet Black dye is very popular among experienced dyers. It is very much superior to any of the relatively low quality dyes that are used in all-purpose dye mixtures, such as Rit brand dye. Although it is a mixture of two black dyes, you do not see color separation when using Lanaset Jet Black for direct dye application. It produces a rich black color. In general, a small amount of black combined with yellow will produce an olive green; to get a true black, you need a larger amount of black, or a more intense black dye.

All-purpose dye is actually surprisingly expensive, for what you get. A box of Rit dye is sufficient for only half a pound of fiber. A two-ounce jar of Lanaset dye, which costs about $10, is sufficient for 12 pounds of fiber. So, being accustomed to buying Rit® dye, you should not find Lanaset dye to be too much of a shock. A good introduction would be to order a 4-color sampler kit for $10 from PRO Chemical & Dye.

The second-most popular dye for silk among hand dyers is PRO Chem's WashFast Acid dye line. In spite of its name, this line of dyes is much less washfast than the Lanaset dyes; however, it is more washfast than the dye contained in all-purpose dyes. This line of dyes is less expensive than the Lanaset dyes, and it is available in an enormous range of colors.

The acid dyes found in all-purpose dyes are acid leveling dyes, also known as the Kiton or Strong Acid dyes. These dyes are not very washfast at all, and they are not a very good choice for direct dye application, such as rainbow dyeing or dye painting; instead, they are at their best when a single solid color is required. The Kiton Acid dyes are considerably more economical when mail-ordered in jars of two ounces or larger than when they are purchased at local stores in to form of all-pupose dye. I do not recommend them for direct dye application such as your dip dyeing methods, because the other types of dye I described give better results.


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

Name: Darlene

Message: I bought a "100% cotton" white dress online with the intention of dying it black, however, upon receipt, I discovered the lining of the dress is 65% polyester and only 35% cotton.  I know that polyester does not dye well at all.  I believe only the lining would be a problem, however, I would like your opinion.  Should I abandon my hopes of dying this dress?  Thanks.

I've had that problem. I ordered a 100% cotton skirt from Land's End years ago, and was shocked to find it was fully lined with a 100% synthetic acetate lining. At that time I had no idea that "100% cotton" did not refer to the entire garment. I was pretty disappointed in that case because the synthetic fiber lining made the skirt uncomfortable to wear in hot weather, the purpose for which I'd bought the skirt.

Will it bother you to have a black dress with a medium-light grey lining? That is what you'll get. If the lining does not show and this doesn't bother you, then go right ahead. If a grey lining will not look right, than I'd advise you to skip it.

Now do keep in mind that almost all 100% cotton clothing is dyed with polyester thread. Since the thread does not take dye, you will inevitably end up with contrasting-color stitching. Whether or not this is a problem depends on the style of the garment, the contrast between your starting and ending colors, and your personal taste.

Do not dye your cotton dress with a hot water dye such as all purpose dye. Popular brands of all-purpose dye include Rit® All Purpose Tint and Dye and Tintex® Easy Fabric Dye. These dyes are completely unsuitable for dyeing a lined cotton garment, because the hot water will cause the cotton to shrink more than the lining, which will destroy the shape of the dress as well as its fit. It is very important in cases like this to use only cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. There is an additional problem with all-purpose dye, which is that it does not last long before fading in the laundry, and its bleeding in the laundry tends to ruin other clothes if you do not sort carefully. In any case, you must use far more dye powder to dye anything black than you would for a lighter color.

While polyester can be dyed by boiling it at length with disperse dyes, I can't recommend it. The investment in purchasing a suitable dyepot (not to be used for food again) is significant, and the cotton in the dress would shrink horribly if the dress were to be boiled at all, but extensive boiling is required in order to dye polyester.

A lot of commercial garments can be redyed successfully, but there's never any guarantee that it will work. Sometimes one part of the garment will take the dye more intensely than another part, due to having been cut from a different bolt of fabric. This can be impossible to detect until it is too late. The very best results in dyeing your own clothes call for buying PFD (Prepared For Dyeing) or RTD (Ready To Dye) garments sold specifically for the purpose of garment dyeing.

One last but very important point. Is your dress labeled as being machine-washable? Lined garments that are marked "dry clean only" should never be dyed, but if it's washable, you can dye it  with a cool water dye.

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

Name: Spressi

Message: Have you tried the instant-set silk dyes offered by FunWithSilk.com?
I was interested in them, but haven't seen any information about them.
Apparently they do not require heat setting.

No, I have not tried them. I tend to prefer a watercolor blended-color effect on fabric, so I'm not as attracted by the claim that the dye sets instantly on contact. The product stays exactly where you put it, which can be a good thing for some uses. You cannot use salt or alcohol on them for special effects as you can with acid dyes or with heat-set silk paints. The colors are said to be bright and not at all subtle, and to yield unpredictable colors when diluted (especially the black). The main purpose for which the Colorhue Instant Set Silk Dyes are promoted appears to be in dyeing silk ribbons. 

I believe that Colorhue Instant Set Silk dye is almost certainly actually a pigment dye, otherwise known as fabric paint: that is, it contains a finely ground pigment plus an acrylic binder that attaches the particles to the fiber. Pigment dyes are not actually dyes at all, but instead fabric paints which act very much like a dye.

The website for Things Japanese claims that Colorhue Silk Dye is a fiber reactive dye that works on silk, wool, rayon, and linen, but there is no evidence that I can find anywhere to indicate that it is even a dye at all, rather than a fabric paint. If it is a reactive dye, it makes no sense for it to work well on both plant and animal fibers with no added acid or base in either case. Rayon and linen simply cannot be dyed by reactive dyes at the low pHs required for dyeing wool; cellulose requires a high pH in order to react with any reactive dye. Only direct dye, or a fabric paint, can be used on both extremes of fiber content with no shift in formula. Given the method by which the Colorhue "dye" is used, it cannot be a direct dye, so it must be a fabric paint, similar perhaps to Jacquard Product's Dye-na-flow fabric paint, but with a catalyst included so that the acrylic binder would set at room temperature, without requiring heat-setting.

On the other hand, Things Japanese does mention that there is no guarantee of colorfastness on cotton, which, like linen and rayon, is a cellulose fiber. Perhaps it is an acid dye, like the French silk dyes, but with some polymer, similar to those used in fabric paints, added to set the dye. It might include similar ingredients to Jacquard Products' Permanent Dyeset Concentrate, a product that is intended for use with Green Label Silk Colors Remazol Dyes on silk; Permanent Dyeset Concentrate is sometimes used with Sennelier Tinfix dyes, which are mostly acid dyes, as a substitute for steam-setting.

If you try the Colorhue Instant Set Silk "dye", I would be happy to learn what you think of it.


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

Name: Angela

Message: Hi,
I apologize, I know you probably get tons of mail, but I am desperate and it looks like if anybody can help it would be you. 

I make diaper covers from felted wool interlock for cloth diapered babies. I have been washing machine dying using Jacquard acid dyes. Some customers are experiencing bleeding. When I inquired with Jacquard they said I cannot washing machine dye, I need to reach 200 degrees. So... I've been LWI dying in the microwave. It's not going well. I get dye freckles (although I've learned a lot about that here tonight) and it's too time consuming. I use a lot of yardage. I go through about 50 yards prefelting per month. 

So my basic question is if there is an efficient way to washing machine dye wool yardage. I want some felting but also don't want to over do it with long, extra hot agitation. Is acid dye not the way to go if I cannot acieve that temperature? I need a realistic way to dye 10-15 yards a week. Or maybe I need an efficient (home friendly) way to fix the dye to be more colorfast after the garment is constructed?

If washfastness on wool is very important to you, then I strongly recommend that you try an entirely different group of dye which is far more washfast than the line of acid dyes that you have been using. The most washfast dyes for wool that are suitable for home use are the Lanaset dyes. If you look at washfastness figures for dyes, you will see that acid dyes are tested with wash water that is not at all hot, at 105°F, but Lanaset dyes are tested at 140°F, which is hotter than many people's washing machines even get. A dye that does not wash out in hot water is obviously much better than one which does not wash out in lukewarm water!

The washfastness of the different colors of Jacquard Acid Dyes are highly variable. Some of the acid dyes perform better than others. Some of them are actually acid leveling dyes, which are a type of dye that is noted for not being at all washfast. Look at Jacquard's excellent table about their acid dyes to see the range in wash fastness between the different dyes (when tested by washing at 105°F). The dyes which are listed with a "5" are very washfast in cool water, but the ones listed as a 1 or a 2, such as Sapphire Blue or Violet, are extremely poor at surviving washing. Just sticking to the dyes that are listed as more washfast on this table would go a long way toward improving your situation. Even the best dyes on that particular chart are far less washfast than the Lanaset dyes, however.

The one drawback to Lanaset dyes is that they are expensive, but you do not need to use nearly as much dye in order to get a comparable dye color, so it's worth it. They are also particularly beautiful, rich dyes. Lanaset Jet Black is the only black dye I recommend for use on wool, because it is so superior to alternative black dyes, but the other colors are much appreciated by dyers, as well. I believe that people would be more interested in buying your diaper covers if they are more resistant to fading in the laundry than other diaper covers. Be sure to talk this up in your labeling or advertising.

You can mail-order Lanaset dyes from a number of different suppliers. Try a web search. For more information on Lanaset dyes, see my pages, Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers and Which Lanaset dye colors are pure, rather than mixtures?.

The one big drawback to Lanaset dyes is that I would not use them in the washing machine. Then again, as you saw, there are issues with using acid dyes in the washing machine. The 140°F limit on most home water heaters is a major problem for getting the best bond between acid dye and fabric. You're really much better off at dyeing temperatures closer to simmering.

Using the microwave is easy, but it's not giving you the results you need. I recommend that you start using the stovetop instead. For solid colors, you can get excellent results if you buy an enormous non-aluminum cooking pot and simmer your fabric in the dye at the temperature recommended in a good reliable recipe. For rainbow designs and hand-painted designs, you will want to steam-set your designs, instead. You can do this with acid dyes or with Lanaset dyes. The recipe for rainbow dyeing with Lanaset dyes that is given by PRO Chemical & Dye is good. First presoak your wool in vinegar water, then paint on your designs as you please, having laid out your cover on a sheet of plastic wrap. When you have done painting, wrap the cover up in the plastic wrap, still quite wet with the dye, and steam it, with the lid on, above boiling water, for half an hour, just as you would steam a vegetable. The results are much more reliable than you can get in the microwave, since the pattern in which the energy reaches the inside of the microwave is inevitably uneven, unless you use a microwave steamer so that steam is evenly distributed throughout your fabric. Look at ProChem's instructions for this method of steaming.

You can also buy large steamers which are intended mainly for dyeing hand-painted silk yardage. These are a significant investment but might eventually be worth your while since you are going through so much fabric. Look at the following pages at Dharma Trading Company: Building Your Own Stovetop Silk Steamer, Stove Top Steamer, and The Vertical Electric Steamer.

One final point: although they would solve your problem with bleeding dyes, I do not recommend the use of cationic dye fixatives such as Retayne for use on baby clothes.

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

Name: Andrea

Message: Hi, my name is Andrea!  I’m an 8th grade student who is conducting a science fair project to determine if the fabric content of a tee shirt affects the brightness and colorfastness when tie dyeing.  I found your website in my research and it is a tremendous help.  I would like to use you as a subject expert, and am hoping that you can answer a few quick questions.

1. I am going to compare the results of tie dying three blends of T-shirt fabric with the same dye -- 50% cotton/50% polyester, 90% cotton/10% polyester, and 100% cotton.  Would all-purpose or direct dye be a better choice?
2. Do 100% cotton or fabric blends generally absorb more color? 
3. And do some colors of dye last longer and stay brighter than others?

Direct dye is a better choice than all-purpose dye, because you cannot identify what is in any all-purpose dye. In a scientific presentation, you want to be able to specify what chemicals you used, but it is impossible to find out what specific dyes have been used in any packet of all-purpose dye. I think it looks a lot better to be able to say that you used "Colour Index Reactive Red 2" or "Colour Index Direct Blue 98", since these are generic names that refer to specific chemicals, instead of just saying "Rit® All-Purpose Tint And Dye #33 Aubergine", which might contain an entirely different set of chemicals by this time next year, for all we know. We never know what is in the dye mixtures made by the Rit® dye company (Phoenix Brands), but we do know what dye chemicals are in specific unmixed single-hue reactive or direct dyes, if you purchase them from a good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye.

You will find that no commonly used dye that works on cotton will work on polyester; instead, it will just wash out of the polyester fiber, leaving it undyed. A cotton/polyester blend will dye more intensely than 100% polyester, if you use a cotton dye such as reactive dye or direct dye (or all purpose dye), and 100% cotton will dye more intensely still.

If you find a tie-dye kit at your local crafts store, you can use that and know exactly what dyes you have, unless you choose a Rit brand tie-dye kit. Tie-dye kits made by Dritz, Tulip, Dylon, Rainbow Rock, or Jacquard Products all use the same kinds of fiber reactive dye. If they contain turquoise, yellow, and fuchsia dye, then you know that the turquoise is Colour Index Reactive Blue 140, the fuchsia is Colour Index Reactive Red 11, and the yellow dye is Colour Index Reactive Yellow 86. Otherwise, I recommend that you mail-order dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye according to the list of unmixed single hue Diazol Direct dyes on my page About Direct Dyes, since these direct dyes have known generic names and identities. If you mail-order reactive dyes, there are more sources for Procion MX type dyes with known generic names, which you can see listed on my chart of Which Procion MX Dyes are Pure rather than Mixed?. 

All of these dyes work well on cotton and poorly on polyester. In order to do well at dyeing polyester, you need to use a completely different type of dye which is called disperse dye.

It is important, I think, to use a single-hue mixed dye for this sort of experiment. It's too confusing when one dye in a premixed color works better than another, so, for example, a green dye mixture may shift to be more turquoise or more yellow on different fibers.

You are welcome to list me as your subject expert. If you need any information about me to use, see the August 28, 2007 entry in this blog. If you send further questions about your project, I will attempt to answer them.


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

OK, I got everything now [Procion MX dye, soda ash, and Synthrapol], so what method do I do since I can't use the washing machine? I want a nice solid bright color.

You'll need to use a large bucket. A five-gallon bucket is ideal. You can get these at the hardware store, or sometimes for free from a restaurant. The bucket needs to be large enough for the fabric to move freely in, when you stir it in the water plus dye. If the clothing cannot move freely in the water when stirred, you will get uneven results, with some areas of the fabric darker than others. 

You will also need something to stir with: a long-handled plastic spoon, or a nice clean stick. Don't use a metal spoon unless it is stainless steel, because other metals will react with the soda ash.

You will need to buy a lot of salt. Any sort of salt will work. It doesn't really matter whether it is iodized salt or not, although it is traditional to use non-iodized salt. You can get it at the grocery store, probably about two boxes. What you have in the kitchen already will probably not be enough. For a five-gallon bucket, you will want to prepare a three-gallon dyebath, which will require about three cups of salt for every pound of fabric. How much do your jeans weigh? Do you have a scale you can weight them on? They might be about one pound. 

Before you try to dye them, you want your jeans to be as white as possible, without destroying them with bleach. This you can do in the washing machine without alarming your mother. (Dyeing in a washing machine will also not hurt it, but there is no reason to alarm your mother, when you can use a large plastic bucket instead.) Be careful not to pour the bleach on your clothing. Assuming that you have a top-opening washing machine, fill the washing machine with water first and add the bleach. Run the machine for a minute or two, to allow the bleach to mix with the water, and then add the clothing to the washer and allow the cycle to complete, including rinsing. If you have a front-loading washing machine, the instructions for bleaching may be different, but your mother or father will probably be able to help you. I am not sure how much bleach you should use. Try one cup of chlorine bleach (also labeled household bleach) in a full washing machine. If this is not sufficient, repeat with a larger amount of bleach. Make sure that all of the bleach is rinsed out of your clothing before you try to dye it.

If your jeans are not white, you will get a different, darker color with your purple dye than if you dye something that is white. Blue jeans will produce completely different results than white ones, and not nearly as bright. The results of dyeing blue jeans can still be very good, however. If you bleach blue jeans, you may be able to get them to a pale shade of blue, but you will not be able to get them completely white. The bleach will damage the fiber a little, making your jeans softer but also likely to get holes in them more quickly. For best results, buy some white 100% cotton jeans.

You will want to work in an area where you will not ruin the floor if you spill a little dye. Ceramic tile or vinyl sheet flooring is ideal. If you must work in a room that has carpeting, you will need to use something plastic to protect the carpet. An old plastic shower curtain is great for this, if it does not have any holes in the middle, or a plastic drop cloth. If you spill a little dye on a vinyl or tile kitchen or bathroom floor, you should be able to wash it up, but dye spilled on the grout between tiles can make a permanent stain. You can work with your bucket outside, but you will need to have access to warm water. If it's already cold where you live, the hose water will not be warm enough. You can carry smaller bucketsful of warm water from inside.

You said earlier that you'd ordered three different shades of purple. You will want to do a little test to decide which is the color you want. Mix a tiny amount of dye powder with water, and spread it on a white cotton rag, a piece of white paper, or a white paper towel, to see how it looks. This will give you a rough idea of the color.

Be careful not to wear good clothes while you use dye. Small spatters of dye can ruin a garment. Wear old clothes or clothing that will not be ruined by spots of color.

You will need a small glass or plastic pitcher or quart jar to mix your dye in before you add it to the dye bath in the five-gallon bucket. Start by adding just a spoonful or so of water to your dye powder. Be careful not to breathe the dye powder, as it can cause allergies. Wear a dust mask while mixing your dye powder because it can puff up into the air. After you have mixed your dye with a little water until it is like a paste, add a little more water, stir it in, and then add more water. Leave the dye to sit for a little while, then come back and stir some more. Sometimes the red dye in the mixture is difficult to dissolve; it can make tiny red dots on your fabric. If you want to be careful to avoid this, you can strain your dye, after you dissolve it in water, by pouring it through either a coffee filter or the toe-end of a nylon stocking or discarded panty hose. By filtering your dye mixture, you can avoid getting red dots caused by tiny clumps of dye. The dots are very tiny and some people do not mind them, and not all jars of dye form clumps like this. Some people use a tablespoon of urea for each cup of the water that they dissolve their dyes in, to make it dissolve a little more easily; this is optional but will do no harm. Urea is not nearly as important in bucket dyeing as it is in tie-dyeing.

How much dye should you use? For a medium shade close to the color of the dye chip shown by the company where you bought your dyes, use about a tablespoon of dye powder. Use more for a darker or more intense color; use less for a paler color.

Now you can start to create your dyebath. Put three gallons of warm water into your five-gallon bucket. If you have a measuring cup, one gallon is sixteen cups or four quarts. Dissolve your salt in this warm water by stirring. After the salt is completely dissolved, add your dye. Stir the dye in. After the dye is completely dissolved, add your clothing. Stir it every minute or two, for twenty minutes. This is to allow the dye to distribute throughout the fabric.

Now, dissolve your soda ash in a jar or large measuring cup of water, using a plastic or stainless steel spoon to stir it. This is easiest in water that is about 95°F, near body temperature. Soda ash is more difficult to dissolve in cold or hot water. You will want to use about one-third cup of soda ash for every pound of fabric. Once it is dissolved, add just a little bit of the soda ash to your dyebath, stirring frequently. It is only after you add the soda ash that the dye will start to react with the cotton fiber in your jeans. Adding it a little at a time helps to make the final color more solid and smooth. Add one-third of the soda ash, stir it constantly for five minutes, add another one-third of the soda ash, stir constantly for another five minutes, then add the last part of the soda ash, and stir constantly for another five minutes. The stirring is very important if you want a single smooth solid color. Continue to stir at least once per minute for another forty-five minutes, to allow the dye time to react with the cotton, in the presence of the soda ash.

When you are done with the dyebath, after about an hour, you can dump out the dye and wash your jeans in the washing machine. You can rinse them first in cool water. You can do this outside with the hose if you like. You want to rinse or wash out all of the soda ash-containing dyebath before you use hot water on the jeans. After you have rinsed or washed them in cool water, you will need to wash them in hot water. Synthrapol is a detergent that is ideal for this. You can use other detergents instead, though, if you have to. Wash your freshly dyed clothing twice in very hot water to remove the excess unattached dye.

The above method, using a five-gallon bucket, is exactly like the washing machine method, except that you use only one-eighth as much of everything as you would use in the washing machine. For more information, see the following page:

How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?

Please let me know how your dyeing goes.


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

Name: Gwendolyn

Message: I have 3 velvet halloween costumes.  Two are white and one is cream.  I need to dye the cream colored one to silver.  One of the white ones needs to be dark green and the other a dark purple.  I was told by a cleaner that velvet cannot be dyed, is this true?

It all depends on the fiber content. Cotton velveteen, silk velvet, and rayon velvet are all very easy to dye. Unfortunately, my experience is that anyone who fails to specify the fiber content of their fabric, as you did, has polyester. Polyester is essentially impossible for the novice dyer to dye at home.

However, dyeing is not the only possible answer to your problem. Instead of using dye, you can use a high quality fabric paint. The problem with painting velvet is the the paint may stick the little hairs that make up the nap of the velvet together. You will have to dilute your fabric paint with water before applying it. A thin dye-like paint such as Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow will be best for painting velvet.

A metallic color such as silver is impossible to achieve with dye, anyway. You must use a metallic fabric paint, such as Lumiere, in order to get a metallic silver appearance on your fabric.

Don't use regular hard-surface paint, instead of fabric paint, unless you have no alternative, because it will leave a very harsh, stiff feeling on fabric. Fabric paint is softer and much more pleasant to the touch.

If your local crafts store does not carry good fabric paint, you can order it from Dharma Trading Company or from Dick Blick Art Materials. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World", for contact information for these and other suppliers.


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

I'm making a Star Wars costume with my daughter. I want to dye a white cotton/lycra unitard to be a chartreuse (yellow/green) color. Which of the Procion MX Dyes should I use to get this color? LemonYellow and Olive green? This is the dye color page:
http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/Store/JacquardProcionDyes.shtml
Here's the color I want to match:
http://www.lucasfan.com/interviews/oola04.jpg
Thanks.

I agree that a mixture of lemon yellow and olive green should give you approximately the correct color. This type of dye, Procion MX, is the best choice for a cotton/spandex unitard, because it can be applied in warm water (70°F to 90°F), which will not harm the Lycra at all. You will also need soda ash (also known as sodium carbonate), to set the dye.

There is more than one way to get a reasonably close copy of a particular color. The Jacquard Procion MX color mixing table suggests a large amount of lemon yellow and a tiny amount of medium blue (Jacquard Procion MX Medium Blue 072) to mimic the color of Chartreuse liquor. 

It is impossible to predict exact color results, but anything that is a slightly greenish yellow will probably work for that costume. I see some brown in the color on the page you sent the address to, as well. This would make olive green a good choice for mixing with the lemon yellow, because olive green contains a bit of brown.

If you want to be very precise in color matching, you must do some tests in advance, dyeing small swatches of cotton fabric. I confess that what I generally do for Halloween costumes is make my best guess and then go with it, without testing. Keep in mind that it is much easier to dye again to get a darker color, if you start out too light, than it is to remove excess color if you get it too dark.

For a perfect solid color, use the recipe for dyeing in a washing machine (though this requires a larger quantity of dye). For a slightly mottled or variegated appearance, let me recommend low water immersion dyeing, also known by the abbreviation LWI, as it is the easiest of all methods of dyeing, and the slightly mottled appearance can be ideal. For instructions, see How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing.

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

Name: Laura

Message: Hi,

I have never batiked before and have come up with a school (30 students) class project that sounds easy but I can not find instructions or anyone who has done it...I want to have each student do their own batik of a carved halloween pumpkin. Advice me if I am off base:

Cut each child apprx. square muslin cloth. Have each child color on paper their 3 colored vision. white, orange, (purple or black to be determined). Have kids first wax in white colors on muslin, dye orange, have kids was in orange color, dye either black or purple...dye black, iron or some other way get wax out...as we are mass producing...does this seem like it should be simple...each kid would have created their own pumpkin...fat, skinny, short tall, some eyes will be white, some black some backgrounds black, some white...some have white or orange decoration in background, etc....

Does it sound like it "should" be easy? or I am trying for too much as I am not a crafty person at all but I thought it would make an awesome long term decoration for families home...what do you think...please add any and all suggestion!

I have to say that I am terrified at the idea of children playing with 230°F melted wax. There's too much risk of permanent serious injury. There are substitutes you can use instead of wax, however. See "Immersion Dyeing with a Soluble Resist", for a very suitable example.

You can do the overdying business just as you describe, but don't try to do purple over orange. Dye is transparent, so purple added on top of orange is not going to be purple OR orange. Black on top of orange will work fine.

Do not use a hot-water dye, such as the all-purpose dyes sold under the brand names Rit, Tintex, or Deka. Instead, use a good cool water reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye. You can buy this dye by mail-order from any of the companies listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World page, such as Amazon or Dick Blick. Or, you may be able to find Dylon Permanent Dye at your local fabric store, which is a good fiber reactive dye with the fixative already mixed in; if so, you will need to mix up a fresh packet of dye powder for each class period you use it in. Make sure that your muslin cloth is 100% cotton and not treated with any permanent-press or stain-resistant coating. Buy soda ash along with your dye, to use as a dye fixative.

Instead of wax, I recommend that you use some sort of water-soluble wax substitute or gutta substitute. You could use fabric paint (or, even better, glow-in-the-dark fabric paint!); if it is applied thickly enough, it will repel the dye. You could use any of the various products sold as "water soluble gutta", which are substitutes for the solvent-dissolved rubber of real gutta. Or, you could use Elmer's Washable Blue School Gel glue. (Do NOT use white glue!) The glue works well as a resist, and has an added advantage in that it is sold in a handy dispenser bottle.

When using Elmer's Washable Blue School Gel glue, let it dry completely before painting on the dye; use a hair dryer if necessary to get it dry quickly enough. The glue must be applied heavily enough to soak right through to the back of the fabric, a little. The dye must also be totally dry on the fabric before adding the next layer of resist, regardless of what you use as a resist, even wax. The glue will get sticky when immersed in dye and can transfer to another piece of fabric, or, if the fabric is folded or crumpled, onto another region of the same piece of fabric. Immersion can still be done, with care, or you can gently apply your dye like paint. You can dissolve all of your dye at one time (it will stay good for a week or two, or longer if refrigerated), but you will want to separate out the amount of dye you are painting with, each class period, and add the soda ash fixative to the dye just before use. Each batch of dye will go bad within an hour after the soda ash is added, so timing is very important. 

If you use a paintbrush to apply dye to fabric that has been presoaked in soda ash, as in the standard tie-dyeing recipe, the brush will carry enough soda ash from the fabric to the dye jar to cause it to start to react right in the jar, which will mean that it will go bad after an hour or so, so be sure, if you do this, to pour out just enough dye for each use, so your dye stock solution will stay good for the whole project. As long as you pour out just enough dye to use, this is a fine way to do it. For children of this age, I think it would be best for you to apply the dye, instead of the children; since you'll be using a cool water dye, you can mix it up in an immersion dye bath in a large plastic bucket.

The dye will be lighter at the end of the project, after it dries and you wash out the unattached excess dye, so be sure that everyone applies their dye to be very dark.

When the time comes to wash out the glue and the excess dye, follow the instructions on the glue bottle: presoak for at least ten minutes in cool water before washing. You can wash out all the pictures in one load of laundry. Wash once in cool water and then at least twice in very hot water.


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

Name: Meg

Message: I have a 100% hemp top and skirt that was a kind of mauve color but had too much brown in it.  Using Tintex dye and a hot water bath, I tried to dye them "dark plum".  I tried two times, using two packets -- but still too much brown.  Then I used two packets at once and stirred the almost boiling water for 50 minutes.  I rinsed in the bathtub in lukewarm warm water  turning to cold, then put them in the washing machine on gentle cycle for a couple of minutes (cold water), then put them in the dryer for 15 minutes.  No shrinkage, the fabric is fine but -- still too much brown!  Should I try once more with another color to obliterate the brown and keep the deep plum?  Thank you very much (this is like the hemp pants question but the opposite, I guess).

There is no getting around the fact that dye is transparent. It is easy to change purple into brown by adding some yellow, but it is impossible to turn brown into purple, unless the brown is very light in color and the purple rich and deep.

The only way to really remove the brown is just that - to remove it. You can't cover it up with purple. You can cover it up with black, however.

There are two different ways, speaking generally, to remove dye. One is to break it up with an oxidative bleach, such as ordinary household bleach. This often works, but it can be hard on the fibers. Hemp is a strong cellulose-based fiber, though, so I expect that it can probably handle it. The other is to use a reductive discharge, such as Tintex Color Remover or Rit Color Remover. These are gentler to the fiber and can also be used for silk and some synthetics. Some dyes are easier to remove with Color Remover, some with bleach, and a few cannot be removed at all. (Here's a link to my page about discharge chemicals.)

Once you have removed the brown, you can try again with the purple. I personally much prefer cool water fiber reactive dyes, rather than hot water all-purpose dyes such as Tintex or Rit, because they are easier to use (no need for cooking) and are much more resistant to fading when washed. If you want to use Tintex without having the wash-fading problem, you can apply a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne. This can be purchased in some fabric stores, but is easier to find by mail-order.


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

Name: Catherine

Message: I know that your site reccommends either spot-treating a bleach spot with a similar colored pen/marker, or removing the color entirely and redying the item. Will those methods be safe for a 100% cotton shirt that already has screen printing on it?

100% cotton is the safest material to use bleach on. I don't think that most screen printing is affected by bleach. 

If you can find a similar shade of fabric marker, that's safe for any fiber at all. 

Also, I'm confused on mixing the Procion MX colors to achieve a baby/sky blue color. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

What Procion MX dye you should use to get a sky color depends. There are many shades of blue sky. I would recommend using a small amount of blue MX-R (variously called sky blue, basic blue, or medium blue by different suppliers), or a small amount of blue MX-G (cerulean blue), or a small amount of turquoise MX-G (turquoise), or a small amount of a half-and-half mixture of blue MX-G and turquoise MX-G. (See "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?" to convert the generic name into the name used by your dye supplier.)

The key is to use a sufficiently small amount of dye. If you would normally use four teaspoons per cup of dye concentrate (that's for tie-dyeing), try using only one-half teaspoon of dye. If you would use five tablespoons of dye in the washing machine, try using one five teaspoons, or less. Remember that it is easier to redye something darker than it is to remove too much dye.

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

Name: Najah

Message: I'd like to try and dye a white polyester dress into ivory or camel. I know that poly doesn't take well to dying, but I'd really like to try. What natural ingredients can I use, and how should I do it? You're expertise is greatly appreciated.

You will need to boil a polyester dress for an hour or more to get it to take any dye. Is the dress up to this kind of abuse? Not if it is labeled "dry clean only" or "wash in warm water". Even hot water is generally below 140°F, far below the 212°F of boiling water. The dress might survive this treatment, though.

As a general rule, polyester dyes very poorly with natural dyes. It is chemically very much unlike any natural fiber. Natural dyes almost always perform very poorly compared to synthetic dyes, but even most synthetic dyes will not work on polyester. You cannot dye polyester with any ordinary dye, only a special kind of dye called disperse dye. (All-purpose dye, such as Rit®, will not work on polyester, and neither will the fiber reactive dyes that work so well on cotton and other cellulose fibers.)

What you can try is boiling your dress in very strong coffee. It will only take a light tan color if you do so, but that happens to be your goal in this case, so it's doable. Unfortunately, since nylon takes dye much better than polyester, any nylon trim will, take on a distinctly brown shade that contrasts oddly with the beige of the coffee-dyed polyester. However, most clothing is sewn together with polyester thread, so the stitching will probably match the fabric rather well.

One thing I cannot tell you is how to get rid of the strong coffee smell that the dress will also take on. Letting it air out for a year in a well-ventilated area will probably do it. Any washing that removes the smell will probably also remove much of the coffee color.

You could also experiment with extensively boiling your dress with walnut husks instead of coffee. I do not know if this will work, but it might, since coffee does.

As a rule, natural dyes on polyester will be much less resistant to fading in the laundry than the disperse dyes made for use on polyester would be.


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

Name: Lou

Message: I purchased a brand name pair of denims and found that the color rubs off on my other clothes while wearing them.  How do I stop the blue denim color from running?  Thank you so much in advance for your time on this issue.  

Try washing them several times in hot water. If this does not work, then your jeans have a manufacturing defect and should be returned to the store from which you bought them.

When dye rubs off of a dry garment, this defect is called 'crocking'. It is usually a sign that the dye was applied incorrectly. Indigo dye should be applied in multiple dips in a weaker dye solution, rather than a single long dip in an overly strong dye solution.

Since the molecules of indigo dye have a neutral charge, they will not attract a molecule with a positive charge as most dyes will. This means that cationic dye fixatives such as Retayne will not work. It is only by proper dyeing procedure that the molecules of indigo dye can become lodged within the fiber for permanent dyeing.


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

Name: hannah

Message: My husband got bleach on a plain khaki polo shirt. If I dye it a dark chocolate brown, will it cover the bleach stain? thanks.

Probably not, but it might work, if you dye it dark enough. 
Since dye is transparent, the bleach stain will always be a little lighter than the rest of the shirt. 

The easiest and often best solution is to find a fabric marker in the same color as the shirt, and color over the bleach spot.

See "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", in the FAQ section of my website.


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

Name: Elisheva

Message: I would like to tie dye a huge amount of clothing using procion MX. Is there a recipe for using the ENTIRE bottle (the smaller ones) in one batch so that I dont have to sit there measuring 40 something teaspoons of dye? that way I can use what I need and store the rest...

also, I have been tie dying using DEKA (until now) and dying in large buckets, is this a waste of dye? Should I just be using squirt bottles instead?

and last but not least...is soda ash good for any dye...like DEKA? thanks so much!

No, soda ash is not good for DEKA dye. DEKA Series L dye is a type of all-purpose dye, like Rit® Tint & Dye or Tintex® Easy Fabric Dye.  There is no point in using soda ash with any all-purpose dye. It does nothing to help attach the dye to the fiber. All-purpose dye is extremely poorly washfast unless you apply a cationic dye fixative afterwards, such as Retayne.

Soda ash is essential for dyeing with Procion MX dye, and other cool water fiber reactive dyes. You can buy it as sodium carbonate from a swimming pool supply store, usually (don't buy BIcarbonate, though).

You will get much better results in tie-dyeing if you use Procion MX dye instead of DEKA Series L dye. You will find much more versatility in using the squirt-bottle method rather than the bucket or washing machine method, but buckets and washing machines are preferable if you want to dye things a single solid color. I would not use squirt bottles with any hot-water dye, such as DEKA L. It can be done, if you steam the garments afterwards to set the dye, but steaming is a big step, and cool water dyes are much less trouble.

I don't know how large the bottles of Procion MX dye you are using may be. This detail is very important if you will be using the entire jar! If you are using the small Jacquard brand Procion MX dye jars, then they contain approximately 2/3 ounce each, or about 19 grams of dye powder. (Some jars might contain a little bit more, unpredictably.) Depending on how bright a color you want, this is enough to dye approximately 3 to 6 square yards of fabric or 3 T-shirts, according to the Jacquard Products web site. 

The washing machine dyeing instructions at the PRO Chemical & Dye website say that, for a washing machine load of 5 pounds of fabric, you should use 13 grams of dye for a pastel shade, 38 grams of dye powder for a medium shade, 75 grams of dye powder for a dark shade, or 150 grams of dye powder for a dark shade. Unless you want to dye very pale shades, you may need several of the little 19-gram jars of Jacquard Dye powder, or you may wish to order two-ounce (58 gram) jars from another dye supplier. You can also order 8-ounce jars of Jacquard Procion MX dye, or larger.

Note that one teaspoon is equivalent to 5 milliliters. One tablespoon is three teaspoons. One-quarter cup of dye is four tablespoons, or twelve teaspoons. One cup of dye is sixteen tablespoons, or 48 teaspoons.

For tie-dyeing, I like to use about four teaspoons of dye for one 8-ounce plastic squirt bottle of dye mixture, or twice that for black. Now, different dye colors weight different amounts. For repeatable results, it is better to dye by weighing your dye instead of using teaspoons. On average, though, we might guess that four teaspoons weighs about 10 grams. If I were using the small 2/3 ounce jars of dye powder, I'd want to mix them with about two cups of water for a standard tie-dye dye concentration. All this is highly variable, of course, depending on how intense you like your colors. I'd usually rather err on the side of using too much dye, rather than too little, but this is a matter of personal taste.

Please join the dye forum: http://www.pburch.net/forum for further discussion of how to use dyes.


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

Name: sally

Message: Help.  Is there any way that a sinamay (natural fibre) hat can be dyed.  I have a cream sinamay that has faded in the sun, but I love it and would like to revive it,  I know there are sprays that you can get, but is there a way of dying an already blocked hat.  Look forward to hearing from you.

Sinamay is a plant fiber, made primarily of cellulose or other carbohydrate fibers, and therefore can probably be dyed just like cotton.

Any type of dye you use will require that the hat be washed as pat of the dyeing process, which means that the hat will lose its shape and have to be reblocked. You might be able to use a spray fabric paint, instead of dye, if you apply it very lightly and let it dry between applications.

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

Name: Joanne

Message: Hi

I am writing on the off chance that you may be able to help me.  My sister is getting married and brought myself and her friend our bridesmaids dresses off the peg some time ago.  I noticed yesterday when trying mine on that the dye was tranferring to my skin, just from trying it on my hands were dyed purpley black.  

The dresses are black and are made of Polymide [nylon], is there anything that you can suggest to make the dye stay put and stop transferring to avoid a disaster on the day??  The label says Dry Clean only.

I'm sorry, this is a sad situation. When dye rubs when the garment is dry, it is called crocking. Crocking is a sign that the dye was either not applied correctly, or not washed properly after dyeing. I would recommend that you get the dresses cleaned before you wear them. If they still crock badly after they have been cleaned, you should throw them away and buy different dresses to wear, instead. Hand-washing in water might remove the dye more effectively, but it might also ruin the dresses, since they are labeled dry clean only.

Ideally, the dresses should be returned to wherever your sister bought them, for a full refund, because they are defective, even if it has been some times since they were purchased. The manufacturer should have made sure that the dye did not crock, before selling the dresses. However, from your story, it sounds as though this may not be possible. It may even be that the dresses were sold at a very cheap price because they were dyed poorly.

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

Name: Ross

Message: Hey I've always wanted to make a pair of purple jeans the color of these, and I found your site and now I sort of understand what to do but I may be a little low on materials. I have pants, but my mom won't let me use the washing machine and I can't order the dye. I have bleach though. So, if I got dye, I'd have to get it from a local store, so what kinda of dye do I get at a local fabric store and what method should I use?

Your problem is that it is possible that your local store will not sell any dyes that are good enough to be worth using. Many don't. If you use a hot-water all-purpose dye, such as Rit® Tint and Dye or Tintex® Easy Fabric dye, your results will be poor in color, will fade quickly, and will bleed in the laundry every time you wash them. If you must use an all-purpose dye, then you should apply it in the hottest water possible, hot enough to scald you at least, and then, when you wash the jeans, never use anything but cool water to wash them, because hot water is what causes the dye to make or break its relatively weak bonds to the fabric. 

If you can find a cool water fiber reactive dye in your local fabric store, that will be the best dye to use. Look for dye labeled "Dylon Cold Dye" or "Dylon Permanent". If you can't find either of those, look for Tulip fabric dye (don't confuse this with Tulip fabric paint) or a tie-dye kit made by Tulip, Duncan, Dritz, or Dylon. Do not use a tie-dye kit labeled with the Rit brand name, because that will be all-purpose dye. If you happen to have a very good art and craft supply store near you, look for Jacquard Procion MX dye, or a Jacquard Tie-Dye kit. If you mix two of the dye colors from a tie-dye kit, the turquoise and the fuchsia, you will get a bright purple color. (Do not add any of the yellow! Yellow is the opposite of purple.)

If you start with jeans that are any color besides white, you will not obtain a purple as bright as that in the picture. If you dye blue jeans, the results will be purple added on top of whatever dark blue you begin with, probably a dark slightly purplish blue. (Try spilling some purple Kool-aid drink on your jeans to get an idea of what color you will see; the Kool-aid will wash out of the jeans the first time you wash them, but it will give you an idea of what adding purple on top of dark blue can do.) If you can find some 100% cotton white jeans, they will be much more suitable for dyeing. Household bleach can be used to lighten the color of the dye in your jeans, though you will be unable to get it all the way to white without severely damaging the fiber. Do not use bleach on any garment that is not 100% cotton, as chlorine bleach is very damaging to synthetic fibers such as polyester or spandex. Also, do not try to dye any clothing that is not made mostly of cotton or other natural fiber. Polyester will not dye well. Be careful when you use bleach, because it is poisonous and can burn you.

You can mail-order dyes without a credit card, if you can get a money order or can get someone to write a check for you. Place your order either online or by telephone, find out the exact amount of the charge (including the cost of shipping), get the check written, mail it to the dye supplier, and then wait until they receive it and the check clears; then they will send your dyes to you. If you are in the US, I recommend that you order Procion MX dye from PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company. (See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World for contact information.) Order some soda ash along with your dyes to use as a fixative.

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

Name: Wendy

Message: I'm looking for a non-toxic dye to dye cushion covers for a couch.  Any suggestions?

Use a cold water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, Remazol dye, or Drimarene K dye. Hot water dyes may shrink your cushion covers so that they no longer fit. 

As far as toxicity is concerned, many Procion HE and Remazol dyes are listed as safe even for baby clothes on the Oeko-Tex Standard 100. You must be careful to avoid breathing any sort of dye powder, wear gloves while dyeing, and wash out all unattached excess dye from your fabric after you have dyed it.

You will need to use soda ash (sodium carbonate) as a fixative for your dye. You can buy Procion MX, Remazol, and Drimarene K dyes by mail order from Batik Oetoro and from Kraftkolour, both of which are located in Australia, as your email address suggests you are. You can find contact information on my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

In Australia, you can also find a cool water fiber reactive dye sold under the Tintex name. Look for "Tintex Low Temp Dye"; avoid "Tintex Hot Water Dye". In North America, all Tintex brand dye is hot-water all-purpose dye, which is not suitable for many purposes that require cool water dyes.

Note that you will not be able to dye your cushion covers if they are made of polyolefin, polypropylene, polyester, or acetate, nor if they have been treated with any sort of stain-resistant finish such as Scotch Guard.

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

Name: Joan

Message: Can you dye silk taffeta wedding dress material for my wedding dress? Starting shade ivory and dyeing into dark pink gradient. Just like the material used in Gwen Steffani's wedding dress.

Are you asking whether someone can do it, or whether I personally can do it? I will not be able to find time to do it for you, but it certainly can be done. Custom dyers never want to dye polyester, but silk is easy to dye. 

Unfortunately, the risk of dyeing an expensive piece of fabric is that it might not work out, in which case another piece of fabric would have to be purchased and the process attempted again. A custom dyer is not going to be interested in taking this financial risk. You have to look at it as an investment, and be willing to pay all of the costs incurred by the dyer.

To find a custom dyer, I'd recommend that you look at the 'Find A Custom Dyer' list on my website, but none of the companies listed there are located in the UK, since no dyers in that area have signed up, so that will not be very helpful if that is where you are located. Try contacting a local tie-dyer, and in any case be sure to allow plenty of time, extra months in fact. If you want to try doing the dyeing yourself, use an acid dye, with a mild acid such as vinegar. Dylon Hand Dye can also be used on silk.

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

Sorry to bother you with questions, but I don't think it's answered on your WONDERFUL website! I'm new to painting on silk and have fallen in love with it.

I took a workshop with a wonderful teacher this summer--Deborah Nathans at Snowfarm, Mass. We used Procion and Sennelier French dyes. Since then I bought the Sennelier dyes  and have been working on my own.

1) Even though I use very little dye at one time, I feel I can smell it and it affects my voice (makes it scratchy sounding)--and I've only used the dyes for a month or so! Do you know anything about the Sennelier dyes and possible toxicity?

I have one slightly scary story. Check out the following Dyeing Q&A blog entry: "Did Sennelier Tinfix Silk Dyes cause my wife's hyperthyroidism?", posted August 30, 2007. My conclusion was that Sennelier dyes probably did not cause this individual's hyperthyroidism; however, the way that the Sennelier company dealt with the situation was, to me, horrifying, since they refused to give any of the required information.

The French silk dyes, including Sennelier Tinfix, Dupont, and Pebeo Soie, are apparently acid and/or basic dyes (depending on the individual color) which have been dissolved in alcohol (ethanol, isopropanol, or another alcohol) and/or water. There is NO information available about which specific dyes might be found in any of these lines of dye.

The French dyes are probably not a huge danger to the artists who use them, but they should be used with care, with good ventilation and with consistent use of gloves. Those who are particularly safety conscious will find the lack of information about the contents of these dyes to be a problem and will prefer to use other dyes, instead, about which more safety information is available, such as the Colour Index (generic) names of the dyes themselves. Since you have been experiencing irritation, I would advise you to discontinue their use, unless you can find a respirator that prevents your irritation altogether. 

Some Sennelier Tinfix silk dyes have been certified to bear the CL Seal of the ACMI, which does NOT indicate that they are non-toxic. The CL Seal is a cautionary seal, for art materials which should not be used by children, which indicates that the materials are labeled for any health risks. (Dick Blick Art Materials describes it as follows: "Products bearing the CL seal of the Art & Creative Materials Institute ("Caution Label") contain ingredients that are toxic or hazardous, but when used in properly supervised and controlled conditions, they can be enjoyed with complete safety.") Sennelier Tinfix Design colors that bear the CL cautionary label include Coral Red, Antique Red, Ruby Red, Ultramarine Violet, Violet, Indian Purple, Madder Purple, Violet Blue, Persian Blue, Celestial Blue, Burnt Sienna, Van Dyck Brown, and Tobacco. The remaining colors of Sennelier Tinfix have been certified to use the AP (Approved Product) Seal of the ACMI, which means that they are considered non-toxic.

An MSDS I have seen for Sennelier Tinxfix dyes claims that they are free of any known hazardous substance, but that is obviously untrue if the alcohol content is high enough to cause as much irritation to you as it has been doing.

I called someone at AO Safety (respirator mfr)  hoping I could use a respirator, but after researching the dyes they didn't seem to think a respirator would help and suggested a fresh air compressor and face mask with tube!

It appears that respirators are not very good at removing alcohol vapor from the air, so clean air must be supplied from outside the area, if the alcohol in the dye mixtures is to be prevented from irritating you as it has been doing. See, for example, the recommendations at the CDC for isopropanol (rubbing alcohol). If the level of alcohol vapor is low, a respirator with an organic vapor cartridge may be sufficient, but if it is high, a positive-pressure supplied-air respirator may be required. I would guess that the level from painting with Sennelier Tinfix dyes would be on the lower end, but I do not know.

2) Do you think the liquid Procion dyes are safer? (I wouldn't want to buy as powder knowing how careful you have to be).

Yes. The liquid fiber reactive dyes, including Procion H, Remazol, and Drimarene K, are dissolved in water, which is not irritating in the same way as you have found alcohol-based dye mixtures to be. Also, the identities of the individual dyes are available, so it is possible to know what you're getting into, which is not possible with the French dyes. I still recommend that you avoid getting the dye on your skin, just to be cautious, but I am less concerned about the safety of most reactive dyes. (Many Procion and Remazol dyes are on the Oeko-Tex 100 list of acceptably safe dyes; see the Oeko-Tex site and Dystar's publication about the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 (PDF).)

You don't really have to avoid buying dye powder out of fear of toxicity, because the precautions are quite easy to make. It is far easier to avoid breathing a powder than it is to avoid breathing a solvent. The dye powder is not dangerous when used with a reasonable amount of care. However, if you don't want to deal with dye powder, you don't have to! Your choices are then, in no particular order:
• liquid Procion H dyes (related to Procion MX dyes, but requiring steaming); you can buy Procion H in liquid form in the US from Jacquard suppliers such as Dharma Trading Company, and in Canada from G&S Dye.
• liquid Remazol dyes, which you can buy in the US from PRO Chemical & Dye, or in more dilute mixtures from Jacquard suppliers as Jacquard Red Label Silk Colors 
• liquid Drimarene K from Batik Oetoro in Australia, for people who are located close enough to them for liquids to not be prohibitively expensive to ship.

It is also possible to mix your own silk paint from acid dyes, but that would require working with dye powder, which you're interested in avoiding.

3) Also, I steamed the silk in my kitchen (won't use the pot or anything for food again) but is it even safe to steam in your kitchen? Would the fumes be toxic?

The amount of fumes in the silk after you have let the dye dry on it, including alcohol-based French dyes, will be minimal to non-existent. Letting the steamer boil dry could produce unpleasant fumes, but that would probably be the least of your worries if that happened. Steam will not, as far as I know, carry any sort of dye particles out of a steamer.


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