Name: cnsathya
Message: Dear Sir, I like to dye cotton yarn in turmeric but came to know it is light fastness is poor. How to improve the light fastness for turmeric dyes.

Turmeric, an inexpensive spice which makes an intensely yellow dye for natural fibers and nylon, is inherently non-lightfast. The only solutions are to store turmeric-dyed items in the dark, keep them out of bright sunlight as much as possible, wash and dry the dyed items  indoors, and then plan on redyeing them every year or so.

Disappointingly, ultraviolet-resistant coatings tend not to extend the lightfastness of dyes. Every test that hand-dyers I know have done with UV-resistant sprays or laundry treatments shows no significant protection at all, and some of these coatings may even increase the sensitivity of dyes to sunlight, probably through by absorbing the light energy from ultraviolet light and passing it on to the dye molecules. I believe that the failure of UV coatings to protect dyes is because the damage is being done by the visible portion of the spectrum, as was described for several dyes in my PhD dissertation. When light strikes a colored molecule, it is the visible portion of the spectrum that is absorbed, converting the energy from the light into energy that is absorbed by the dye molecule. This energy is what ultimately leads to the destruction of the dye molecule.

Most yellow natural dyes suffer from poor lightfastness. For a more lightfast yellow natural dye, use either weld (from the plant Reseda luteola) or quercitron (from the inner bark of the American black oak tree, Quercus velutina). Another traditional yellow natural dye, old fustic (from the tree Morus tinctoria), is less lightfast than quercitron or weld, but it is much more resistant to light than turmeric. Iron buff, obtained by dyeing with the mineral ferrous sulfate, is very light-resistant, but whether it is truly a natural dye is a matter of interpretation. Instructions for dyeing different fibers with each of these dyes, and information about their lightfastness and the lightfastness of other natural dyes, may be found in J. Liles' book, The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing: Traditional Recipes for Modern Use.

If you need a lightfast yellow dye, I recommend that you consider using a synthetic dye. The lightfastness of synthetic dyes varies considerably. In general, the most light-fast of dyes are the vat dyes, which are chemically related to the natural dye indigo. If you look in the vat dye section of my page showing lightfastness ratings for many dyes, you will see that a number of yellow vat dyes have good lightfastness ratings. C.I. vat yellow 33 has a lightfastness rating of 7, on a scale of 1-8. Vat orange 1 and vat orange 7 both have lightfastness ratings varying from 6 to 7 on that scale. Some reactive dyes are also very good. Reactive yellow 86, which is Procion Yellow MX-8G, also has a lightfastness rating of 6-7, and is much easier to apply to fabric than any vat dye; it is readily available from many sources. Other reactive yellows, and all of the reactive oranges, have lower lightfastness ratings, though they are considerably more lightfast than turmeric.

Do not use cationic dye fixatives, such as Retayne, when lightfastness is an issue. Although these dye fixatives are essential to make the washfastness of direct or all-purpose dyes acceptable, they tend to significantly decrease the lightfastness of most dyes that they are used with.

For more information, see the following pages:
• Lightfastness of dyes
• DNA damage and cell lethality by photodynamically-produced oxygen radicals
• I am dyeing silk fabric with natural dyes like tumeric, coffee etc. How do I fix these dyes with natural substances?
• Turmeric dyes practically everything!

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

Name: chalsey
Message: I am wanting to dye a dress for a wedding. The dress comes in ivory and I would like to dye it fuchsia pink. I have attached the link for the dress. I have read lots about dyeing polyester and that it is difficult. Could you let me know if it would be possible to dye this dress? Thank-you. Your input is much appreciated.

No. You cannot dye this dress a solid color (though you could tie-dye it with the right fabric paint). Instead, what you need to do is buy some white silk, dye it to your preferences, then hire a local seamstress to sew the dress for you.

Polyester is a wretched fiber to dye, and it's not nearly as nice to wear as silk is. The only way you can dye that dress will be to mail-order the special kind of polyester dye known as disperse dye, buy a non-aluminum pot large enough to boil the dress in while being able to stir it freely, and boil the dress in the disperse dye for an hour. A hand-wash-only dress like the one you linked to is unlikely to survive treatment that rough. The large enamel or stainless steel dyeing pot would cost almost as much as that dress does, and then you are not supposed to ever use it for food again, because textile dyes are not safe for use in food.

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

For a less expensive and easier dress dyeing project, take a look at the dyeable rayon and cotton dresses at Dharma Trading Company, for example on the following link: Women's Spaghetti Strap Dresses. These dresses will dye better than almost anything else you can buy ready-made, because the fabric is prepared for dyeing, and even the stitching at the seams is made with easy-to-dye cotton thread.

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

Name: Alice

Message: How do I dye polyester or acetate?

Dyeing polyester or acetate requires the use of Disperse dyes. Neither of these fibers can be dyed with the same dyes that are used for natural fibers, such as fiber reactive or all-purpose dyes. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

In the US, you can order disperse dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye or from Aljo Dyes. For contact information for these and other dye suppliers around the world, see my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World", and look for the word "disperse" in the short description of each vendor. 

Jacquard Products is introducing a new brand of disperse dye, called iDye Poly, but I do not yet know of a retailer that sells it.

Disperse dyes require a great deal of heat to bond to the fiber in the polyester or acetate fabric. To obtain a solid color, the dye must be boiled with the polyester or acetate in an enamel or stainless steel pot. (You should not reuse a dyeing pot for food.) Do not use an aluminum pot, because the aluminum will react with the acid of the vinegar that is used in the recipe for dyeing acetate with disperse dye, and may change the color of the dye.

You can also buy disperse dyes in the form of fabric crayons, not to be confused with the wax crayons they look just like, at most fabric or craft stores. These crayons are used by coloring a design on paper and then ironing it onto polyester, acetate, or other 100% synthetic fabrics. The crayons can be used on fabric blends, too, but the colors that result will be much less intense.

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

Name: Virginia
Message: I want to know if you can dye nylon netting that is used in pot scrubbers.  Not tulle this is a little more stiffer that tulle.  I want to dye the netting before I crochet pot scrubbers.  Any info would be great.  Thanks. 

You can dye any nylon that is not coated with a surface treatment that will resist the dye. It seems likely that nylon netting would be free of such coatings, but you should try dyeing a small sample before you commit to a large project.

Nylon, unlike other synthetic fibers, can be dyed with the same dyes that you would use for wool. Some of the wool dyes work better on nylon than others do. The most satisfactory dyes for nylon include the Lanaset dyes and many of the dyes in ProChem's WashFast Acid line of dyes.

You don't have to mail-order the best dyes, however, if you're not concerned about high performance in the laundry. Less washfast acid dyes will also do a good job of dyeing nylon. You can find acid dyes in the form of all-purpose dyes at your local pharmacy or grocery store. All-purpose dyes, such as Rit or Tintex, contain a mixture of acid leveling dye with another kind of dye intended for cotton. 

It is important to add some vinegar or another acid to reduce the pH of your dyebath, because nylon requires acid in order to dye well. The manufacturers of Tintex® High Temp all-purpose dye recommend the use of 100 ml (six and a half tablespoons) of white vinegar per 4 liters (one gallon) of water, when dyeing wool, silk, or nylon.

You cannot dye nylon in cold water, but instead you must heat your nylon netting in your dye. All nylon dyes are hot water dyes. Use a large enamel or stainless steel cooking pot that you will not use again for food in the future. After dissolving your dye in water to make a dyebath, and adding vinegar, place your nylon in the dyebath and gradually heat it to a simmer, 205°F (96°C). Hold the dyebath at this temperature, without boiling, for half an hour to one hour. Stir constantly if you wish to obtain a single solid color, or avoid stirring if you would prefer some variegation in shade. After the heating time has completed, let the dyebath cool to room temperature, then rinse out your nylon in warm water until no more dye comes out in the water.

For maximum washfastness, you can treat your nylon after dyeing (and washing out excess dye) by adding a cationic dye fixative, such as Retayne. You can purchase Retayne at your local quilting supply shop, some fabric stores, or by mail-order from any good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company.

Keep in mind that only white nylon will produced the expected color when dye is added. Because all dye is transparent, whatever color the nylon bears originally will show through any dye that you apply, altering the final color result if you start with anything but white.

For more information, see "How to dye nylon ", part of the FAQ on hand dyeing on my web site. Also see "Commercial Dye Fixatives" in the same list of FAQs.

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

Name: Susan
Message: How can I "set" the yellow color in a 100% cotton shirt that has been dyed using yellow-onion skins? 

In general, the best way to set natural dyes on cotton is by pre-mordanting the fabric. Unfortunately, it is much more difficult to get a satisfactorily colorfast result on cotton than it is on wool.

The most effective way to mordant cotton for natural dyeing is to boil it in alum for an hour, let it dry, then boil it in tannin for an hour, let it dry, then boil it in alum for an hour. Only after that process has been completed should you dye the cotton by boiling it in an equal or greater weight of the natural dyestuff. That is, if the shirt weights eight ounces, use one-half to one pound of onion skins to dye it. There are good recipes for mordanting cotton in Dagmar Klos's book, A Dyer's Companion.

You may sometimes read advice to "set" dye colors by washing with vinegar or salt . Neither of these will do anything to make your natural dye more permanent on cotton, however. Soda ash also will do nothing to help set natural dyes.

Post-mordanting is the application of mordants to fabric which has already had the dye added. It is likely to be less effective on cotton than pre-mordanting. I have not seen any recipes for post-mordanting cotton, but you could try following the same procedure as for pre-mordanting. You could simmer your shirt for a couple of hours in a pot with one ounce of alum for every pound of fabric (e.g., use 15 grams of alum if your shirt weighs half a pound). You may need to repeat the onion skin dyeing after this step, if too much of the color leaches out into the water.

Jill Goodwin's book, A Dyer's Manual (second edition), lists onion skins as producing yellows when mordanted with alum, orange when mordanted with (toxic and carcinogenic) chrome, bright orange when mordanted with tin, and browns when mordanted with iron; however, this list is referring to the use of natural dyes on wool. I recommend against the use of chrome, tin, or iron mordant by those who are novices in the art of dyeing, because each of these mordants can be deadly. Chrome mordant causes serious injury and sometimes fatal cancers if inhaled or otherwise absorbed, and the other mordants can be fatal when swallowed, and therefore much more dangerous than the use of synthetic dyes. Even alum, the safest of the metal salt mordants, can be fatal to a small child who eats enough of it; the fatal dose is supposed to be about one ounce for an adult, but could be considerably less for a toddler. It is very important to keep all mordants completely out of the reach of children.

Even after proper mordanting, do not expect your onion-dyed shirt to be as washfast as a shirt that has been dyed with high quality synthetic dyes such as Procion dyes. Wash the shirt as infrequently as is practical, and wash it only in cool water, by hand. Do not machine-wash clothing that has been dyed with natural dyes.

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

Name: Bonnie

Message: I love your site. So much info. Wow! I have dyed a lot of wool fiber and cloth and want to try my hand at dyeing some embroidery floss for hand dyeing with cotton dyes. I am unsure what brand of embroidery floss to purchase as I know some companies put a finish on the skeins and don't know if it will take the dye. Any idea?

I know that people successfully dye DMC Perle Cotton, DMC rayon floss, and DMC 6-strand embroidery floss. There may be other good brands to dye, as well, but I don't have their names.

DMC® 6-Strand Cotton Embroidery floss is described as being double-mercerized, which will help it to take dye as brightly as possible. Rayon normally dyes as brightly as mercerized cotton.

Here's a link for a nice little video on how to hand-dye embroidery floss, by Melanie Testa. She describes different flosses that she likes to dye, and shows a handy little plastic device made by DMC that you can wind your floss on for dyeing:




I have not heard about finishes that may be applied to embroidery floss. Any sort of stain-resistant finish would be a major problem. If you learn anything more about this, such as what brands present problems, please let me know!

Will you be using Procion MX dye? I strongly recommend that you use a fiber reactive dye on your cotton floss, rather than an all-purpose dye, such as Rit.

After dyeing and washing out your embroidery floss, you will want to test it to make sure that all of the excess unattached dye has been removed, so that there will be no problem with the color running after it has been used. To do this, dampen the dyed floss and place it between two white cloths, either both cotton, or, ideally, one cotton and one wool, and press it until dry, using a hot iron. If all of the excess dye has been removed there will be no color transfer. If there is color transfer, soak the floss in HOT water to remove excess dye, and then rinse again and re-test.

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