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Saturday, January 31, 2009
How can I get a uniform color when pigment-dyeing a polyester/spandex blend?
Friday, January 30, 2009
How can I print a skull design onto a bandana?
Thursday, January 29, 2009
How should I dye a sweatshirt that is 50% cotton/50% polyester to a bright blue?
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Dye Safety
by Monona Rossol
3M Disposable Dust Mist Masks
Dual Cartridge Respirator
Safety Goggles
Always wear gloves when working with natural OR synthetic dyes!
The claim that natural dyes are inherently safer than synthetic dyes is the result of ignorance about the actual risks. Some natural dyes are very safe, and some synthetic dyes are dangerous (not the ones whose use I recommend!), but there are also natural dyes that are poisonous, even for those working only with the dyed fiber, and there are some synthetic dyes that are safe enough even to eat. (For some examples of unsafe natural dyes, see "Aren't natural dyes safer than synthetic dyes?".)
No hand dyer has ever been killed by exposure to Procion MX dyes. The mordants used with almost all natural dyes are far more dangerous. Even alum, the safest of all of the metal ion mordants, has caused fatalities, and more hazardous mordants such as copper and iron have caused many more. Alum, iron, copper, and tin may all be used safely by those who take all of the appropriate safety precautions, and who take care never to use them around those who might swallow them or splash themselves with the mordant, such as small children. However, chrome mordant, which makes beautiful colors when used as a mordant for natural dyes, is, in my opinion, too dangerous for use at home.
As Olli described, the real risk of working with Procion MX and other fiber reactive dyes is that of developing a respiratory allergy to the dye. You must be careful to avoid breathing the dye powder in order to reduce your risk of developing this problem. One well-known quilt artist developed an allergy to Procion MX dyes and had to switch to using Cibacron F dyes, which perform similarly. If you develop an allergy to any particular class of dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, you must then quit using it forever, as otherwise it can provoke serious asthma. It is easier to avoid the problem in the first place, by being careful. Doing so also avoids exposure to the possibility of dangers that are now unknown.
The Procion MX type dyes contain little or no metal, depending on color. You can easily check this by looking at an MSDS page, provided by your dye supplier. Turquoise MX-G and rubine MX-B each contain a small amount of copper, between 1% and 5% of the weight of the dye powder. A hand dyer does not need to worry about metals in these small quantities. (See "Toxicity of Procion Dyes".) If you are dyeing by hand, by yourself, there is no harm in the relatively small quantities of dye that you may dump down the drain. There is more danger to you and your children in the neurotoxins commonly applied to your neighbors' lawns as insecticides, and the fertilizers applied to your neighbors' lawns are far more harmful to the environment than the dyes you dispose of, as fertilizer run-off leads to the production of oxygen-free dead zones in the oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
Many acid dyes, including some of the Lanaset dyes, contain a small amount of the more toxic metal, chromium. While I strongly recommend that home dyers strictly avoid the use of a separate chrome mordant, the amount of chromium bound to the Lanaset dyes is low enough that a single recipe of Lanaset dye paint will meet EPA requirements for drinking water, if diluted by fifty gallons of water. (See "What are the risks of exposure from using a dye that is premetalized with chromium?".) This means that it is safe to dispose of small quantities of Lanaset dyes down your drain.
Other types of dyes bring with them additional safety concerns. There have been direct dyes sold to home users in the past that contained probable carcinogens, based on the chemicals benzidine, o-tolidine, or o-dianisidine. These dyes were included in all-purpose dyes that were available to home dyers in the US through the 1970s. (See the safety section at the bottom of my page on all-purpose dyes.) You can still buy "tie dye cords" that contain an o-dianisidine-based dye, which should never be given to children to use. (See the post "o-dianisidine in dye-impregnated tie-dye cords".) There is no such thing as a fiber reactive dye that is based on benzidine, o-tolidine, or o-dianisidine, so this is not a concern for those using Procion MX, Remazol, and other fiber reactive dyes. Some popular acid dyes, such as Rhodamine B, have been listed as carcinogens in the past; I recommend that users of these dyes be particularly careful with their safety precautions, but I don't see a safety problem for those who do take care. It's interesting to note that the safest dyes for children to work with, the certified food colorings, are also acid dyes.
The naphthol dyes are more dangerous carcinogens than other dyes that hand dyers use, but they are not generally available to hand dyers in Europe or North America. Unlike many other potential carcinogens, some of the naphthol dye components can be absorbed directly through even unbroken skin, which makes any skin contact much more dangerous than contact with other types of dye. (Fiber reactive dyes tend to react with the dead surface skin cells and stay put, rather than entering the body through the skin.) I am very glad that the most dangerous dyes, such as the black dye that (or so someone said) killed all the Japanese master dyers who used it, are no longer available to artists, at least in most countries.
The safest dyes for the wearer are properly fixed fiber reactive dyes, because they form a permanent chemical bond to the fiber which does not break during use. Disperse dyes and basic dyes are occasionally reported to cause allergic reactions in the wearers, but the only report I have seen in the medical literature of a wearer's reaction to fiber reactive dyes involved inadequate wash-out; the problem was solved for the wearer by washing the garment. Of course, all excess unattached dye must be washed out, preferably using hot water; you can dampen your dyed fabric and then press it between two white cloths with a hot iron to see if you still have any remaining unattached dye. This is important for quilt-making, and for dyeing clothes for babies or anyone else who might chew on the fabric.
Claims for eco-safety are different, since a poorly-run factory can do great damage by dumping toxic chemical intermediaries. Dystar, the current owner of the Procion trademark, does not manufacture Procion MX dyes, but they still manufacture Remazol dyes and Procion H-E dyes. Their dyes have been certified according to both the EU label and the Oeko-Tex Standard 100; the standard includes approval for use in clothing for infants. See "Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?".
I have myself used the dry-dye-sprinkling method with Procion MX type dyes, as was recently discussed here [on the DyersLIST mailing list], but only when working outdoors, with a properly fitting dust mask. I would not like to have loose powder floating around inside the house; safe indoor use requires a suitable box set-up that contains all loose dye powder inside it. The fit of your dust mask is critical, even when you are working outdoors, since the wind may unexpected blow the dye back in your face. It is easier to breath if you are pulling in some air from around the edges of the dust mask, but that negates its usefulness. Never rely on a dust mask that allows you to breathe around it.
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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
How can I dye or paint acrylic fur?
Message: About dying acrylic fur: I am making a coverlet for my bed from faux fur and cannot find a natural, motley looking fur I want. I was thinking of dying something. I've read about your polyester dying, but heat will ruin the fur (melt it). Are there unconventional ways to dye acrylic/polyester fur? I was thinking of wood stains, oil paints thinned with mineral spirits/seed oils, etc. How are they colored by the factory? thanks.
Fake furs are usually colored in the liquid form, before the fibers are extruded. They certainly can be dyed without melting them, but doing so is impractical for many people, because a very large, non-aluminum cooking pot is required. The pot must be large enough to permit the fabric to move freely as you stir it, throughout the dyeing process, and it should be made of either stainless steel or unchipped enamel; aluminum tends to react with dye auxiliaries, and iron will darken colors. Cooking pots that are suitable for use as dyeing pots can be very expensive. A ten gallon stainless steel pot will cost over $100. Since textiles dyes (including such common dyes as Rit) will contaminate surfaces used for cooking food, you should never plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food. This makes the dyeing pot a large investment for any hot-water dyeing.
For more information on dyeing acrylic, please see my page, "Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye ". I'd rather not recommend basic dye for use by dye novices in their homes, however, as it is important to carefully use safety precautions with basic dyes. Polyester fleece can be dyed without danger of melting, but it requires extensive boiling with disperse dyes; see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".
I've seen a report that Krylon Acrylic spray paint (the name refers to the contents of the paint, not its usage) can work well on acrylic or modacrylic fake fur. (See the PreFurs site.) Of course, it is essential to apply only a fine spray, not too much at a time, because a heavy application of paint will cause the hairs in the fur to clump together. You can comb through the fur as it dries to help separate the individual hair before it is too late.
As a general rule, fabric paints are nicer than other types of paints, because they are softer. Acrylic paints tend to be scratchy and unpleasant to touch after they dry. One excellent way to apply fabric paint to your fake fur smoothly would be to put the paint into an airbrush. (Take precautions to avoid breathing the mist; even non-toxic paints can gum up your lungs and cause permanent serious damage.)
fabric paint
If you buy the Jacquard fabric paint Dye-na-Flow, which is a thin fabric paint meant to simulate dye, you can dilute it with 25% water before air-brushing with it. You can also use it to immerse your fabric in, after diluting with the water. It's worth experimenting with diluting the fabric paint with more water than the manufacturer recommends, especially if you will not be laundering the item you dye very frequently. Overdiluted paint may not hold to the fibers as well, but it also will not make them clump together as badly.
Another brand of fabric paint that comes in a convenient spray dispenser is called Simply Spray. A very convenient aspect of the Simply Spray brand is that it does not require any heat setting step. (Dye-na-Flow should have an additive called AirFix mixed in before use, if it is not to be heat-set after it dries. You can order Airfix from Jerry's Artarama
, one of the few mail-order sources for AirFix.)
An alternative approach would be to use a different material. Nylon is a synthetic fiber that is easily dyeable, using readily available acid dyes, if the fabric is free of surface finishes that will repel the dye. Antron fleece is made of nylon; it's sometimes called "muppet fleece". There is a wide range of acid dye colors available, and, although it is best to dye nylon at temperatures up to 185°F, it does not have to be boiled, and it is possible to dye it at somewhat lower temperatures. An easy way to keep your nylon hot while you are dyeing it, without investing in a stainless steel dyeing pot, is to buy a cheap styrofoam cooler and devote it to dyeing use. Heat the water for your dyebath on the stove, in a regular cooking pot, and add it to the cooler, along with the dye which you have dissolved already in a little water, making sure not to exceed 185°F; also add any other auxiliary chemicals required by the dye that you purchase, such as vinegar. Stir the fabric in the hot dyebath to prevent uneven coloring, allowing at least half an hour or an hour for the dye to bond to the fiber.
A fur-like fabric that is easy to dye, which is very popular for hand-made teddy bears, is mohair, a natural fiber fabric. This is lovely stuff, but it might be too expensive in the quantities which you will need. Mohair, like nylon, can be dyed by heating it with acid dye. It is unlikely to have any surface treatments that will interfere with dyeing.
I would be interested to know what you choose to do, and how it works out for you.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
how to fix oil-lightened spots on a sofa
for better results
Slipcovers
Message: I am hoping you can help me. I accidentally spilled a few drops of oil onto a 100% cotton sofa from Pottery Barn. As I attempted to clean the spots, the red dye started to come out of the fabric. I stopped immediately, but now I not only have a couple of dark oil spots, but a slightly lighter red area surrounding them. Is there something I can do to replace the color removed from washing? What if I spill something in the future?
I wish I had some helpful advice to offer, but I don't. It's generally impossible to fill in the color that is missing in cases like this. You will not be able to do it by dyeing the sofa (dye would take unevenly because of the oil, anyway). The closest I can come is the suggestion on my page for bleach spots, "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", which is to try a marker, either a fabric marker or a permanent marker. Unfortunately, the edges will never come out right, as the color overlaps the unstained portions, resulting in a darker color. This works only to reduce the visibility of the spot, not to get rid of it altogether.
It's very unfortunate that the dye used in the upholstery of your sofa turned out not to be bonded to the fabric, but instead readily dissolved in oil. That would never happen with a properly applied fiber reactive dye, but unfortunately the type of dye used in your sofa was not bound fast to the fiber. If this were an article of clothing, I would certainly recommend that you return it to the store, since clothing is defective if it cannot be cleaned without its dye running. I don't know if the same is true of a sofa. Please call the customer service department at Pottery Barn to see if they will replace the sofa.
The best solution, if you cannot get the sofa replaced, would be to have the sofa reupholstered, or to get custom-made slipcovers that fit the sofa. If money is tight, consider buying a book (or checking the library) on the subject of how to do your own furniture upholstery. I am sure that if you take on the project of reupholstering your sofa, you will prewash the fabric to make sure that it, unlike the original fabric, is ready to face the challenges that furniture is likely to face. You will probably also use a stain-resistant treatment of some sort.
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Every time we use the towels the color comes out of the cloth. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
What's a good resist to use for writing words on fabric before dyeing?
Message: On your web page you have a T-shirt with 'peace' written on it. Would you tell me what you used? Wax?? Just learning to dye, using home grown indigo. Would like to put a logo on t-shirts. Thanks Marianne
The 'peace' shirt was treated with an Elmer's Washable blue School Gel resist and dyed with a fiber reactive Cibacron F type dye. See pictures and instructions at this page: "Immersion Dyeing with Water Soluble Resist ".
I've heard that Elmer's Washable Glue Gel can be used as a resist for indigo, too, but that it's important that the dyebath be 120°F or cooler, as otherwise the glue gel will dissolve too quickly. The glue gel must be absolutely dry before you immerse it in the dyebath, and you should not immerse it for an extended period of time for fear of dissolving the glue resist in the dyebath.
If you use Elmer's Washable Glue Gel on top of indigo-dyed fabric, it may discharge the dye, so don't use it on dyed fabric that you do not want to discharge.
The glue gel is very convenient to use; it is cheap and comes with a useful applicator tip (I drew the writing directly onto the shirt using the glue bottle). It is much easier to remove from the fabric than a real batik wax resist. However, this can also be a problem if your glue dissolves in the dye. It's best to use Elmer's Glue Gel as a resist only for painted-on dye or very brief immersion. Be careful that the glue on the fabric does not contact another part of the fabric while it's in the dye, because the glue can transfer to it.
To remove the glue resist after you have completed your dyeing, follow the instructions on the label, which say to first presoak the fabric in cold water, then launder as usual. Some dyers prefer to scrape off excess glue with a dull knife before laundering.
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Friday, January 23, 2009
How can I lighten the color of my bathing suit?
Message: I got a very expensive bathing suit online. The design is sort of like tie dyes but the colors fade into each other more profoundly. But when it arrived it was much darker than I expected. I tried to bleach it but it only got a few blotches on it. They aren't white but they're like a couple shades lighter then the material. I washed out all the bleach left in the material, and I want to dye it black or fabric paint it. Here's the materials the bathingsuit consists of: Fabric: 80% nylon/20% spandex; Liner (think that's the inside of the bathing suit): 91% polyester/9% spandex. So what brand and and material should I use, and how should I wash it?
I looked all over the website but couldn't find a question informative enough to answer the question. Hopefuly you can answermy question soon. And also, I really like your site and am going to donate $100+ to it. My whole family uses it! Thanks.
I hope that your bathing suit has not been ruined by the bleach. The hypochlorite in household leach is a surprisingly damaging chemical. It can cause nylon and spandex to completely disintegrate; it turns out that it should be used only on 100% cotton, linen, or hemp, which are, chemically, much sturdier than synthetic fibers. If your bathing suit develops holes in the fabric, it will be due to damage from the bleach.
It is much safer for the fabric to use a different kind of dye removal chemical. There are several that work in very much the same way, chemically. The easiest to find in the US is Rit Color Remover, or you can mail-order Jacquard Color Remover, which contains a different chemical but works in very much the same way.
There is no guarantee that Rit Color Remover or similar chemicals will remove any of the dye in your bathing suit. It's the only thing you can try that might actually remove the color, but it works on only some dyes and not others. It is always impossible to know whether the dye in a commercially-dyed garment will be possible to remove. The only thing you can do is try it. Some dyes will respond well, while others will remain completely unchanged. You won't know which you have until you try it.
Rit Color Remover can be used in hot tap water. It will work better in hotter water still, up to 185°F, but you should try it in cooler water first to see if it will work. Use hotter water only if the cooler water does not work, because high temperatures can damage spandex. Hot water may cause your bathing suit to lose its shape.
If you find that the Rit Color Remover (or Jacquard Color Remover) removes more of the color than you want, then you can use an acid dye to recolor the nylon. It will not work to recolor the polyester, but since that is only in the lining, and in the seams holding the bathing suit together, that will probably be okay. Don't worry about dyeing until after you have tried the Color Remover, because there is a good chance that the Color Remover might not work.
Instead of acid dye, you could use a fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-na-Flow, or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment "Dyes". If you choose a fabric paint that is labeled "white", and dilute it no more than recommended, it will appear to lighten the color of the fabric. This might be a better answer for you than using Rit Color Remover or a similar chemical. Dharma Pigment Dyes do not require heat-setting on nylon. Some nylons have a dye- and paint-resistant surface treatment, however, so this is yet another idea that is not 100% guaranteed to work.
If Rit Color Remover does not work, even in hotter water than is safe for spandex, then there is no other chemical likely to lighten the color of your bathing suit. There's no reason to then get another color remover, such as Tintex Color Remover or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper, because all of the sulfur-based color removing chemicals produce similar results to Rit Color Remover. They are completely different from bleach, but similar to each other.
Thank you for considering donating to my site. I depend on donations and advertising to support the site.
For more information, see the following pages:
• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?
• How can I dye nylon?
• How can I dye spandex?
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
My daughter’s 7th grade project is to make dyes from edible materials
Turmeric works well as a natural dye, though it fades quickly in the light and cannot be expected to last.
A good book is important for learning to use natural dyes.
The Dyer's Companion contains clear recipes for mordants and dyeing.
Message: Dear Dr. Paula,
My daughter’s 7th grade project is to make dyes from edible materials (fruits and vegetables), and see how they behave on different materials (cotton, silk, wool and synthetic). Under the umbrella of Natural dyes, you list substantive, vat and mordant dyes. Are the dyes she’s likely to be making in our kitchen all substantive? If not, is there any simple chemical assistant that might be more accessible than a heavy metal ion that she might add to her “edible” dyes to produce a brighter, more color-fast product? (She won’t actually be washing any of the fabrics.) Thank you for your site.
There are a few natural substantive dyes that will work without mordanting. Restricting yourselves to these dyes limits the possible color choice and how long the dyes will withstand washing, but it will simplify your project. Some examples of dyes you can use this way are turmeric, saffron, safflower, annatto, and black walnut hulls. Cochineal is a natural insect dye often used to color foods and cosmetics; to dye cotton or linen with it, you must use a mordant, but it will work on wool and silk and even nylon without a mordant. (Note that nylon is far easier to dye than polyester and can be dyed with many more natural dyes than polyester can.) The problem with cochineal is that it is difficult to find, unless you mail-order it from a natural dyes supplier such as Aurora Silk. Turmeric is the most readily available and least expensive of the natural dyes which do not require a mordant; you can find it in the spice aisle at the grocery store. Saffron is similar to turmeric but far more expensive. Annatto is a seed used in Latin American cooking which may be more difficult to use than powdered turmeric, since it is less soluble in water. Walnut hulls are readily available only if you have a walnut tree nearby, but you can also use the hulls that surround pecan nuts or butternuts on the tree (the outer hulls have been removed from the nuts in the shell that you see at the store).
The majority of natural dyes are mordant dyes, which means that fabric or yarn to be dyed with them must be pre-treated with mordants. There is one mordant that you can use that is reasonably safe, which is alum. Alum is dangerous only for children too young to understand that they should not eat their chemical materials. Most seventh graders should be able to use alum mordant safely, with adult supervision. All natural dyes found in your kitchen require the use of heat, which is more likely than alum to be a hazard, due to the risk of a scald injury. It is a good idea to simmer each of your test pieces of fabric or yarn for half an hour or longer with a large amount of the dyestuff, preferably twice the weight of your fabric or yarn. A handy way to dye several items at once without spoiling your cooking pots is to use quart-size glass jars which you place in a cooking pot that is partly filled with water.
Without mordants, most natural substances will make poor dyes. Even with a mordant, many naturally colorful substances make very poor dyes, since a dye must be not only colorful, but also able to form a long-lasting bond to the fiber. The purple anthocyanin color from grapes or cabbage will turn dull, while the green of chlorophyll from any leaf will turn brown. In order to avoid disappointment, I recommend that you select at least one dyestuff from my list of good substantive dyes above. A favorite subject for natural dyeing projects is beets, which make such a lovely red cooking water that everyone assumes they must be a good dye. In fact, beets are an extremely poor dye. The red coloring washes out the of fabric, leaving at most a boring beige or tan. It can be fun to compare them to substances that are good dyes, such as turmeric or cochineal. See "Beets as a natural dye".
Even substantive dyes such as turmeric may work better with the use of a mordant. When my son was in eighth grade, he used a number of dyes, natural and synthetic, to dye various fibers for a science fair project. He boiled his swatches of fabric in the alum and then, after rinsing, in the dyes, for half an hour each. When he used turmeric, he found that the polyester which had been mordanted with alum took the dye, turning a nice yellow. See "Turmeric dyes practically everything!", and "Cochineal is a fine dye".
Some natural dyes will change color if you use an acid, such as vinegar or cream of tartar (which is tartaric acid), versus the use of a base, such as baking soda or washing soda. Acids brighten the color of berries and grapes, but they hasten the browning of green chlorophyll. Neither acids nor bases will act as a mordant.
In order to make a good test of any textile dye, you must wash the fabric after applying the dye. Dyes that have not been tested by washing might not be dyes at all, merely temporary stains. A dye that resists washing is useful, while a temporary stain is not at all useful for fabric or yarn. There is no need to wash your test swatches in the washing machine; you can wash them by hand in the sink. Hot water is a more significant test than cool water, since many poor dyes will wash out in hot water but not cool water. For my son's natural versus synthetic dyes project, he choose the easy alternative of rinsing his fabric swatches in the sink, then placing them in a lingerie bag and washing them in the washing machine. The lingerie bag was necessary in order to prevent the small swatches of fabric he used from disappearing down the drain.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Do you know of any place that still does fabric dyeing?
at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on nylon. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
Message: I am trying to dye a down nylon coat and have hit complete dead ends. I don't feel comfortable doing it myself not so much because of skill but because I don't have the equipment to raise the dye to the necessary temperature for nylon to take.
Do you know of any place that still does fabric dyeing where I could take the coat? The dry cleaners and fabric stores I called laughed at me, so I'm at a loss for where else to turn. (Btw, I am located in Chicago, but am willing to ship the coat elsewhere if necessary.)
There are several companies that will dye an individual article of clothing for you, listed on my page, "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?". Most are willing to dye nylon, if it is not water-resistant. They have professional equipment that makes dyeing large garments much easier for them than it would be for you at home. None are located in Chicago, but you can determine prices online or via telephone, and mail your coat to them.
You often see the advice to have a dry cleaner dye your clothing for you, but I have never heard of a dry cleaner in the US that performs this service. No local dry cleaner I've ever visited did any dyeing at all. I don't know how long it's been since dry cleaners were also dyers. Perhaps a reader will let me know about a dry cleaning company that also does dyeing, but until then I have to conclude that such establishments no longer exist in this country.
Please see the blog entry here for January 17, 2009, "Can I Dye My Pink North Face Down Coat?", to learn how to test your coat for water repellence. I don't think you will be able to get the coat dyed if it resists water, because if it resists water, it will also resist dye. Surface treatments are the biggest problem for dyeing nylon. It's quite easy to dye untreated nylon, using acid dyes, but surface finishes on the fabric can make it impossible to dye a particular nylon garment.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
sources for direct dyes
First, thank you for your very informative website. I direct my students to it all the time.
Next - I have been using direct dyes from ProChemical. They are no longer carrying direct dyes. I dye silk-linen with the direct and acid dyes to produce a fabric that has both colors in it. Like the ones attached.
I contacted ProChemical (I taught there last year) to see if they would let me know their supplier so I could contact them directly, but since they purchase other items from them they would not reveal their source. (I purchase my acids from Keystone Aniline.) I have been using prodirect and all my formulas use those dyes. I am close to running out and would appreciate some help.
Do you know which chemical supplier they have been using--or do you know another supplier that I could order from by the color index #? I always order at least a pound at a time.
Hi Doshi,
I'm surprised to learn that ProChem is no longer selling direct dyes. I'm glad to find out about that.
There is a table of the Colour Index numbers of ProChem's Diazol Direct dyes on my direct dyes page:
You can use this list to get the same dyes you are used to using from another source, though the dyes might be at a different concentration. (If they also sold color mixtures of direct dyes, you will have to work the blends out for yourself.) If you contact Keystone Aniline with your list of direct dyes by Colour Index number, they should be able to help you with most or all of them. Another good source to try is Aljo Mfg., in New York, which sells direct dyes as their "Cotton & Rayon Dyes". You might also consider Standard Dyes, in North Carolina. For links and contact information for Aljo Mfg. and Standard Dyes, see Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.
Standard Dyes' web site indicates that they have all of these direct dyes in stock, at various specified concentrations. When you order from Standard Dyes, you must always repeat that you are interested in buying these colors only, by their Colour Index names, and that you will not accept any similar-hued mixtures of other colors. Otherwise, they may substitute a mixture for a dye they are running low on. Be clear to them that you cannot accept any mixtures.
Some dyes are available under a multitude of common names, but to you the common name is irrelevant; the Colour Index name is all that is important. For example, all of these dyes are Colour Index Direct Black 22 at Standard Dyes: PERMALITE BLACK B SUPRA SPEC, PERMALITE BLACK K-Y HI CONC, PERMALITE BLACK FR, PERMALITE GREY 2BL CONC., PERMALITE BLACK FG-P 250%, PERMALITE BLACK SL, and PERMALITE BLACK AD. The common names they use appear from my angle to be almost completely random.
Some dyes will be labeled as 75% strength, or 200% strength. These strengths are by weight, not by volume. A dye labeled as 200% has twice as much dye per gram of dye powder as one labeled 100%. Your Diazol Direct dyes were most likely all 100%, except for Blue Black, which was 200%, so you will want to alter the weight of the dye you measure out accordingly. It is necessary to measure dyes by weight, rather than volume, for reproducibility, though it's less convenient than measuring by the spoonful.
Many dye manufacturers will not sell you quantities as small as one pound per color. Dystar, for example, requires that you buy a minimum of five kilograms (eleven pounds) of each dye color. I have ordered from Standard in the past because their minimum order is one pound per color. However, you must watch out for substitutions.
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Monday, January 19, 2009
How can I whiten ivory-colored bridal lace?
Message: Tried to do a search on your site, still couldn't find an answer. I have some bridal appliqués which I think are alonceon lace, with a tiny corded trim, they are a natural off-white, pale ivory color. I would like to make these whiter, to add to a bridal gown. The fabric was purchased from a bolt at the local fabric store. On the fabric, were the appliqués, over a tiny netting. So I cut one off to test for color removal or brightener to make it more white. I used clorox bleach, and soaked it for 30 minuted dilluted with water - nothing happened, then I did straight pure clorox, for 30 minutes - still no change. I then let it soak in a water/hydrogen peroxide solution to release the bleach agent. It's just a test appliqué, but I figured I would do that, instead of toss it. What would you suggest to make these more white? Thank you!
What fibers are your Alençon lace made from? Some Alençon laces are made of cotton, some of rayon, some of polyester. I hope that yours is made of cotton or rayon, because chlorine bleach (which contains hypochlorite) is bad for synthetic fibers such as nylon. The netting in the background of your lace is probably nylon, which is highly susceptible to damage from bleach. The fact that you neutralized the hypochlorite with peroxide is good, as it will prevent further damage to the fiber.
A problem with bleaching any textile is that not all colors can be removed. Some dyes and some natural colors are simply not susceptible to the chemical attack that bleaches out the coloring. There might be no satisfactory answer to your question.
However, in some cases a dye which does not respond to bleach will respond to a sulfur-based discharge chemical, or vice versa. You might want to experiment to see if a sulfur-based discharge chemical will have any better results than your bleach did. I don't think it's highly likely, but it's possible, and thus worth a test. All of the sulfur-based discharge chemicals have pretty similar results to one another, so you only need to try one. They all work better the hotter the water you use them in, so, although it is easier to use them in the washing machine, I recommend that instead you use them in a non-aluminum pot on top of the stove, and heat them to a simmer (180 to 190°F).
For a discussion of different chemicals that can be used to remove color, see "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?"; scroll down to the section on reducing agents. The easiest sulfur-based discharge chemical to obtain is Rit Color Remover. Follow the stove-top directions for Rit Color Remover:
Do not use Rit Color Remover on something you've bleached, without first washing thoroughly (as you have already done), because the chemicals will not work better together, and may produce undesirable results. It's fine to try the one treatment after the other, as long as the item has been thoroughly washed (and, in the case of chlorine, neutralized with peroxide or Anti-chlor).
This procedure might be just what you want; it might work well to whiten your appliques. However, it might have no effect at all. It's possible that what you have there are unbleachable appliques which must be reserved for another project, one in which their off-white color is desirable.
There is one other treatment that you can use. Instead of removing color, it adds more light. Substances called optical brighteners absorb invisible ultraviolet light and emit it as visible blue light. These substances are found in most laundry detergents, but you can buy much more concentrated forms. The best is probably the Optic Whitener sold by Dharma Trading Company; another option is yet another Rit product, Rit Whitener and Brightener. (I do not often recommend the use of Rit dyes, since there are usually better choices, but I strongly recommend the use of some of Rit's non-dye chemicals.) These products make off-white fabric appear more white. They work best with heat (Dharma's Optic Brightener at 160°F). I don't know whether this would be exactly what you need, or whether the effects will be too subtle to solve your problem. It might be worth a try.
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
Is 'Gold Cross' Fabric Dye fibre reactive dye?
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Can I dye my pink North Face down coat?
Friday, January 16, 2009
I'm wanting to dye an item that is 60% rayon and 40% rayon acetate
Message: Hi, I'm wanting to dye an item that is 60% rayon and 40% rayon acetate. Is this possible? If so, what type of dye should I use? Thanks.
Although both are made from wood, rayon and rayon acetate are very different fibers.
Rayon, also known as viscose, is similar to natural fibers such as cotton, and dyes beautifully and easily with fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX dyes. See "How can I dye rayon?".
In contrast, acetate, also known as rayon acetate, has been chemically treated so that it is very much a synthetic fiber. Disperse dyes, which are also used for polyester and other synthetic fibers, were developed in order to dye acetate, because it is so unsatisfactory to attempt to dye acetate with any other dye type. Acetate does not dye well with other classes of dye.
I would recommend that you dye your item as you would if it were 100% rayon or cotton. Because only 60% of your item is made of rayon, you will end up with a color that is only 60% as intensely colored as a similar but 100% rayon garment would be. If you use a brilliant orange dye, you will get a softer orange, apricot, or coral color; if you use bright red, you will get pink; if you use purple you will get lavender; and if you use black, you will get a medium gray.
The advantage of this method, although the colors are not knock-your-eyes-out bright, is that the dyeing method is very easy, and it does not require special equipment such as a dyeing pot. Rayon can be dyed in cool water, in a bucket, or hand-painted with dye, or dyed via low water immersion. Cold water dyeing is kinder to any garment.
If you wish to dye both the 60% rayon and the 40% acetate in your garment, you will have to use different dyes and a more difficult dyeing procedure.
All hot water dyes require the use of a large non-reactive cooking pot, one which you will not plan to reuse for food, since textile dyes are not tested for safety and will contaminate food. The pot must be large enough for the fabric to move in freely, in order for you to obtain a smooth solid color. It must not be made of aluminum or iron, because these metals will corrode when heated with the soda ash or cid which is used to assist in dyeing; instead, it should be made only of stainless steel, or unchipped enamel. A large stainless steel cooking pot is an excellent investment if you will be using hot water dyes in the future, but it is too expensive to be worthwhile if this is the only dyeing project you plan.
It is possible to dye acetate with disperse dyes by heating the garment with disperse dyes on the stovetop, at a simmering temperature just below a boil, for an hour. Constant stirring is necessary, so the procedure is a lot of work. You can purchase disperse dyes that are suitable for dyeing acetate from Aljo Mfg. Company, in New York. They sell a different range of disperse dyes for use on acetate than on polyester. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
You may wish to dye the acetate in a completely different step from dyeing the rayon in your garment, or you can add some direct dye to the disperse dye bath in order to dye both acetate and rayon at the same time. The results may be unexpected, however. Also, direct dye is far less wash-resistant than fiber reactive dyes, and tends to run in the laundry.
Another important question is whether boiling will cause the rayon in your item to shrink. Even if a smaller size would be acceptable to you, a garment may pucker or lose its shape.
As you can see, it will be simpler to choose to ignore the acetate portion of the fiber in your item, and just use cool water fiber reactive dyes to dye the rayon a lighter color. The cooler water is less likely to damage the garment, the expense is much lower since you do not need a stainless steel dyeing pot, and you will not have to spend an hour over a steaming hot dyepot as you stir it.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Where can I find dye in Portugal?
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What kinds of chemical bonds attach basic dyes to fabrics?
This is an interesting question to consider. The one feature that distinguishes basic dyes from all other dyes is their ionic charge. The molecules of basic dyes have a positive charge, in contrast to vat dyes , which carry a neutral charge (that is, no charge at all), and all other dyes, including reactive dyes, acid dyes, and direct dyes, which carry a negative charge.
Since the fibers used in fabrics are negatively charged, the positively charged basic dye molecules are attracted to the fibers.
Basic dyes can be used to dye natural fibers such as wool, but their lightfastness on these materials is so poor that other dyes are much preferred. However, basic dyes are commonly used to dye acrylic fiber, which does not present the same light-fading problem. Acrylic fiber cannot be dyed with most classes of dye, such as reactive or acid dyes. Although acrylic fiber can be dyed with disperse dye, only light to medium shades may be obtained, so basic dyes are essential in order to obtain brilliant or dark colors on acrylic fiber.
Many other substances share the negative charge of textiles fibers. This means that basic dyes tend to stick to almost anything they touch. Basic dyes are inconvenient for home-dyers to use, because they stain anything they touch, such as a countertop or a plastic dishpan. Other dyes are easily washed from plastic materials after a splash.
Because of their positive charge, basic dyes are also known as cationic dyes. You can tell whether a written dye structure is a basic dye at a glance, by looking for the positive charge indication on the molecular structure. Here is a drawing of methylene blue, or basic blue 9, as an example:
In my PhD work, I found that methylene blue intercalated into DNA, inserting itself into the ladder-like structure of the DNA molecule, where it would react with light and oxygen to produce breakage of the DNA. It's worth noting that anything that breaks DNA is likely to cause mutations and cancer. I do not recommend the use of basic dyes outside of a properly equipped laboratory, where they must be used with appropriate safety precautions.
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Rit-dyed costumes permanently darker where sweated upon
Retayne sets all-purpose dyes, such as Rit. It will not work on indigo denim.
Rit Dye Fixative
Rit Dye Fixative is similar to Retayne.
Message: This is close to a FAQ but not exactly......i got some dance costumes from a company, gauzy cotton fabric, that needed to be re-dyed. I soaked them briefly, then put into a washer with RIT dye (a mix of brown and green), did the dye, rinsed, then dried slightly (so they would not shrink). well, they wore them and where they were perspiring it got darker. So I told them to re-wash immediately b/c perhaps they needed a 2nd rinse? but supposedly that did not work. I am perplexed. Could it be that they had not washed the costumes before they gave them to me?
If it is possible that they did not wash the costumes before giving them to you, then the salt or other chemicals in the perspiration stains already in the costumes would certainly have caused problems, problems which become permanent when dye is applied. Always scour clothing before dyeing by prewashing it in hot (140°F) water, with detergent, plus extra soda ash or washing soda, for added cleaning power. All fabric must be totally clean before dyeing, in order to obtain acceptable results. Some used clothing is impossible to clean sufficiently to get good results.
In any case, I'm afraid that my best advice for problems dyeing with all-purpose dye (such as Rit or Tintex) is to throw the all-purpose dye dye out and use a fiber reactive dye instead. Even perfectly clean garments will often not produce fully dependable results with all-purpose dye.
Rit dye is an all-purpose dye, which is a mixture of a leveling acid dye (which is for wool or nylon, and just washes out of cotton) with direct dye, a poorly washfast dye for cotton. Some direct dyes are strongly affected by salt, which is of course a major component of perspiration. Other low-quality dyes are affected so much in color by pH that acidic perspiration will permanently alter their color.
I would recommend washing the costumes in hot water in the hopes of removing the stain and perhaps also the dye. I do not know whether or not this will solve the problem; in fact, I am not at all sure that the problem can be solved at this point.
Next time you wish to dye costumes, I recommend using a higher-quality dye. You cannot buy good dye at the grocery store, but any good crafts store will have it. Look for Tulip One Step Fashion Dye, or Jacquard Procion MX dye, or Dylon Machine Dye, Dylon Cold Water Dye, or Dylon Permanent Dye. Be sure to follow the instructions included with the dye. For more economical fiber reactive dyes (much cheaper per garment than Rit!), and a much wider choice of colors, order your dye from a good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye, Dharma Trading Company, Colorado Wholesale Dyes, etc. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
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Monday, January 12, 2009
what dye would be most wash-resistant on the soy-based fabric azlon?
Message: Hi Paula -- Many thanks for an awesome site!
I'm about to try dyeing something made of "aslon", a soy-based cloth. It's super-lightweight, a set of pajamas. (Were light pink; my girlfriend hates light pink, would prefer dark grey or rich scarlet red.)
What's absolutely critical: Once dyed, this clothing -cannot- run in the washing machine, or it will turn her other clothing bad shades, and result in my immediate execution... Would you suggest going with the red or the black -- and what dye / what process? [I was originally going to simply simmer it on the stovetop in RIT liquid... But now I'm wondering if I should use RIT + Retayne fixative, or Jacquard Procion with or without fixative, or... I dunno!] Pointers to instructions on your site or anywhere else would be super :) Many thanks!
Don't use all purpose dye, such as Rit. The very most wash-resistant dye is fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, which by all reports works great on soy-based fibers, since they resembled silk chemically. (There will be a problem if the soy fiber has been acetylated, but that problem would be at least as great with all-purpose dye.)
The Retayne Color Fixative helps all-purpose dye a lot, but it will still not be quite as washfast as fiber-reactive Procion MX type dyes.
Use the soda ash recipe for the Procion dyes, rather than the acid recipe, for maximum washfastness. (Both recipes work on alkaline-tolerant protein fibers, including both real silk and azlons such as soy silk.) If you want a solid color, use a five-gallon bucket and a lot of stirring, or else use the washing machine. Dyeing in the washing machine will not hurt the machine, but it does require a lot more dye, for a single garment. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". The Dharma link on that page for washing machine instructions also leads to instructions for dyeing in a five-gallon bucket. Using a small container for dyeing, or failing to stir a great deal, will result in uneven color tones, something like low water immersion.
Another plus for the Procion MX dye is that it does not require that you use a good cooking pot, since room temperature (70°F or above) works fine. A plastic bucket is fine. You should not reuse a cooking pot for food preparation after you have used it with a textile dye such as Rit.
In deciding between red and black, keep in mind that the stitching that holds the seams together on the pajamas is almost certainly polyester, unless you were told otherwise. The polyester will not take the dye that works on the protein fiber, so it will remain the current color of pink. Which would look better, black with pink stitching, or red with pink stitching?
Both red and black require a lot more dye powder than paler shades will. Where a recipe gives you a range of how much dye powder to use, use the largest amount for an intense color like red or black.
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tye Dye-ing Silk-Satin?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
What's going to happen to my tie-dye t-shirt when I wash it?
Friday, January 09, 2009
dyeing over sweat and deodorant stains
Message: I have looked through all the questions but there isn't a specific one related to sweat and deoderant stains. My friend asked me to dye his (expensive) shirt olive green for him as it was a faded light brown. I did so with a Dylon machine dye as this had worked well for his shorts, but where he had used deoderant and sweated it stayed white after it had dried and the areas around the neck also remained a lighter colour. Do you have any suggestions on how to get an even colour across these problem areas? Thanks
No, I'm sorry, but any foreign matter, including antiperspirant stains and perspiration stains, must be removed from clothing before it is dyed. Now that the stains on the shirt have acted as a resist against the dye that you applied, there is probably no way to get the color completely smooth, though you could try using Rit Color Remover or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper to see if you can remove the dye you used.
As a general rule, once a stain has penetrated fabric, it might not be possible to remove it completely enough that there will be no problem afterwards in dyeing. Next time, if this situation occurs again, you should prepare for dyeing by trying whatever cleaning remedy is recommended by Heloise or another housecleaning advisor, but it is possible that there will still be enough residue to cause some difference in color. If you overdye a worn shirt again in the future, follow the instructions Heloise gives for removing these stains first. Afterwards, scour your garment to prepare for dyeing, by washing in the hottest water it will tolerate, along with detergent and some extra soda ash or washing soda for added cleaning power.
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
Do you have any suggestions of specific kinds of dyeing I can do with bleach?
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
After I dye let's say 10 shirts, can I wash them all together to remove excess dye?
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Can I use a store-bought tie-dye kit to dye cotton/polyester blend pillowcases?
Monday, January 05, 2009
Bleach spots on a green Timberland sweatshirt
Sunday, January 04, 2009
I would like to dye my own muslin for photography backdrop
Saturday, January 03, 2009
I want to dye my cotton dark blue printed curtain to light cream colour
Message: I want to dye my cotton dark blue printed curtain to light cream colour. I understand I will have to bleach them first, how can i bleach them properly? Can I do that in washing machine?do I need to use bleach which is for domestic bleeching purposes and soak the curtains in bleach for 10-12 hours and then dye them in washing machine with light cream colour dye? I will highly appreciate your reply. thanks n happy new year----.
It's unpredictable whether or not you will be able to remove enough of the dye to turn dark blue to light cream. In any case, at least some trace of the print will remain.
If the curtains are 100% cotton, then you can use bleach, but if the fiber content includes any synthetic fiber, such as nylon, polyester, or spandex, household bleach (which contains hypochlorite) will destroy it. Hypochlorite bleach makes holes in nylon or spandex, and it creates a permanent ugly yellow color on polyester. Animal-type fibers such as silk or wool will also be eaten to holes by bleach.
Even cotton and other sturdy plant fibers will be eaten to holes by bleach if you use too much of it, or if the bleach is too warm when you use it, or if you leave the fabric in the bleach for too long. Do not use straight undiluted bleach, and don't leave it soaking even in diluted bleach without checking on it regularly, so that you can remove the fabric from the bleach as soon as it has lightened sufficiently in color. Another point is that frequent stirring is required if you want smooth, even, solid-color results. Leaving the cotton in bleach without agitation will result in a tie-dye effect, assuming that the dye in your cotton is affected at all. Using the washing machine is in excellent idea. Be careful what clothing you wear while working with bleach, as it is easy for a stray spatter to ruin what you are wearing.
Many commercial dyes are highly resistant to bleach. One set of curtains will decolorize wonderfully in bleach, while another loses no color at all, or changes to a weird color that you don't want. It is unusual to obtain a bright white or light cream from bleaching a dark color such as navy. You are more likely to obtain some sort of brown color. It is impossible to predict what color you will get, or whether it will be light or dark, until you try it.
After using hypochlorite bleach, you should rinse or wash the bleach out quickly, then submerge the fabric in a bleach stop or anti chlor solution, to prevent the bleach from continuing to act and eat holes in your fabric even after you have rinsed it. See "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?".
Household bleach is not the only chemical you can use to remove dye. Another group of products removes dye in a completely different way, and may work well on a few dyes that completely resist chlorine bleach. (Always wash your curtains well in between using the two steps!) Look for Rit Color Remover, or Jacquard Color Remover, or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper. All of these products contain sulfur-based dye reducing chemicals. They are gentler to the fabric than chlorine bleach, and safer for the user, as well. I prefer them to the use of bleach in most cases. However, they do require some case, since the sulfur dioxide they produce can be hazardous to people with asthma. I recommend the use of a respirator with acid gas cartridges whenever you are using either hypochlorite bleach or any other color-removing chemical. See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
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Friday, January 02, 2009
Could I dye a North Face Denali jacket?
It's blue and I want to dye it black. The material is fleece. How would I go about doing this?
[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on October 18, 2008.]
Thursday, January 01, 2009
I have a white tulle canopy, and I would like to dye it, but how do I go about doing that?
at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on nylon. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
What fiber is it made of? You can buy polyester tulle or nylon tulle, but the way to dye these two kinds of tulle is very different.
Nylon tulle is easier to dye. You can dye it with a kind of dye called acid dyes. The best black acid dye is Lanaset Jet Black. You cannot buy this dye in stores, but will have to mail-order it, for example from Paradise Fibers. It's a very rich, dark, wash-resistant dye. The second-best black dye for nylon is Washfast Acid Jet Black. Like the Lanaset Jet Black, it resists fading and bleeding even when washed in hot water. Other types of acid dye must be washed only in cool to lukewarm water. WashFast Acid Dye Jet Black can be mail-ordered from PRO Chemical & Dye or Paradise Fibers. See my "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around The World" page.
You can also dye nylon with all-purpose dye, such as Rit, since it, too, contains acid dye, but you will have to use a great many boxes of the dye to get a good dark black. One box is enough for only one-quarter to one-half pound of fabric. The color may be off a little, too, since this is a common complaint for Rit dyes.
In any case, dyeing nylon tulle requires cooking the fabric with the dye and some acid (such as vinegar) at high heat, preferably 185°F. This will require a large cooking pot that you will not reuse for food, since Rit dye, like all textile dyes, will contaminate food. If you try to use acid dye at a lower temperature, you will probably end up with no more than a medium gray color, instead of a dark black. Also, Rit dye will bleed badly in the laundry and fade far, far more quickly than Lanaset or WashFast Acid Dyes. I's easier to find but almost a waste of time.
Dyeing polyester tulle is completely different. Polyester cannot be dyed with acid dye or all-purpose dye. The only dye that works on polyester is called disperse dye. You can mail-order disperse dye from Aljo Dyes in New York or PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or if you're in Australia, order from Batik Oetoro. You can also buy it as "iDye Poly" from dye suppliers that sell Jacquard Products dyes. (Don't get the plain "iDye", which works only on natural fibers; only "iDye Poly" will work on polyester.)
Dyeing polyester requires more heat than dyeing nylon. You must boil your polyester at high heat for at least half an hour with the dye. Unlike nylon, it will not work at all at lower temperatures. Extensive boiling is required to get the dye into the polyester, and then only if you have purchased the right dye.
You can also dye nylon with disperse dyes, but the color will not be as dark, and it will wash out more easily, than if you use a good black dye designed for nylon and wool.
It is simpler to just buy black tulle, if you can find it.
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[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on November 21, 2008.]
How can I get a uniform color when pigment-dyeing a polyester/spandex blend?
Name:
Stephanie
Message: Hi, I have a dress that is pure white that is 92% polyester and 8% spandex. I've been reading and it seems like you are very knowledgeable on this subject. I am basically looking to dye it a solid bright green and am thinking the emerald green in the dye na flow line and using airfix along with that so I don't need to heat set it. Do you have suggestions on how to make the color uniform and and as best as I can? Thank you so very much, I appreciate any help you may give me!
You're right that it's a better idea to use fabric paint than to use polyester dye, when there's spandex in the blend. Spandex is likely to be damaged by the extensive boiling required to dye polyester. The difficulty is that you don't get a perfectly smooth solid color when you use pigments to dye. Pigment dyeing is noted for the slightly uneven look it produces, and for the aged look you often get, especially after washing the garment. You will be happy with using fabric paint as a dye only if a 'stonewashed' effect will suit you.
Jacquard Products' Dye-Na-Flow is a good choice for painting on this blend, and Jacquard Products' Airfix, which you can order from Airfix, which you can order from Jerry's Artarama
(one of the few mail-order sources for AirFix), avoids the need for heat-fixing. If you paint the Dye-na-Flow on with a brush, you will get at least slightly uneven results, but if you make a virtue of the unevenness, by, for example, painting regular stripes and then filling in between them, or by sponging randomly with two different but closely-related colors, you can get results that are mostly solid in color, but more interesting and attractive than a simple solid color dyeing job.
You might get more even results by immersing the dress in diluted thin fabric paint, and squeezing the fabric out with gloved hands, and re-immersing it several times, before hanging or spreading the dress out flat to dry. (Be sure to use a plastic container or bucket which is not important to you, because the fabric paint might stain it.) However, you will still get some unevenness, because of the way that fabric paints dry. There is no way to avoid getting at least a stone-washed effect, when using fabric paints in place of true dyes.
Another choice that I think you should consider is Dharma Pigment Dyes. These colors are actually fabric paint like Dye-na-Flow, not true dyes. There are two advantages to Dharma Pigment Dye. One is that the Dharma Pigment Dye paint apparently does not need to be heatset when used on polyester, so there is no need to bother with the AirFix; the other is that the paint is more concentrated, so it can be diluted with far more water. One 16-ounce pint bottle of Dharma Pigment Dye costs $28.95, but then it can be diluted considerably, with up to four pints of water. To produce an equal volume of diluted Dye-na-Flow, you would have to purchase two 32-ounce bottle of Dye-na-Flow, for a total cost of about $42, and then dilute it with no more than one pint of water.
With any transparent fabric paint, including Dye-na-Flow, and, most likely, Dharma Pigment dyes as well, you have the option of a technique called sunprinting. Dilute your fabric paint as directed, then stretch the fabric out over a piece of cardboard, or tape it to a plastic table. Either paint the fabric paint on, or apply it to the fabric before stretching it out by immersing the fabric in the paint and squeezing the paint through until it is pretty even. Working reasonably quickly, scatter opaque objects such as fresh green leaves, or star-shaped sequins, across the fabric, then expose it to either bright sunshine, or a hot incandescent, halogen, or infrared light. As the paint dries, it will be pulled out from under the light-obscuring shapes, leaving a lovely lighter-color pattern of whatever objects you placed on the fabric. This is an extremely easy way to create a nice design, even if you do not know how to draw or paint. See the top section of my page "How to Dye and Paint Fabric with Light".
Be sure to wash the dress as thoroughly as possible before coloring it. Any surface finishes or invisible stains will repel both dye and paint, resulting in lighter or even completely uncolored spots.
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Message: Hi, I have a dress that is pure white that is 92% polyester and 8% spandex. I've been reading and it seems like you are very knowledgeable on this subject. I am basically looking to dye it a solid bright green and am thinking the emerald green in the dye na flow line and using airfix along with that so I don't need to heat set it. Do you have suggestions on how to make the color uniform and and as best as I can? Thank you so very much, I appreciate any help you may give me!
You're right that it's a better idea to use fabric paint than to use polyester dye, when there's spandex in the blend. Spandex is likely to be damaged by the extensive boiling required to dye polyester. The difficulty is that you don't get a perfectly smooth solid color when you use pigments to dye. Pigment dyeing is noted for the slightly uneven look it produces, and for the aged look you often get, especially after washing the garment. You will be happy with using fabric paint as a dye only if a 'stonewashed' effect will suit you.
Jacquard Products' Dye-Na-Flow
You might get more even results by immersing the dress in diluted thin fabric paint, and squeezing the fabric out with gloved hands, and re-immersing it several times, before hanging or spreading the dress out flat to dry. (Be sure to use a plastic container or bucket which is not important to you, because the fabric paint might stain it.) However, you will still get some unevenness, because of the way that fabric paints dry. There is no way to avoid getting at least a stone-washed effect, when using fabric paints in place of true dyes.
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Fabric artists will find these fresh, intense colors are truly "one size fits all." Ready-to-use and highly concentrated, they create beautiful effects on all natural or synthetic fibers. Ideal for staining, painting, or printing, they become completely resistant to washing and dry cleaning after heat-setting with an iron, and they won't cause fabrics to stiffen. Air dry for one hour before heat setting. All colors mix easily and deliver excellent lightfastness. Opaque colors are ideal for darker fabrics. Transparent colors are designed for light-colored fabrics, and the shimmering hues provide excellent coverage with glittering and iridescent effects.
Another choice that I think you should consider is Dharma Pigment Dyes. These colors are actually fabric paint like Dye-na-Flow, not true dyes. There are two advantages to Dharma Pigment Dye. One is that the Dharma Pigment Dye paint apparently does not need to be heatset when used on polyester, so there is no need to bother with the AirFix; the other is that the paint is more concentrated, so it can be diluted with far more water. One 16-ounce pint bottle of Dharma Pigment Dye costs $28.95, but then it can be diluted considerably, with up to four pints of water. To produce an equal volume of diluted Dye-na-Flow, you would have to purchase two 32-ounce bottle of Dye-na-Flow, for a total cost of about $42, and then dilute it with no more than one pint of water.
With any transparent fabric paint, including Dye-na-Flow, and, most likely, Dharma Pigment dyes as well, you have the option of a technique called sunprinting. Dilute your fabric paint as directed, then stretch the fabric out over a piece of cardboard, or tape it to a plastic table. Either paint the fabric paint on, or apply it to the fabric before stretching it out by immersing the fabric in the paint and squeezing the paint through until it is pretty even. Working reasonably quickly, scatter opaque objects such as fresh green leaves, or star-shaped sequins, across the fabric, then expose it to either bright sunshine, or a hot incandescent, halogen, or infrared light. As the paint dries, it will be pulled out from under the light-obscuring shapes, leaving a lovely lighter-color pattern of whatever objects you placed on the fabric. This is an extremely easy way to create a nice design, even if you do not know how to draw or paint. See the top section of my page "How to Dye and Paint Fabric with Light".
Be sure to wash the dress as thoroughly as possible before coloring it. Any surface finishes or invisible stains will repel both dye and paint, resulting in lighter or even completely uncolored spots.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Friday, January 30, 2009
How can I print a skull design onto a bandana?
Name:
Umang
Neopaque is an opaque fabric paint, so white will cover a black background.
Use household bleach only with sturdy gloves and proper ventilation.
Clorox Bleach Pen
Thick gel formula, perfect for writing with bleach!
Hydrogen peroxide, 3%
Neutralize chlorine bleach after rinsing, to prevent shredded fabric. Use Anti-Chlor from your dye supplier, or use 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Rit Color Remover
Rit Color Remover Removes Dyes
Rit Color Remover works more gently than chlorine bleach, but it must be applied in hot water.
Message: Dear Paula,
I am not actually an average dyer. but I have an interesting case. See I am a biker and have been looking for a half skull bandana for me...Now since I could not find it anywhere...I have taken upon myself to make it....I have stencil of the skull...and now I want it to be printed on the scarf......or a bandana.......please ma'am would you guide how do I do that...........
I think the coolest-looking way to do that would be to use bleach to make the design on a black bandana. There's something ghostly-looking about the off-white colors you typically get by using bleach to break apart dye molecules. Can you buy a black bandana reasonably cheaply? Not all commercially dyed items will lose their color when bleached, so don't buy an expensive one for this. Buy at least two, and run a test on one to see if the black will discharge when you use bleach. (Note that you should use bleach only on 100% cotton fabrics, or other natural plant-based fibers such as hemp or bamboo.)
Alternatively, you can buy some opaque white fabric paint to use on your black bandana, or you can use a reverse design and paint the black background onto a white bandana. If you buy white fabric paint to use on a black background, be careful to buy only fabric paint that is labeled "opaque". Most fabric paint, like dye, is transparent, so white will show up on a black background only if it is opaque. You need a light background for most fabric paints and markers to show up. Metallic or pearlescent colors work well on a dark background, and so will puffy or "velvet" paints or markers. Black fabric paint will work on a white background regardless of whether the paint is opaque or not. You can even use a good fabric marker for drawing the dark background design; I recommend the fat-tip Jacquard Tee Juice pens, or Marvy Uchida Fabric Markers. You will have to go to a crafts store, or possibly a fabric store, to buy good fabric paints or fabric markers. Regular artists' acrylics will feel too stiff and scratchy after they dry, and ordinary felt-tip markers are apt to wash out more quickly, so it's worth looking for a good fabric paint or fabric marker instead of other paints or markers.
With either bleach or opaque fabric paint, probably the easiest way to do the project would be to use a skull stencil, such as you have already. If you want to change the design any, you can cut another one. A thin plastic report cover from the drug store is my favorite material for cutting out a stencil, but you can also use a manilla folder. You can even print a design you find online out onto card stock, which is printer paper that is thicker and heavier than regular paper (you can get it at an office supply store), then cut out your design from it, using either pointed scissors or an Exacto knife, depending on the amount of fine detail. To make the stencil water-resistant, you can paint it with almost any water-resistant paint, polyurethane finish, or spray paint.
Lay your bandana out on a large piece of cardboard and tape its edges down, then tape your stencil onto the fabric, to hold it in place, taking care not to cover any of the stencil openings, of course. Then you can apply your bleach or your fabric paint. The easiest way to do the bleach is to buy a product called a Clorox Bleach Pen. These bleach pens contain a thickened gel form of bleach that stays where you put it better than other bleach products, and the amount of bleach fumes produced are much lower, which is important to me because the smell of bleach bothers me. Another way to use bleach is to put some water into a bowl and add ordinary household bleach, the kind used in the laundry. (The fine print on the label should indicate that it contains some hypochlorite. You don't want a "color safe" or "oxygen" bleach for this project, because they will not work.) Apply this diluted bleach to your stenciled fabric with a sponge. Wear gloves while working with bleach, and be sure to keep the windows wide open, because bleach is bad for your lungs and skin. Don't get your sponge sopping wet with bleach, or the bleach will creep under the edges of your stencil. Squeeze the sponge out and dab on the bleach lightly. You can use the same sponge technique for applying your fabric paint, instead, if that's what you decide to use. Some dyes are more difficult to bleach out and require undiluted bleach, while some other dyes will not change color at all, no matter how much bleach you put on. Do a test first so you don't waste effort.
After you use bleach on fabric, the bleach and its breakdown products can continue to damage your fabric, even after it is rinsed. It is wise to neutralize the bleach afterwards. To do this, first plunge the bandana into an already-filled sink or dishpan of water (so that the bleach does not run onto the unbleached fabric as you do it), then quickly rinse, to get rid of as much bleach as possible in a hurry. Then treat with a bleach neutralizing chemical. Do not use vinegar for this. It is safe and effective to use hydrogen peroxide from the drug store, the 3% solution that is sold as a disinfectant. Or, you can buy a product called Anti-Chlor or Bleach Stop from a dye supplier, or buy metabisulfite from a home winemaking supply store. After soaking in the peroxide or Anti-Chlor for fifteen minutes, the bleached material can be washed in the usual fashion.
If you use fabric paint instead of bleach, let the paint dry on the fabric for a few days, then use a hot iron to set the paint. Some fabric markers require this sort of heat-setting, while others do not. Just check the package instructions, and be sure not to skip heat-setting if it is needed. Then, in the future, you can wash the bandana as usual. Fabric paint will tend to gradually wear off of fabric in the wash, so treat it gently so that the design will last longer.
For more information, check out these pages on my site:
• How to Tie Dye on Dark Fabric [the technique is the same for stenciling as for tie-dyeing]
• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?
• How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?
• How to make cool designs on shirts using bleach
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Neopaque is an opaque fabric paint, so white will cover a black background.
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Hypochlorite-based bleachUse household bleach only with sturdy gloves and proper ventilation.
Clorox Bleach Pen
Thick gel formula, perfect for writing with bleach!
Hydrogen peroxide, 3%
Neutralize chlorine bleach after rinsing, to prevent shredded fabric. Use Anti-Chlor from your dye supplier, or use 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Rit Color Remover
Rit Color Remover Removes Dyes
Rit Color Remover works more gently than chlorine bleach, but it must be applied in hot water.
Message: Dear Paula,
I am not actually an average dyer. but I have an interesting case. See I am a biker and have been looking for a half skull bandana for me...Now since I could not find it anywhere...I have taken upon myself to make it....I have stencil of the skull...and now I want it to be printed on the scarf......or a bandana.......please ma'am would you guide how do I do that...........
I think the coolest-looking way to do that would be to use bleach to make the design on a black bandana. There's something ghostly-looking about the off-white colors you typically get by using bleach to break apart dye molecules. Can you buy a black bandana reasonably cheaply? Not all commercially dyed items will lose their color when bleached, so don't buy an expensive one for this. Buy at least two, and run a test on one to see if the black will discharge when you use bleach. (Note that you should use bleach only on 100% cotton fabrics, or other natural plant-based fibers such as hemp or bamboo.)
Alternatively, you can buy some opaque white fabric paint to use on your black bandana, or you can use a reverse design and paint the black background onto a white bandana. If you buy white fabric paint to use on a black background, be careful to buy only fabric paint that is labeled "opaque". Most fabric paint, like dye, is transparent, so white will show up on a black background only if it is opaque. You need a light background for most fabric paints and markers to show up. Metallic or pearlescent colors work well on a dark background, and so will puffy or "velvet" paints or markers. Black fabric paint will work on a white background regardless of whether the paint is opaque or not. You can even use a good fabric marker for drawing the dark background design; I recommend the fat-tip Jacquard Tee Juice pens, or Marvy Uchida Fabric Markers. You will have to go to a crafts store, or possibly a fabric store, to buy good fabric paints or fabric markers. Regular artists' acrylics will feel too stiff and scratchy after they dry, and ordinary felt-tip markers are apt to wash out more quickly, so it's worth looking for a good fabric paint or fabric marker instead of other paints or markers.
With either bleach or opaque fabric paint, probably the easiest way to do the project would be to use a skull stencil, such as you have already. If you want to change the design any, you can cut another one. A thin plastic report cover from the drug store is my favorite material for cutting out a stencil, but you can also use a manilla folder. You can even print a design you find online out onto card stock, which is printer paper that is thicker and heavier than regular paper (you can get it at an office supply store), then cut out your design from it, using either pointed scissors or an Exacto knife, depending on the amount of fine detail. To make the stencil water-resistant, you can paint it with almost any water-resistant paint, polyurethane finish, or spray paint.
Lay your bandana out on a large piece of cardboard and tape its edges down, then tape your stencil onto the fabric, to hold it in place, taking care not to cover any of the stencil openings, of course. Then you can apply your bleach or your fabric paint. The easiest way to do the bleach is to buy a product called a Clorox Bleach Pen. These bleach pens contain a thickened gel form of bleach that stays where you put it better than other bleach products, and the amount of bleach fumes produced are much lower, which is important to me because the smell of bleach bothers me. Another way to use bleach is to put some water into a bowl and add ordinary household bleach, the kind used in the laundry. (The fine print on the label should indicate that it contains some hypochlorite. You don't want a "color safe" or "oxygen" bleach for this project, because they will not work.) Apply this diluted bleach to your stenciled fabric with a sponge. Wear gloves while working with bleach, and be sure to keep the windows wide open, because bleach is bad for your lungs and skin. Don't get your sponge sopping wet with bleach, or the bleach will creep under the edges of your stencil. Squeeze the sponge out and dab on the bleach lightly. You can use the same sponge technique for applying your fabric paint, instead, if that's what you decide to use. Some dyes are more difficult to bleach out and require undiluted bleach, while some other dyes will not change color at all, no matter how much bleach you put on. Do a test first so you don't waste effort.
After you use bleach on fabric, the bleach and its breakdown products can continue to damage your fabric, even after it is rinsed. It is wise to neutralize the bleach afterwards. To do this, first plunge the bandana into an already-filled sink or dishpan of water (so that the bleach does not run onto the unbleached fabric as you do it), then quickly rinse, to get rid of as much bleach as possible in a hurry. Then treat with a bleach neutralizing chemical. Do not use vinegar for this. It is safe and effective to use hydrogen peroxide from the drug store, the 3% solution that is sold as a disinfectant. Or, you can buy a product called Anti-Chlor or Bleach Stop from a dye supplier, or buy metabisulfite from a home winemaking supply store. After soaking in the peroxide or Anti-Chlor for fifteen minutes, the bleached material can be washed in the usual fashion.
If you use fabric paint instead of bleach, let the paint dry on the fabric for a few days, then use a hot iron to set the paint. Some fabric markers require this sort of heat-setting, while others do not. Just check the package instructions, and be sure not to skip heat-setting if it is needed. Then, in the future, you can wash the bandana as usual. Fabric paint will tend to gradually wear off of fabric in the wash, so treat it gently so that the design will last longer.
For more information, check out these pages on my site:
• How to Tie Dye on Dark Fabric [the technique is the same for stenciling as for tie-dyeing]
• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?
• How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?
• How to make cool designs on shirts using bleach
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Thursday, January 29, 2009
How should I dye a sweatshirt that is 50% cotton/50% polyester to a bright blue?
Name:
Lenee
Color polyester blends with fabric paints
Message: Hello. Great site! I have a sweatshirt that is 50% cotton 50% polyester... how should I dye it? I love the Jaquard Bright Blue that you recommend, how will that turn out? thank you
I'm afraid that your blended-fiber sweatshirt is not the best choice if you want a bright blue color. The polyester will not take the dye, so the most you will be able to get would be a pastel blue.
It is possible to dye both the polyester and the cotton, using two different dyes, one being either fiber reactive dye or direct dye for the cotton, and the other being disperse dye for the polyester. However, this is a cumbersome and expensive process. In order to use a hot-water dye like disperse dye, or direct dye, you will need a very large non-aluminum cooking pot, one which you do not plan to ever use again for food. It's a lot less costly to use a cold-water dye, or fabric paint, so that you do not need to invest in an expensive dyeing pot. Dyeing polyester requires a lot of boiling, and constant stirring, and the results do not always come out as desired.
Is your sweatshirt white? A shirt that is any color other than white will not produce the same bright colors as a white one. Since dye is transparent, the original color always shows through dye, and also through most fabric paints.
Alternatively, you could buy a new 100% cotton sweatshirt, which is very easy to dye in the brightest of colors, using a fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX. If you can't find a 100% cotton sweatshirt locally, you can buy one by mail-order from Dharma Trading Company, which sells a great many different items of clothing that are ready to dye. Be careful not to buy anything that has a stain-resistant finish, which would tend to repel dye; sometimes you see stain-resistant garments in local stores such as Walmart or Target, but you should avoid those if you want to dye them.
It is possible to color a 50% polyester/50% cotton sweatshirt using fabric paint instead of dye. Some fabric paints are labeled as working on synthetic fibers as well as cotton fibers. Don't get a fabric paint that is labeled as working only on natural fibers, for your fiber blend sweatshirt. Good choices for fabric paints include Dharma Pigment "Dyes" and Jacquard Products' Dye-na-Flow. I think you will get brighter and prettier results with fiber reactive dye on a 100% cotton sweatshirt, though.
The dye in the Jacquard 232 Bright Blue has been discontinued by the manufacturer. However, there are other wonderful bright blue dyes in the Procion MX dye line. I particularly like cerulean blue, which is the same as Procion blue MX-G. It's a very bright blue, slightly more on the green side than the Cibacron F-GF that was in the Jacquard 232 Bright Blue. Both Jacquard Products and Dharma Trading Company sell this blue dye, as do all other sellers of Procion MX dye (the only exception I know being in the Czech Republic). Jacquard sells it as 070 Cerulean, and Dharma sells it as PR 23 Cerulean Blue. If you order a sweatshirt from Dharma, you may wish to buy some Procion dye from them, as well. Both companies also sell mixtures of different dyes, which can help you to more closely match any blue you are thinking of.
After buying a 100% cotton sweatshirt and some Procion dye, you can follow the instructions on either of the following two pages, to get a good result:
• "How to Dye with Fiber Reactive Dye" or
• "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
You can use a plastic bucket, rather than a cooking pot, since Procion MX dyes do not require heating, but do make sure that your temperature is 70°F or warmer when you dye the shirt.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Color polyester blends with fabric paints
Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Stainless Steel 10 Gallon Stock Pot with Lid
Message: Hello. Great site! I have a sweatshirt that is 50% cotton 50% polyester... how should I dye it? I love the Jaquard Bright Blue that you recommend, how will that turn out? thank you
I'm afraid that your blended-fiber sweatshirt is not the best choice if you want a bright blue color. The polyester will not take the dye, so the most you will be able to get would be a pastel blue.
It is possible to dye both the polyester and the cotton, using two different dyes, one being either fiber reactive dye or direct dye for the cotton, and the other being disperse dye for the polyester. However, this is a cumbersome and expensive process. In order to use a hot-water dye like disperse dye, or direct dye, you will need a very large non-aluminum cooking pot, one which you do not plan to ever use again for food. It's a lot less costly to use a cold-water dye, or fabric paint, so that you do not need to invest in an expensive dyeing pot. Dyeing polyester requires a lot of boiling, and constant stirring, and the results do not always come out as desired.
Is your sweatshirt white? A shirt that is any color other than white will not produce the same bright colors as a white one. Since dye is transparent, the original color always shows through dye, and also through most fabric paints.
Alternatively, you could buy a new 100% cotton sweatshirt, which is very easy to dye in the brightest of colors, using a fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX. If you can't find a 100% cotton sweatshirt locally, you can buy one by mail-order from Dharma Trading Company, which sells a great many different items of clothing that are ready to dye. Be careful not to buy anything that has a stain-resistant finish, which would tend to repel dye; sometimes you see stain-resistant garments in local stores such as Walmart or Target, but you should avoid those if you want to dye them.
It is possible to color a 50% polyester/50% cotton sweatshirt using fabric paint instead of dye. Some fabric paints are labeled as working on synthetic fibers as well as cotton fibers. Don't get a fabric paint that is labeled as working only on natural fibers, for your fiber blend sweatshirt. Good choices for fabric paints include Dharma Pigment "Dyes" and Jacquard Products' Dye-na-Flow. I think you will get brighter and prettier results with fiber reactive dye on a 100% cotton sweatshirt, though.
The dye in the Jacquard 232 Bright Blue has been discontinued by the manufacturer. However, there are other wonderful bright blue dyes in the Procion MX dye line. I particularly like cerulean blue, which is the same as Procion blue MX-G. It's a very bright blue, slightly more on the green side than the Cibacron F-GF that was in the Jacquard 232 Bright Blue. Both Jacquard Products and Dharma Trading Company sell this blue dye, as do all other sellers of Procion MX dye (the only exception I know being in the Czech Republic). Jacquard sells it as 070 Cerulean, and Dharma sells it as PR 23 Cerulean Blue. If you order a sweatshirt from Dharma, you may wish to buy some Procion dye from them, as well. Both companies also sell mixtures of different dyes, which can help you to more closely match any blue you are thinking of.
After buying a 100% cotton sweatshirt and some Procion dye, you can follow the instructions on either of the following two pages, to get a good result:
• "How to Dye with Fiber Reactive Dye" or
• "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
You can use a plastic bucket, rather than a cooking pot, since Procion MX dyes do not require heating, but do make sure that your temperature is 70°F or warmer when you dye the shirt.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Dye Safety
I posted the following on the DyersLIST mailing list this morning, following
several recent questions about dye safety. (If you join the DyersLIST mailing
list, you can read years' worth of previous postings in the DyersLIST
archive.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
The Artist's Complete Health and Safety Guide: Third Edition,by Monona Rossol
3M Disposable Dust Mist Masks
Dual Cartridge Respirator
Safety Goggles
Always wear gloves when working with natural OR synthetic dyes!
The claim that natural dyes are inherently safer than synthetic dyes is the result of ignorance about the actual risks. Some natural dyes are very safe, and some synthetic dyes are dangerous (not the ones whose use I recommend!), but there are also natural dyes that are poisonous, even for those working only with the dyed fiber, and there are some synthetic dyes that are safe enough even to eat. (For some examples of unsafe natural dyes, see "Aren't natural dyes safer than synthetic dyes?".)
No hand dyer has ever been killed by exposure to Procion MX dyes. The mordants used with almost all natural dyes are far more dangerous. Even alum, the safest of all of the metal ion mordants, has caused fatalities, and more hazardous mordants such as copper and iron have caused many more. Alum, iron, copper, and tin may all be used safely by those who take all of the appropriate safety precautions, and who take care never to use them around those who might swallow them or splash themselves with the mordant, such as small children. However, chrome mordant, which makes beautiful colors when used as a mordant for natural dyes, is, in my opinion, too dangerous for use at home.
As Olli described, the real risk of working with Procion MX and other fiber reactive dyes is that of developing a respiratory allergy to the dye. You must be careful to avoid breathing the dye powder in order to reduce your risk of developing this problem. One well-known quilt artist developed an allergy to Procion MX dyes and had to switch to using Cibacron F dyes, which perform similarly. If you develop an allergy to any particular class of dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, you must then quit using it forever, as otherwise it can provoke serious asthma. It is easier to avoid the problem in the first place, by being careful. Doing so also avoids exposure to the possibility of dangers that are now unknown.
The Procion MX type dyes contain little or no metal, depending on color. You can easily check this by looking at an MSDS page, provided by your dye supplier. Turquoise MX-G and rubine MX-B each contain a small amount of copper, between 1% and 5% of the weight of the dye powder. A hand dyer does not need to worry about metals in these small quantities. (See "Toxicity of Procion Dyes".) If you are dyeing by hand, by yourself, there is no harm in the relatively small quantities of dye that you may dump down the drain. There is more danger to you and your children in the neurotoxins commonly applied to your neighbors' lawns as insecticides, and the fertilizers applied to your neighbors' lawns are far more harmful to the environment than the dyes you dispose of, as fertilizer run-off leads to the production of oxygen-free dead zones in the oceans and the Gulf of Mexico.
Many acid dyes, including some of the Lanaset dyes, contain a small amount of the more toxic metal, chromium. While I strongly recommend that home dyers strictly avoid the use of a separate chrome mordant, the amount of chromium bound to the Lanaset dyes is low enough that a single recipe of Lanaset dye paint will meet EPA requirements for drinking water, if diluted by fifty gallons of water. (See "What are the risks of exposure from using a dye that is premetalized with chromium?".) This means that it is safe to dispose of small quantities of Lanaset dyes down your drain.
Other types of dyes bring with them additional safety concerns. There have been direct dyes sold to home users in the past that contained probable carcinogens, based on the chemicals benzidine, o-tolidine, or o-dianisidine. These dyes were included in all-purpose dyes that were available to home dyers in the US through the 1970s. (See the safety section at the bottom of my page on all-purpose dyes.) You can still buy "tie dye cords" that contain an o-dianisidine-based dye, which should never be given to children to use. (See the post "o-dianisidine in dye-impregnated tie-dye cords".) There is no such thing as a fiber reactive dye that is based on benzidine, o-tolidine, or o-dianisidine, so this is not a concern for those using Procion MX, Remazol, and other fiber reactive dyes. Some popular acid dyes, such as Rhodamine B, have been listed as carcinogens in the past; I recommend that users of these dyes be particularly careful with their safety precautions, but I don't see a safety problem for those who do take care. It's interesting to note that the safest dyes for children to work with, the certified food colorings, are also acid dyes.
The naphthol dyes are more dangerous carcinogens than other dyes that hand dyers use, but they are not generally available to hand dyers in Europe or North America. Unlike many other potential carcinogens, some of the naphthol dye components can be absorbed directly through even unbroken skin, which makes any skin contact much more dangerous than contact with other types of dye. (Fiber reactive dyes tend to react with the dead surface skin cells and stay put, rather than entering the body through the skin.) I am very glad that the most dangerous dyes, such as the black dye that (or so someone said) killed all the Japanese master dyers who used it, are no longer available to artists, at least in most countries.
The safest dyes for the wearer are properly fixed fiber reactive dyes, because they form a permanent chemical bond to the fiber which does not break during use. Disperse dyes and basic dyes are occasionally reported to cause allergic reactions in the wearers, but the only report I have seen in the medical literature of a wearer's reaction to fiber reactive dyes involved inadequate wash-out; the problem was solved for the wearer by washing the garment. Of course, all excess unattached dye must be washed out, preferably using hot water; you can dampen your dyed fabric and then press it between two white cloths with a hot iron to see if you still have any remaining unattached dye. This is important for quilt-making, and for dyeing clothes for babies or anyone else who might chew on the fabric.
Claims for eco-safety are different, since a poorly-run factory can do great damage by dumping toxic chemical intermediaries. Dystar, the current owner of the Procion trademark, does not manufacture Procion MX dyes, but they still manufacture Remazol dyes and Procion H-E dyes. Their dyes have been certified according to both the EU label and the Oeko-Tex Standard 100; the standard includes approval for use in clothing for infants. See "Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?".
I have myself used the dry-dye-sprinkling method with Procion MX type dyes, as was recently discussed here [on the DyersLIST mailing list], but only when working outdoors, with a properly fitting dust mask. I would not like to have loose powder floating around inside the house; safe indoor use requires a suitable box set-up that contains all loose dye powder inside it. The fit of your dust mask is critical, even when you are working outdoors, since the wind may unexpected blow the dye back in your face. It is easier to breath if you are pulling in some air from around the edges of the dust mask, but that negates its usefulness. Never rely on a dust mask that allows you to breathe around it.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
How can I dye or paint acrylic fur?
Name: chris
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Dye Polyester with iDye Poly
Message: About dying acrylic fur: I am making a coverlet for my bed from faux fur and cannot find a natural, motley looking fur I want. I was thinking of dying something. I've read about your polyester dying, but heat will ruin the fur (melt it). Are there unconventional ways to dye acrylic/polyester fur? I was thinking of wood stains, oil paints thinned with mineral spirits/seed oils, etc. How are they colored by the factory? thanks.
Fake furs are usually colored in the liquid form, before the fibers are extruded. They certainly can be dyed without melting them, but doing so is impractical for many people, because a very large, non-aluminum cooking pot is required. The pot must be large enough to permit the fabric to move freely as you stir it, throughout the dyeing process, and it should be made of either stainless steel or unchipped enamel; aluminum tends to react with dye auxiliaries, and iron will darken colors. Cooking pots that are suitable for use as dyeing pots can be very expensive. A ten gallon stainless steel pot will cost over $100. Since textiles dyes (including such common dyes as Rit) will contaminate surfaces used for cooking food, you should never plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food. This makes the dyeing pot a large investment for any hot-water dyeing.
For more information on dyeing acrylic, please see my page, "Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye ". I'd rather not recommend basic dye for use by dye novices in their homes, however, as it is important to carefully use safety precautions with basic dyes. Polyester fleece can be dyed without danger of melting, but it requires extensive boiling with disperse dyes; see "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".
I've seen a report that Krylon Acrylic spray paint (the name refers to the contents of the paint, not its usage) can work well on acrylic or modacrylic fake fur. (See the PreFurs site.) Of course, it is essential to apply only a fine spray, not too much at a time, because a heavy application of paint will cause the hairs in the fur to clump together. You can comb through the fur as it dries to help separate the individual hair before it is too late.
As a general rule, fabric paints are nicer than other types of paints, because they are softer. Acrylic paints tend to be scratchy and unpleasant to touch after they dry. One excellent way to apply fabric paint to your fake fur smoothly would be to put the paint into an airbrush. (Take precautions to avoid breathing the mist; even non-toxic paints can gum up your lungs and cause permanent serious damage.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Simply Sprayfabric paint
If you buy the Jacquard fabric paint Dye-na-Flow, which is a thin fabric paint meant to simulate dye, you can dilute it with 25% water before air-brushing with it. You can also use it to immerse your fabric in, after diluting with the water. It's worth experimenting with diluting the fabric paint with more water than the manufacturer recommends, especially if you will not be laundering the item you dye very frequently. Overdiluted paint may not hold to the fibers as well, but it also will not make them clump together as badly.
Another brand of fabric paint that comes in a convenient spray dispenser is called Simply Spray. A very convenient aspect of the Simply Spray brand is that it does not require any heat setting step. (Dye-na-Flow should have an additive called AirFix mixed in before use, if it is not to be heat-set after it dries. You can order Airfix from Jerry's Artarama
An alternative approach would be to use a different material. Nylon is a synthetic fiber that is easily dyeable, using readily available acid dyes, if the fabric is free of surface finishes that will repel the dye. Antron fleece is made of nylon; it's sometimes called "muppet fleece". There is a wide range of acid dye colors available, and, although it is best to dye nylon at temperatures up to 185°F, it does not have to be boiled, and it is possible to dye it at somewhat lower temperatures. An easy way to keep your nylon hot while you are dyeing it, without investing in a stainless steel dyeing pot, is to buy a cheap styrofoam cooler and devote it to dyeing use. Heat the water for your dyebath on the stove, in a regular cooking pot, and add it to the cooler, along with the dye which you have dissolved already in a little water, making sure not to exceed 185°F; also add any other auxiliary chemicals required by the dye that you purchase, such as vinegar. Stir the fabric in the hot dyebath to prevent uneven coloring, allowing at least half an hour or an hour for the dye to bond to the fiber.
A fur-like fabric that is easy to dye, which is very popular for hand-made teddy bears, is mohair, a natural fiber fabric. This is lovely stuff, but it might be too expensive in the quantities which you will need. Mohair, like nylon, can be dyed by heating it with acid dye. It is unlikely to have any surface treatments that will interfere with dyeing.
I would be interested to know what you choose to do, and how it works out for you.
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Monday, January 26, 2009
how to fix oil-lightened spots on a sofa
Name: Corrina
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Slipcovers
Message: I am hoping you can help me. I accidentally spilled a few drops of oil onto a 100% cotton sofa from Pottery Barn. As I attempted to clean the spots, the red dye started to come out of the fabric. I stopped immediately, but now I not only have a couple of dark oil spots, but a slightly lighter red area surrounding them. Is there something I can do to replace the color removed from washing? What if I spill something in the future?
I wish I had some helpful advice to offer, but I don't. It's generally impossible to fill in the color that is missing in cases like this. You will not be able to do it by dyeing the sofa (dye would take unevenly because of the oil, anyway). The closest I can come is the suggestion on my page for bleach spots, "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", which is to try a marker, either a fabric marker or a permanent marker. Unfortunately, the edges will never come out right, as the color overlaps the unstained portions, resulting in a darker color. This works only to reduce the visibility of the spot, not to get rid of it altogether.
It's very unfortunate that the dye used in the upholstery of your sofa turned out not to be bonded to the fabric, but instead readily dissolved in oil. That would never happen with a properly applied fiber reactive dye, but unfortunately the type of dye used in your sofa was not bound fast to the fiber. If this were an article of clothing, I would certainly recommend that you return it to the store, since clothing is defective if it cannot be cleaned without its dye running. I don't know if the same is true of a sofa. Please call the customer service department at Pottery Barn to see if they will replace the sofa.
The best solution, if you cannot get the sofa replaced, would be to have the sofa reupholstered, or to get custom-made slipcovers that fit the sofa. If money is tight, consider buying a book (or checking the library) on the subject of how to do your own furniture upholstery. I am sure that if you take on the project of reupholstering your sofa, you will prewash the fabric to make sure that it, unlike the original fabric, is ready to face the challenges that furniture is likely to face. You will probably also use a stain-resistant treatment of some sort.
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Sunday, January 25, 2009
Every time we use the towels the color comes out of the cloth. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Name:
Penny
Message: I have tried to dye terrycloth bath towels a dark brown. I have used the liquid dye, hot water, and used salt to set the color. Every time we use the wash cloths and towels the color seems to come out of the cloth, down the drain. I am tired of redying these articles. Is there something I am doing wrong? Please help me.
Are you using Rit Liquid Dye? The problem with this this type of dye is that, as you have observed, it is not very permanent. You will get tremendously better results if you use a higher quality dye.
The dye you need to use is called fiber reactive dye. You will not be able to buy good dye at the grocery store. You can find it at a crafts store, or for much better prices and a far wider range of color, with a hundred different choices, you can mail-order dye from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company.
If you go to a local crafts store, look for Tulip One Step Fabric Dye, or Jacquard Procion MX Dye, or Dylon Cold Dye, or Dylon Permanent Dye. If you live in Europe or Australia, you can also look for Dylon Machine Dye, but this dye, designed for front-loading washing machines, is not available in North America. Read the instructions on the packet carefully, because you will need to buy a lot of the little packets of dye. In many cases, the packet is sufficient only to dye half a pound of fiber, which means you might need four packets in order to dye a two-pound towel. (Weigh all of the towels you plan to dye together, to find out how many pounds of fabric you are dyeing.) If you can find Jacquard Products' Procion MX Dye in your local crafts store — only very good crafts stores will carry it — then that is by far the best choice; a two-thirds ounce jar (20 grams) will dye up to four pounds of fabric to a medium shade, or two pounds to a dark shade.
Whatever you do, please avoid all forms of all-purpose dye, such as Rit Liquid Dye, Rit All Purpose "concentrated" Tint and Dye, Dylon Multi Purpose Dye, or Tintex Easy Fabric Dye. None of these dyes are designed to last for a long time on your towels. They begin to fade the very first time you wash them, and when they run in the laundry they can ruin your other clothes.
I strongly recommend that you buy your dye by mail-order. Procion MX dye from a company that specialized in dye will cost you about one-tenth as much, per pound of fabric dyed, as the tiny packets of any sort of dye you can buy in your local crafts store. See my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World" for contact information and web site links for good dye suppliers. You will probably like Dharma Trading Company the best; be sure to request a catalog of all of their products when you order. They use the name "Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes" for their Procion MX dyes. If you have eight pounds of towels to dye brown, using the washing machine in order to get a perfectly solid color, you will need one tablespoon of dye per pound of fabric, plus a total of 20 cups of non-iodized salt, and 2.5 cups of soda ash to fix the dye. (Note that soda ash, which performs phenomenally well in fixing Procion MX dye, will do nothing at all to fix low-quality all-purpose dye. It only works for fiber reactive dyes.)
For instructions on how to dye your towels in the washing machine, see my page "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
Another essential thing to note is the the fiber content of your towels is very important. Are your towels made of 100% cotton, or rayon, or bamboo, or modal? Each of these fibers will dye very well, given the right dye, but a 50% polyester or nylon towel will not.
There is a special chemical laundry treatment, Retayne, you can use to make Rit All-Purpose dye stop washing out so much. Unfortunately, it tends to make the dyes fade more quickly when they are exposed to light, that is, it reduces their lightfastness. Also, it is just as much trouble to mail-order Retayne as it is to order good dye, but good dye is more fun and will work for more methods of dyeing. I think that it is better to substitute good dye, rather than relying on a chemical after-treatment. Of course, neither salt nor vinegar will work to permanently fix all-purpose dye; the only hope for making Rit dye work well is to mail-order some Retayne or another brand of commercial dye fixative.
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Message: I have tried to dye terrycloth bath towels a dark brown. I have used the liquid dye, hot water, and used salt to set the color. Every time we use the wash cloths and towels the color seems to come out of the cloth, down the drain. I am tired of redying these articles. Is there something I am doing wrong? Please help me.
Are you using Rit Liquid Dye? The problem with this this type of dye is that, as you have observed, it is not very permanent. You will get tremendously better results if you use a higher quality dye.
The dye you need to use is called fiber reactive dye. You will not be able to buy good dye at the grocery store. You can find it at a crafts store, or for much better prices and a far wider range of color, with a hundred different choices, you can mail-order dye from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye, or Dharma Trading Company.
If you go to a local crafts store, look for Tulip One Step Fabric Dye, or Jacquard Procion MX Dye, or Dylon Cold Dye, or Dylon Permanent Dye. If you live in Europe or Australia, you can also look for Dylon Machine Dye, but this dye, designed for front-loading washing machines, is not available in North America. Read the instructions on the packet carefully, because you will need to buy a lot of the little packets of dye. In many cases, the packet is sufficient only to dye half a pound of fiber, which means you might need four packets in order to dye a two-pound towel. (Weigh all of the towels you plan to dye together, to find out how many pounds of fabric you are dyeing.) If you can find Jacquard Products' Procion MX Dye in your local crafts store — only very good crafts stores will carry it — then that is by far the best choice; a two-thirds ounce jar (20 grams) will dye up to four pounds of fabric to a medium shade, or two pounds to a dark shade.
Whatever you do, please avoid all forms of all-purpose dye, such as Rit Liquid Dye, Rit All Purpose "concentrated" Tint and Dye, Dylon Multi Purpose Dye, or Tintex Easy Fabric Dye. None of these dyes are designed to last for a long time on your towels. They begin to fade the very first time you wash them, and when they run in the laundry they can ruin your other clothes.
I strongly recommend that you buy your dye by mail-order. Procion MX dye from a company that specialized in dye will cost you about one-tenth as much, per pound of fabric dyed, as the tiny packets of any sort of dye you can buy in your local crafts store. See my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World" for contact information and web site links for good dye suppliers. You will probably like Dharma Trading Company the best; be sure to request a catalog of all of their products when you order. They use the name "Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes" for their Procion MX dyes. If you have eight pounds of towels to dye brown, using the washing machine in order to get a perfectly solid color, you will need one tablespoon of dye per pound of fabric, plus a total of 20 cups of non-iodized salt, and 2.5 cups of soda ash to fix the dye. (Note that soda ash, which performs phenomenally well in fixing Procion MX dye, will do nothing at all to fix low-quality all-purpose dye. It only works for fiber reactive dyes.)
For instructions on how to dye your towels in the washing machine, see my page "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
Another essential thing to note is the the fiber content of your towels is very important. Are your towels made of 100% cotton, or rayon, or bamboo, or modal? Each of these fibers will dye very well, given the right dye, but a 50% polyester or nylon towel will not.
There is a special chemical laundry treatment, Retayne, you can use to make Rit All-Purpose dye stop washing out so much. Unfortunately, it tends to make the dyes fade more quickly when they are exposed to light, that is, it reduces their lightfastness. Also, it is just as much trouble to mail-order Retayne as it is to order good dye, but good dye is more fun and will work for more methods of dyeing. I think that it is better to substitute good dye, rather than relying on a chemical after-treatment. Of course, neither salt nor vinegar will work to permanently fix all-purpose dye; the only hope for making Rit dye work well is to mail-order some Retayne or another brand of commercial dye fixative.
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Saturday, January 24, 2009
What's a good resist to use for writing words on fabric before dyeing?
Name: Marianne
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Elmer's Washable School Glue GelMessage: On your web page you have a T-shirt with 'peace' written on it. Would you tell me what you used? Wax?? Just learning to dye, using home grown indigo. Would like to put a logo on t-shirts. Thanks Marianne
The 'peace' shirt was treated with an Elmer's Washable blue School Gel resist and dyed with a fiber reactive Cibacron F type dye. See pictures and instructions at this page: "Immersion Dyeing with Water Soluble Resist ".
I've heard that Elmer's Washable Glue Gel can be used as a resist for indigo, too, but that it's important that the dyebath be 120°F or cooler, as otherwise the glue gel will dissolve too quickly. The glue gel must be absolutely dry before you immerse it in the dyebath, and you should not immerse it for an extended period of time for fear of dissolving the glue resist in the dyebath.
If you use Elmer's Washable Glue Gel on top of indigo-dyed fabric, it may discharge the dye, so don't use it on dyed fabric that you do not want to discharge.
The glue gel is very convenient to use; it is cheap and comes with a useful applicator tip (I drew the writing directly onto the shirt using the glue bottle). It is much easier to remove from the fabric than a real batik wax resist. However, this can also be a problem if your glue dissolves in the dye. It's best to use Elmer's Glue Gel as a resist only for painted-on dye or very brief immersion. Be careful that the glue on the fabric does not contact another part of the fabric while it's in the dye, because the glue can transfer to it.
To remove the glue resist after you have completed your dyeing, follow the instructions on the label, which say to first presoak the fabric in cold water, then launder as usual. Some dyers prefer to scrape off excess glue with a dull knife before laundering.
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Friday, January 23, 2009
How can I lighten the color of my bathing suit?
Name: Fontaine
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White fabric paint will lighten the effect of the color in the fabric.Rit color remover
gentler to fibers than bleach
Message: I got a very expensive bathing suit online. The design is sort of like tie dyes but the colors fade into each other more profoundly. But when it arrived it was much darker than I expected. I tried to bleach it but it only got a few blotches on it. They aren't white but they're like a couple shades lighter then the material. I washed out all the bleach left in the material, and I want to dye it black or fabric paint it. Here's the materials the bathingsuit consists of: Fabric: 80% nylon/20% spandex; Liner (think that's the inside of the bathing suit): 91% polyester/9% spandex. So what brand and and material should I use, and how should I wash it?
I looked all over the website but couldn't find a question informative enough to answer the question. Hopefuly you can answermy question soon. And also, I really like your site and am going to donate $100+ to it. My whole family uses it! Thanks.
I hope that your bathing suit has not been ruined by the bleach. The hypochlorite in household leach is a surprisingly damaging chemical. It can cause nylon and spandex to completely disintegrate; it turns out that it should be used only on 100% cotton, linen, or hemp, which are, chemically, much sturdier than synthetic fibers. If your bathing suit develops holes in the fabric, it will be due to damage from the bleach.
It is much safer for the fabric to use a different kind of dye removal chemical. There are several that work in very much the same way, chemically. The easiest to find in the US is Rit Color Remover, or you can mail-order Jacquard Color Remover, which contains a different chemical but works in very much the same way.
There is no guarantee that Rit Color Remover or similar chemicals will remove any of the dye in your bathing suit. It's the only thing you can try that might actually remove the color, but it works on only some dyes and not others. It is always impossible to know whether the dye in a commercially-dyed garment will be possible to remove. The only thing you can do is try it. Some dyes will respond well, while others will remain completely unchanged. You won't know which you have until you try it.
Rit Color Remover can be used in hot tap water. It will work better in hotter water still, up to 185°F, but you should try it in cooler water first to see if it will work. Use hotter water only if the cooler water does not work, because high temperatures can damage spandex. Hot water may cause your bathing suit to lose its shape.
If you find that the Rit Color Remover (or Jacquard Color Remover) removes more of the color than you want, then you can use an acid dye to recolor the nylon. It will not work to recolor the polyester, but since that is only in the lining, and in the seams holding the bathing suit together, that will probably be okay. Don't worry about dyeing until after you have tried the Color Remover, because there is a good chance that the Color Remover might not work.
Instead of acid dye, you could use a fabric paint, such as Jacquard's Dye-na-Flow, or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment "Dyes". If you choose a fabric paint that is labeled "white", and dilute it no more than recommended, it will appear to lighten the color of the fabric. This might be a better answer for you than using Rit Color Remover or a similar chemical. Dharma Pigment Dyes do not require heat-setting on nylon. Some nylons have a dye- and paint-resistant surface treatment, however, so this is yet another idea that is not 100% guaranteed to work.
If Rit Color Remover does not work, even in hotter water than is safe for spandex, then there is no other chemical likely to lighten the color of your bathing suit. There's no reason to then get another color remover, such as Tintex Color Remover or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper, because all of the sulfur-based color removing chemicals produce similar results to Rit Color Remover. They are completely different from bleach, but similar to each other.
Thank you for considering donating to my site. I depend on donations and advertising to support the site.
For more information, see the following pages:
• What chemicals can be used to remove dye?
• How can I dye nylon?
• How can I dye spandex?
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Thursday, January 22, 2009
My daughter’s 7th grade project is to make dyes from edible materials
Name: Betsy and daughter Georgia
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Alum can be used safely as a mordant if there is no risk that anyone will attempt to eat it.Turmeric works well as a natural dye, though it fades quickly in the light and cannot be expected to last.
A good book is important for learning to use natural dyes.
The Dyer's Companion contains clear recipes for mordants and dyeing.
Message: Dear Dr. Paula,
My daughter’s 7th grade project is to make dyes from edible materials (fruits and vegetables), and see how they behave on different materials (cotton, silk, wool and synthetic). Under the umbrella of Natural dyes, you list substantive, vat and mordant dyes. Are the dyes she’s likely to be making in our kitchen all substantive? If not, is there any simple chemical assistant that might be more accessible than a heavy metal ion that she might add to her “edible” dyes to produce a brighter, more color-fast product? (She won’t actually be washing any of the fabrics.) Thank you for your site.
There are a few natural substantive dyes that will work without mordanting. Restricting yourselves to these dyes limits the possible color choice and how long the dyes will withstand washing, but it will simplify your project. Some examples of dyes you can use this way are turmeric, saffron, safflower, annatto, and black walnut hulls. Cochineal is a natural insect dye often used to color foods and cosmetics; to dye cotton or linen with it, you must use a mordant, but it will work on wool and silk and even nylon without a mordant. (Note that nylon is far easier to dye than polyester and can be dyed with many more natural dyes than polyester can.) The problem with cochineal is that it is difficult to find, unless you mail-order it from a natural dyes supplier such as Aurora Silk. Turmeric is the most readily available and least expensive of the natural dyes which do not require a mordant; you can find it in the spice aisle at the grocery store. Saffron is similar to turmeric but far more expensive. Annatto is a seed used in Latin American cooking which may be more difficult to use than powdered turmeric, since it is less soluble in water. Walnut hulls are readily available only if you have a walnut tree nearby, but you can also use the hulls that surround pecan nuts or butternuts on the tree (the outer hulls have been removed from the nuts in the shell that you see at the store).
The majority of natural dyes are mordant dyes, which means that fabric or yarn to be dyed with them must be pre-treated with mordants. There is one mordant that you can use that is reasonably safe, which is alum. Alum is dangerous only for children too young to understand that they should not eat their chemical materials. Most seventh graders should be able to use alum mordant safely, with adult supervision. All natural dyes found in your kitchen require the use of heat, which is more likely than alum to be a hazard, due to the risk of a scald injury. It is a good idea to simmer each of your test pieces of fabric or yarn for half an hour or longer with a large amount of the dyestuff, preferably twice the weight of your fabric or yarn. A handy way to dye several items at once without spoiling your cooking pots is to use quart-size glass jars which you place in a cooking pot that is partly filled with water.
Without mordants, most natural substances will make poor dyes. Even with a mordant, many naturally colorful substances make very poor dyes, since a dye must be not only colorful, but also able to form a long-lasting bond to the fiber. The purple anthocyanin color from grapes or cabbage will turn dull, while the green of chlorophyll from any leaf will turn brown. In order to avoid disappointment, I recommend that you select at least one dyestuff from my list of good substantive dyes above. A favorite subject for natural dyeing projects is beets, which make such a lovely red cooking water that everyone assumes they must be a good dye. In fact, beets are an extremely poor dye. The red coloring washes out the of fabric, leaving at most a boring beige or tan. It can be fun to compare them to substances that are good dyes, such as turmeric or cochineal. See "Beets as a natural dye".
Even substantive dyes such as turmeric may work better with the use of a mordant. When my son was in eighth grade, he used a number of dyes, natural and synthetic, to dye various fibers for a science fair project. He boiled his swatches of fabric in the alum and then, after rinsing, in the dyes, for half an hour each. When he used turmeric, he found that the polyester which had been mordanted with alum took the dye, turning a nice yellow. See "Turmeric dyes practically everything!", and "Cochineal is a fine dye".
Some natural dyes will change color if you use an acid, such as vinegar or cream of tartar (which is tartaric acid), versus the use of a base, such as baking soda or washing soda. Acids brighten the color of berries and grapes, but they hasten the browning of green chlorophyll. Neither acids nor bases will act as a mordant.
In order to make a good test of any textile dye, you must wash the fabric after applying the dye. Dyes that have not been tested by washing might not be dyes at all, merely temporary stains. A dye that resists washing is useful, while a temporary stain is not at all useful for fabric or yarn. There is no need to wash your test swatches in the washing machine; you can wash them by hand in the sink. Hot water is a more significant test than cool water, since many poor dyes will wash out in hot water but not cool water. For my son's natural versus synthetic dyes project, he choose the easy alternative of rinsing his fabric swatches in the sink, then placing them in a lingerie bag and washing them in the washing machine. The lingerie bag was necessary in order to prevent the small swatches of fabric he used from disappearing down the drain.
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Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Do you know of any place that still does fabric dyeing?
Name: Izabella
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton or poly/rayon blends
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at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on nylon. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
Message: I am trying to dye a down nylon coat and have hit complete dead ends. I don't feel comfortable doing it myself not so much because of skill but because I don't have the equipment to raise the dye to the necessary temperature for nylon to take.
Do you know of any place that still does fabric dyeing where I could take the coat? The dry cleaners and fabric stores I called laughed at me, so I'm at a loss for where else to turn. (Btw, I am located in Chicago, but am willing to ship the coat elsewhere if necessary.)
There are several companies that will dye an individual article of clothing for you, listed on my page, "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?". Most are willing to dye nylon, if it is not water-resistant. They have professional equipment that makes dyeing large garments much easier for them than it would be for you at home. None are located in Chicago, but you can determine prices online or via telephone, and mail your coat to them.
You often see the advice to have a dry cleaner dye your clothing for you, but I have never heard of a dry cleaner in the US that performs this service. No local dry cleaner I've ever visited did any dyeing at all. I don't know how long it's been since dry cleaners were also dyers. Perhaps a reader will let me know about a dry cleaning company that also does dyeing, but until then I have to conclude that such establishments no longer exist in this country.
Please see the blog entry here for January 17, 2009, "Can I Dye My Pink North Face Down Coat?", to learn how to test your coat for water repellence. I don't think you will be able to get the coat dyed if it resists water, because if it resists water, it will also resist dye. Surface treatments are the biggest problem for dyeing nylon. It's quite easy to dye untreated nylon, using acid dyes, but surface finishes on the fabric can make it impossible to dye a particular nylon garment.
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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
sources for direct dyes
Hi Paula-
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iDye Direct Dye
Stainless Steel 10 Gallon Stock Pot with Lid
First, thank you for your very informative website. I direct my students to it all the time.
Next - I have been using direct dyes from ProChemical. They are no longer carrying direct dyes. I dye silk-linen with the direct and acid dyes to produce a fabric that has both colors in it. Like the ones attached.
I contacted ProChemical (I taught there last year) to see if they would let me know their supplier so I could contact them directly, but since they purchase other items from them they would not reveal their source. (I purchase my acids from Keystone Aniline.) I have been using prodirect and all my formulas use those dyes. I am close to running out and would appreciate some help.
Do you know which chemical supplier they have been using--or do you know another supplier that I could order from by the color index #? I always order at least a pound at a time.
Hi Doshi,
I'm surprised to learn that ProChem is no longer selling direct dyes. I'm glad to find out about that.
There is a table of the Colour Index numbers of ProChem's Diazol Direct dyes on my direct dyes page:
| Lemon Yellow C150 | Direct Yellow 50 |
| Brilliant Pink C309 | Direct Red 9 |
| Scarlet C323 | Direct Red 23 |
| Basic Red C380 | Direct Red 80 |
| Greenish Blue C482 | Direct Blue 98 |
| Brilliant Blue C488 | Direct Blue 293 |
| Neutral Brown C516 | Direct Brown 116 |
| Jet Black C622 | Direct Black 22 |
| Blue Black C680 | Direct Black 80 (200%) |
You can use this list to get the same dyes you are used to using from another source, though the dyes might be at a different concentration. (If they also sold color mixtures of direct dyes, you will have to work the blends out for yourself.) If you contact Keystone Aniline with your list of direct dyes by Colour Index number, they should be able to help you with most or all of them. Another good source to try is Aljo Mfg., in New York, which sells direct dyes as their "Cotton & Rayon Dyes". You might also consider Standard Dyes, in North Carolina. For links and contact information for Aljo Mfg. and Standard Dyes, see Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.
Standard Dyes' web site indicates that they have all of these direct dyes in stock, at various specified concentrations. When you order from Standard Dyes, you must always repeat that you are interested in buying these colors only, by their Colour Index names, and that you will not accept any similar-hued mixtures of other colors. Otherwise, they may substitute a mixture for a dye they are running low on. Be clear to them that you cannot accept any mixtures.
Some dyes are available under a multitude of common names, but to you the common name is irrelevant; the Colour Index name is all that is important. For example, all of these dyes are Colour Index Direct Black 22 at Standard Dyes: PERMALITE BLACK B SUPRA SPEC, PERMALITE BLACK K-Y HI CONC, PERMALITE BLACK FR, PERMALITE GREY 2BL CONC., PERMALITE BLACK FG-P 250%, PERMALITE BLACK SL, and PERMALITE BLACK AD. The common names they use appear from my angle to be almost completely random.
Some dyes will be labeled as 75% strength, or 200% strength. These strengths are by weight, not by volume. A dye labeled as 200% has twice as much dye per gram of dye powder as one labeled 100%. Your Diazol Direct dyes were most likely all 100%, except for Blue Black, which was 200%, so you will want to alter the weight of the dye you measure out accordingly. It is necessary to measure dyes by weight, rather than volume, for reproducibility, though it's less convenient than measuring by the spoonful.
Many dye manufacturers will not sell you quantities as small as one pound per color. Dystar, for example, requires that you buy a minimum of five kilograms (eleven pounds) of each dye color. I have ordered from Standard in the past because their minimum order is one pound per color. However, you must watch out for substitutions.
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Monday, January 19, 2009
How can I whiten ivory-colored bridal lace?
Name: Mondragon
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Tintex color remover
similar to Rit Color Remover
Message: Tried to do a search on your site, still couldn't find an answer. I have some bridal appliqués which I think are alonceon lace, with a tiny corded trim, they are a natural off-white, pale ivory color. I would like to make these whiter, to add to a bridal gown. The fabric was purchased from a bolt at the local fabric store. On the fabric, were the appliqués, over a tiny netting. So I cut one off to test for color removal or brightener to make it more white. I used clorox bleach, and soaked it for 30 minuted dilluted with water - nothing happened, then I did straight pure clorox, for 30 minutes - still no change. I then let it soak in a water/hydrogen peroxide solution to release the bleach agent. It's just a test appliqué, but I figured I would do that, instead of toss it. What would you suggest to make these more white? Thank you!
What fibers are your Alençon lace made from? Some Alençon laces are made of cotton, some of rayon, some of polyester. I hope that yours is made of cotton or rayon, because chlorine bleach (which contains hypochlorite) is bad for synthetic fibers such as nylon. The netting in the background of your lace is probably nylon, which is highly susceptible to damage from bleach. The fact that you neutralized the hypochlorite with peroxide is good, as it will prevent further damage to the fiber.
A problem with bleaching any textile is that not all colors can be removed. Some dyes and some natural colors are simply not susceptible to the chemical attack that bleaches out the coloring. There might be no satisfactory answer to your question.
However, in some cases a dye which does not respond to bleach will respond to a sulfur-based discharge chemical, or vice versa. You might want to experiment to see if a sulfur-based discharge chemical will have any better results than your bleach did. I don't think it's highly likely, but it's possible, and thus worth a test. All of the sulfur-based discharge chemicals have pretty similar results to one another, so you only need to try one. They all work better the hotter the water you use them in, so, although it is easier to use them in the washing machine, I recommend that instead you use them in a non-aluminum pot on top of the stove, and heat them to a simmer (180 to 190°F).
For a discussion of different chemicals that can be used to remove color, see "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?"; scroll down to the section on reducing agents. The easiest sulfur-based discharge chemical to obtain is Rit Color Remover. Follow the stove-top directions for Rit Color Remover:
"Stove-top method. Wash items as usual. Do not dry. Fill large stainless steel or porcelain enamel pot (not aluminum or non-stick) with water, allowing room for items. Heat water to simmer [190°F or 87°C]. Carefully add Color Remover, pouring just above water level. (AVOID BREATHING DUST. USE WITH ADEQUATE VENTILATION.) Stir to dissolve thoroughly. Carefully add wet items (avoid crowding); stir continuously with a long-handled spoon or stick, 10 to 30 minutes so color will be evenly removed. DO NOT BOIL. Carefully drain solution into sink. Using rubber gloves, thoroughly rinse items, first in hot water, then in warm water (RINSING IMMEDIATELY IN COLD WATER MAY SET CREASES). Squeeze gently to remove excess water. Rewash items with detergent."
Do not use Rit Color Remover on something you've bleached, without first washing thoroughly (as you have already done), because the chemicals will not work better together, and may produce undesirable results. It's fine to try the one treatment after the other, as long as the item has been thoroughly washed (and, in the case of chlorine, neutralized with peroxide or Anti-chlor).
This procedure might be just what you want; it might work well to whiten your appliques. However, it might have no effect at all. It's possible that what you have there are unbleachable appliques which must be reserved for another project, one in which their off-white color is desirable.
There is one other treatment that you can use. Instead of removing color, it adds more light. Substances called optical brighteners absorb invisible ultraviolet light and emit it as visible blue light. These substances are found in most laundry detergents, but you can buy much more concentrated forms. The best is probably the Optic Whitener sold by Dharma Trading Company; another option is yet another Rit product, Rit Whitener and Brightener. (I do not often recommend the use of Rit dyes, since there are usually better choices, but I strongly recommend the use of some of Rit's non-dye chemicals.) These products make off-white fabric appear more white. They work best with heat (Dharma's Optic Brightener at 160°F). I don't know whether this would be exactly what you need, or whether the effects will be too subtle to solve your problem. It might be worth a try.
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Sunday, January 18, 2009
Is 'Gold Cross' Fabric Dye fibre reactive dye?
I have purchased 'Gold Cross' Fabric Dye - high temp for some tie
dying. I read somewhere that I should use a 'fibre reactive' dye. Is this fibre
reactive?
No. Gold Cross High Temp Fabric Dye is an all-purpose dye, which means it is a blend of acid dyes, which work on wool and silk but wash out of cotton, with direct dyes, which work on cotton but wash out of wool and nylon.
All-purpose dye is not nearly as good for tie-dyeing as fiber reactive dye. Gold Cross High Temp Fabric Dye requires thirty minutes of boiling with the fabric, which is an expensive thing to do since you should never reuse a cooking pot for food preparation after using fabric dyes in it. The cost of a very large non-aluminum cooking pot adds considerably to the cost of your dye project! This kind of dye fades quickly, often after only a few launderings, and the dark colors tend to bleed onto the light colors, which in some cases will ruin your tie-dye design.
The best dye to use for tie-dyeing is fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye. Go to a crafts store and look for a good tie dye kit. The Dylon Tie Dye Kit is good, as are tie dye kits made by Jacquard, Rainbow Rock, or Tulip. The best tie dye kits all contain cool water dyes which work at room temperature and do not require hot water.
For the best prices and the widest range of color choices, mail-order your fiber reactive dyes from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US, Batik Oetoro or KraftKolour in Australia, or Fibrecrafts or Rainbow Silks in the UK. See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.
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[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on January 18, 2009.]
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No. Gold Cross High Temp Fabric Dye is an all-purpose dye, which means it is a blend of acid dyes, which work on wool and silk but wash out of cotton, with direct dyes, which work on cotton but wash out of wool and nylon.
All-purpose dye is not nearly as good for tie-dyeing as fiber reactive dye. Gold Cross High Temp Fabric Dye requires thirty minutes of boiling with the fabric, which is an expensive thing to do since you should never reuse a cooking pot for food preparation after using fabric dyes in it. The cost of a very large non-aluminum cooking pot adds considerably to the cost of your dye project! This kind of dye fades quickly, often after only a few launderings, and the dark colors tend to bleed onto the light colors, which in some cases will ruin your tie-dye design.
The best dye to use for tie-dyeing is fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or Drimarene K dye. Go to a crafts store and look for a good tie dye kit. The Dylon Tie Dye Kit is good, as are tie dye kits made by Jacquard, Rainbow Rock, or Tulip. The best tie dye kits all contain cool water dyes which work at room temperature and do not require hot water.
For the best prices and the widest range of color choices, mail-order your fiber reactive dyes from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US, Batik Oetoro or KraftKolour in Australia, or Fibrecrafts or Rainbow Silks in the UK. See Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on January 18, 2009.]
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Can I dye my pink North Face down coat?
Name:
gabrielle
Message: Hello,
wow! what an amazing site! I was wondering if you had any input or ideas to a question I had about dying. I have a Northface down coat that I absolutely love but it has gotten stains on it. I had the idea of dying it black so as to not see the stains and also improving its color which is pink (and I never have particularly liked that fact). Would you advise me to proceed with this endeavor or not? And if not which course of action would you pursue? Thank you so much. I hope you can help me save my beloved jacket!
The biggest problem you face in dyeing a coat is that it probably has a DWR (Durable Water Repellent) finish. This is a coating that is applied to the outside of the fabric to resist water. It's very important to have a DWR finish on a down coat, because down loses all insulative ability once it gets wet. If you wear a down coat that has no DWR coating, a surprise rainstorm while hiking on a moderately cool day, with temperatures no lower than 50°F, can actually threaten your life with hypothermia.
If your coat has a DWR coating, you will not be able to dye it successfully, and you probably won't be able to paint it satisfactorily, either. Occasionally one sees advice from non-experts to ruin the DWR finish with fabric softener in order to dye it; unfortunately, the DWR finish will still be there enough to prevent adequate dyeing, and fabric softener itself causes problems in dyeing.
Test your coat by splashing a few drops of water on it. If the water soaks in immediately, then you can try dyeing or painting the coat. If the water sits on the outside of the fabric for more than a couple of seconds, don't bother, because the results will be splotchy and unsightly.
If the water soaks right in, you can try dye or fabric paint. You coat is probably made of nylon, so it can be dyed by heating it with acid dye. Acid dye can be ordered from a dye supplier, or you can take a chance on Rit dye, which contains an acid dye that will work on uncoated nylon, though the color may turn out to be unexpected.
I'd rather not subject a down coat to dyeing, since you have to simmer the coat with the acid dye, plus an acid such as vinegar, for some time, stirring constantly. I doubt that you have a large enough cooking pot to allow the coat to move freely, and if you do, you're unlikely to want to spoil it by using it to dye. You should never plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food later on; textile dyes, including Rit dye, are not safe to use in food preparation containers. Also, the vinegar will react badly with aluminum, so you cannot use an inexpensive pot; you'd want a stainless steel or enamel pot. I don't recommend dye for your nylon coat.
However, there is one last alternative, if water soaks into your coat easily. You can use a fabric paint. Don't use paint that is not labeled for use on fabric, because paint other than fabric paint will be stiff and scratchy. A good fabric paint will be soft to the touch. I recommend that you try Dharma Pigment Dyes, which are a fabric paint, not a dye, because they do not require heat-setting. You will not be able to get a perfectly smooth solid color, so it's best to try combining two or more colors that you like, sponging them on in a random pattern. Again let me stress that this will not work on a water-resistant coat. If your coat has been washed so many times that it is not water resistant at all, it's possible that fabric paint will give good results, but it's not guaranteed. This will be an experimental project for you. Don't do it if you can stand to keep your coat in its current state.
After dyeing or fabric-painting a down coat, you will need to tumble-dry it to encourage the clumps of soggy down inside the coat to fluff up again. I recommend using new, clean tennis balls in the dryer with the down coat. Use the lowest possible setting on the dryer, and take the coat out as soon as it has fluffed up. You might want to use the no-heat air setting on the dryer to fluff up the down, then let it air dry for a day or two, and then fluff it in the dryer again on the air setting.
You will not be able to dye the coat if you can't wash it. If you have not washed it, try doing so, because you might be able to get out some of the stains. You can never dye anything that has not been thoroughly washed first, anyway, because stains can repel dye.
Also see: "How can I dye my waterproof white snowboarding pants?" and "Is it possible to dye a nylon backed gortex membrane?".
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Message: Hello,
wow! what an amazing site! I was wondering if you had any input or ideas to a question I had about dying. I have a Northface down coat that I absolutely love but it has gotten stains on it. I had the idea of dying it black so as to not see the stains and also improving its color which is pink (and I never have particularly liked that fact). Would you advise me to proceed with this endeavor or not? And if not which course of action would you pursue? Thank you so much. I hope you can help me save my beloved jacket!
The biggest problem you face in dyeing a coat is that it probably has a DWR (Durable Water Repellent) finish. This is a coating that is applied to the outside of the fabric to resist water. It's very important to have a DWR finish on a down coat, because down loses all insulative ability once it gets wet. If you wear a down coat that has no DWR coating, a surprise rainstorm while hiking on a moderately cool day, with temperatures no lower than 50°F, can actually threaten your life with hypothermia.
If your coat has a DWR coating, you will not be able to dye it successfully, and you probably won't be able to paint it satisfactorily, either. Occasionally one sees advice from non-experts to ruin the DWR finish with fabric softener in order to dye it; unfortunately, the DWR finish will still be there enough to prevent adequate dyeing, and fabric softener itself causes problems in dyeing.
Test your coat by splashing a few drops of water on it. If the water soaks in immediately, then you can try dyeing or painting the coat. If the water sits on the outside of the fabric for more than a couple of seconds, don't bother, because the results will be splotchy and unsightly.
If the water soaks right in, you can try dye or fabric paint. You coat is probably made of nylon, so it can be dyed by heating it with acid dye. Acid dye can be ordered from a dye supplier, or you can take a chance on Rit dye, which contains an acid dye that will work on uncoated nylon, though the color may turn out to be unexpected.
I'd rather not subject a down coat to dyeing, since you have to simmer the coat with the acid dye, plus an acid such as vinegar, for some time, stirring constantly. I doubt that you have a large enough cooking pot to allow the coat to move freely, and if you do, you're unlikely to want to spoil it by using it to dye. You should never plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food later on; textile dyes, including Rit dye, are not safe to use in food preparation containers. Also, the vinegar will react badly with aluminum, so you cannot use an inexpensive pot; you'd want a stainless steel or enamel pot. I don't recommend dye for your nylon coat.
However, there is one last alternative, if water soaks into your coat easily. You can use a fabric paint. Don't use paint that is not labeled for use on fabric, because paint other than fabric paint will be stiff and scratchy. A good fabric paint will be soft to the touch. I recommend that you try Dharma Pigment Dyes, which are a fabric paint, not a dye, because they do not require heat-setting. You will not be able to get a perfectly smooth solid color, so it's best to try combining two or more colors that you like, sponging them on in a random pattern. Again let me stress that this will not work on a water-resistant coat. If your coat has been washed so many times that it is not water resistant at all, it's possible that fabric paint will give good results, but it's not guaranteed. This will be an experimental project for you. Don't do it if you can stand to keep your coat in its current state.
After dyeing or fabric-painting a down coat, you will need to tumble-dry it to encourage the clumps of soggy down inside the coat to fluff up again. I recommend using new, clean tennis balls in the dryer with the down coat. Use the lowest possible setting on the dryer, and take the coat out as soon as it has fluffed up. You might want to use the no-heat air setting on the dryer to fluff up the down, then let it air dry for a day or two, and then fluff it in the dryer again on the air setting.
You will not be able to dye the coat if you can't wash it. If you have not washed it, try doing so, because you might be able to get out some of the stains. You can never dye anything that has not been thoroughly washed first, anyway, because stains can repel dye.
Also see: "How can I dye my waterproof white snowboarding pants?" and "Is it possible to dye a nylon backed gortex membrane?".
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Friday, January 16, 2009
I'm wanting to dye an item that is 60% rayon and 40% rayon acetate
Name: Brandie
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Stainless Steel 10 Gallon Stock Pot with Lid
Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends
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Message: Hi, I'm wanting to dye an item that is 60% rayon and 40% rayon acetate. Is this possible? If so, what type of dye should I use? Thanks.
Although both are made from wood, rayon and rayon acetate are very different fibers.
Rayon, also known as viscose, is similar to natural fibers such as cotton, and dyes beautifully and easily with fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX dyes. See "How can I dye rayon?".
In contrast, acetate, also known as rayon acetate, has been chemically treated so that it is very much a synthetic fiber. Disperse dyes, which are also used for polyester and other synthetic fibers, were developed in order to dye acetate, because it is so unsatisfactory to attempt to dye acetate with any other dye type. Acetate does not dye well with other classes of dye.
I would recommend that you dye your item as you would if it were 100% rayon or cotton. Because only 60% of your item is made of rayon, you will end up with a color that is only 60% as intensely colored as a similar but 100% rayon garment would be. If you use a brilliant orange dye, you will get a softer orange, apricot, or coral color; if you use bright red, you will get pink; if you use purple you will get lavender; and if you use black, you will get a medium gray.
The advantage of this method, although the colors are not knock-your-eyes-out bright, is that the dyeing method is very easy, and it does not require special equipment such as a dyeing pot. Rayon can be dyed in cool water, in a bucket, or hand-painted with dye, or dyed via low water immersion. Cold water dyeing is kinder to any garment.
If you wish to dye both the 60% rayon and the 40% acetate in your garment, you will have to use different dyes and a more difficult dyeing procedure.
All hot water dyes require the use of a large non-reactive cooking pot, one which you will not plan to reuse for food, since textile dyes are not tested for safety and will contaminate food. The pot must be large enough for the fabric to move in freely, in order for you to obtain a smooth solid color. It must not be made of aluminum or iron, because these metals will corrode when heated with the soda ash or cid which is used to assist in dyeing; instead, it should be made only of stainless steel, or unchipped enamel. A large stainless steel cooking pot is an excellent investment if you will be using hot water dyes in the future, but it is too expensive to be worthwhile if this is the only dyeing project you plan.
It is possible to dye acetate with disperse dyes by heating the garment with disperse dyes on the stovetop, at a simmering temperature just below a boil, for an hour. Constant stirring is necessary, so the procedure is a lot of work. You can purchase disperse dyes that are suitable for dyeing acetate from Aljo Mfg. Company, in New York. They sell a different range of disperse dyes for use on acetate than on polyester. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
You may wish to dye the acetate in a completely different step from dyeing the rayon in your garment, or you can add some direct dye to the disperse dye bath in order to dye both acetate and rayon at the same time. The results may be unexpected, however. Also, direct dye is far less wash-resistant than fiber reactive dyes, and tends to run in the laundry.
Another important question is whether boiling will cause the rayon in your item to shrink. Even if a smaller size would be acceptable to you, a garment may pucker or lose its shape.
As you can see, it will be simpler to choose to ignore the acetate portion of the fiber in your item, and just use cool water fiber reactive dyes to dye the rayon a lighter color. The cooler water is less likely to damage the garment, the expense is much lower since you do not need a stainless steel dyeing pot, and you will not have to spend an hour over a steaming hot dyepot as you stir it.
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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Where can I find dye in Portugal?
I don't seem to find dye ( I´m trying to do tie dye) .
I´m looking for Fiber Reactive Dyes and I can´t find them in Portugal?
any
suggestion?
Dylon makes a variety of dye types, including fiber reactive dye. While the other types of Dylon dye are not ideal for tie-dyeing, because of the way the colors are blended, the Dylon tie-dye kit is ideal, if you can find it. In Portugal, contact Fabric Dyes, Jalber, Lda., Rua Gomes, Freire, 98, 1169-085 Lisboa (Tel: 00 351 21 319 0810; e-mail: marketing@jalber.pt).
You can also mail-order good fiber reactive dyes from other countries in Europe. Tobasign Dyes in Spain sells good Remazol-type fiber reactive dye. Quilt Et Textilkunst, in Germany, and Fibrecrafts, in the UK, are among the European companies that sell Procion MX type fiber reactive dyes.
The prices for Procion MX fiber reactive dyes are lower in the US, if you know where to buy them. Many dyers in Europe and Australia order their dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US. You must call on the phone and request the slowest and cheapest form of shipping, as otherwise the cost of shipping will be greater than your cost savings. PRO Chemical & Dye and Dharma Trading Company both sell Procion MX dyes in a wider range of colors, for lower prices, than anywhere else that will sell small enough jars to be suitable for individual dyer; find out first what, if any, customs fees will be charged by your country, since they can wipe out any savings. I recommend you buy your dye in two-ounce (58 gram) jars until you decide which colors you like best. Smaller jars are less cost effective, while larger jars may be wasteful for beginning dyers.
See: Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World. (Scroll down to the different sections for North America and for Europe.)
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on January 13, 2009.]
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Dylon makes a variety of dye types, including fiber reactive dye. While the other types of Dylon dye are not ideal for tie-dyeing, because of the way the colors are blended, the Dylon tie-dye kit is ideal, if you can find it. In Portugal, contact Fabric Dyes, Jalber, Lda., Rua Gomes, Freire, 98, 1169-085 Lisboa (Tel: 00 351 21 319 0810; e-mail: marketing@jalber.pt).
You can also mail-order good fiber reactive dyes from other countries in Europe. Tobasign Dyes in Spain sells good Remazol-type fiber reactive dye. Quilt Et Textilkunst, in Germany, and Fibrecrafts, in the UK, are among the European companies that sell Procion MX type fiber reactive dyes.
The prices for Procion MX fiber reactive dyes are lower in the US, if you know where to buy them. Many dyers in Europe and Australia order their dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US. You must call on the phone and request the slowest and cheapest form of shipping, as otherwise the cost of shipping will be greater than your cost savings. PRO Chemical & Dye and Dharma Trading Company both sell Procion MX dyes in a wider range of colors, for lower prices, than anywhere else that will sell small enough jars to be suitable for individual dyer; find out first what, if any, customs fees will be charged by your country, since they can wipe out any savings. I recommend you buy your dye in two-ounce (58 gram) jars until you decide which colors you like best. Smaller jars are less cost effective, while larger jars may be wasteful for beginning dyers.
See: Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World. (Scroll down to the different sections for North America and for Europe.)
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on January 13, 2009.]
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
What kinds of chemical bonds attach basic dyes to fabrics?
Name: Ravinder
Message: What kinds of chemical bonds attach basic dyes to fabrics?
Message: What kinds of chemical bonds attach basic dyes to fabrics?
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Methylene Blue is a Basic dye—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Books About the Chemistry of Textile DyesThis is an interesting question to consider. The one feature that distinguishes basic dyes from all other dyes is their ionic charge. The molecules of basic dyes have a positive charge, in contrast to vat dyes , which carry a neutral charge (that is, no charge at all), and all other dyes, including reactive dyes, acid dyes, and direct dyes, which carry a negative charge.
Since the fibers used in fabrics are negatively charged, the positively charged basic dye molecules are attracted to the fibers.
Basic dyes can be used to dye natural fibers such as wool, but their lightfastness on these materials is so poor that other dyes are much preferred. However, basic dyes are commonly used to dye acrylic fiber, which does not present the same light-fading problem. Acrylic fiber cannot be dyed with most classes of dye, such as reactive or acid dyes. Although acrylic fiber can be dyed with disperse dye, only light to medium shades may be obtained, so basic dyes are essential in order to obtain brilliant or dark colors on acrylic fiber.
Many other substances share the negative charge of textiles fibers. This means that basic dyes tend to stick to almost anything they touch. Basic dyes are inconvenient for home-dyers to use, because they stain anything they touch, such as a countertop or a plastic dishpan. Other dyes are easily washed from plastic materials after a splash.
Because of their positive charge, basic dyes are also known as cationic dyes. You can tell whether a written dye structure is a basic dye at a glance, by looking for the positive charge indication on the molecular structure. Here is a drawing of methylene blue, or basic blue 9, as an example:
In my PhD work, I found that methylene blue intercalated into DNA, inserting itself into the ladder-like structure of the DNA molecule, where it would react with light and oxygen to produce breakage of the DNA. It's worth noting that anything that breaks DNA is likely to cause mutations and cancer. I do not recommend the use of basic dyes outside of a properly equipped laboratory, where they must be used with appropriate safety precautions.
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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Rit-dyed costumes permanently darker where sweated upon
Name: Gail
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RetayneRetayne sets all-purpose dyes, such as Rit. It will not work on indigo denim.
Rit Dye Fixative
Rit Dye Fixative is similar to Retayne.
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Message: This is close to a FAQ but not exactly......i got some dance costumes from a company, gauzy cotton fabric, that needed to be re-dyed. I soaked them briefly, then put into a washer with RIT dye (a mix of brown and green), did the dye, rinsed, then dried slightly (so they would not shrink). well, they wore them and where they were perspiring it got darker. So I told them to re-wash immediately b/c perhaps they needed a 2nd rinse? but supposedly that did not work. I am perplexed. Could it be that they had not washed the costumes before they gave them to me?
If it is possible that they did not wash the costumes before giving them to you, then the salt or other chemicals in the perspiration stains already in the costumes would certainly have caused problems, problems which become permanent when dye is applied. Always scour clothing before dyeing by prewashing it in hot (140°F) water, with detergent, plus extra soda ash or washing soda, for added cleaning power. All fabric must be totally clean before dyeing, in order to obtain acceptable results. Some used clothing is impossible to clean sufficiently to get good results.
In any case, I'm afraid that my best advice for problems dyeing with all-purpose dye (such as Rit or Tintex) is to throw the all-purpose dye dye out and use a fiber reactive dye instead. Even perfectly clean garments will often not produce fully dependable results with all-purpose dye.
Rit dye is an all-purpose dye, which is a mixture of a leveling acid dye (which is for wool or nylon, and just washes out of cotton) with direct dye, a poorly washfast dye for cotton. Some direct dyes are strongly affected by salt, which is of course a major component of perspiration. Other low-quality dyes are affected so much in color by pH that acidic perspiration will permanently alter their color.
I would recommend washing the costumes in hot water in the hopes of removing the stain and perhaps also the dye. I do not know whether or not this will solve the problem; in fact, I am not at all sure that the problem can be solved at this point.
Next time you wish to dye costumes, I recommend using a higher-quality dye. You cannot buy good dye at the grocery store, but any good crafts store will have it. Look for Tulip One Step Fashion Dye, or Jacquard Procion MX dye, or Dylon Machine Dye, Dylon Cold Water Dye, or Dylon Permanent Dye. Be sure to follow the instructions included with the dye. For more economical fiber reactive dyes (much cheaper per garment than Rit!), and a much wider choice of colors, order your dye from a good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye, Dharma Trading Company, Colorado Wholesale Dyes, etc. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
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Monday, January 12, 2009
what dye would be most wash-resistant on the soy-based fabric azlon?
Name: Kevin
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Message: Hi Paula -- Many thanks for an awesome site!
I'm about to try dyeing something made of "aslon", a soy-based cloth. It's super-lightweight, a set of pajamas. (Were light pink; my girlfriend hates light pink, would prefer dark grey or rich scarlet red.)
What's absolutely critical: Once dyed, this clothing -cannot- run in the washing machine, or it will turn her other clothing bad shades, and result in my immediate execution... Would you suggest going with the red or the black -- and what dye / what process? [I was originally going to simply simmer it on the stovetop in RIT liquid... But now I'm wondering if I should use RIT + Retayne fixative, or Jacquard Procion with or without fixative, or... I dunno!] Pointers to instructions on your site or anywhere else would be super :) Many thanks!
Don't use all purpose dye, such as Rit. The very most wash-resistant dye is fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, which by all reports works great on soy-based fibers, since they resembled silk chemically. (There will be a problem if the soy fiber has been acetylated, but that problem would be at least as great with all-purpose dye.)
The Retayne Color Fixative helps all-purpose dye a lot, but it will still not be quite as washfast as fiber-reactive Procion MX type dyes.
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Use the soda ash recipe for the Procion dyes, rather than the acid recipe, for maximum washfastness. (Both recipes work on alkaline-tolerant protein fibers, including both real silk and azlons such as soy silk.) If you want a solid color, use a five-gallon bucket and a lot of stirring, or else use the washing machine. Dyeing in the washing machine will not hurt the machine, but it does require a lot more dye, for a single garment. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". The Dharma link on that page for washing machine instructions also leads to instructions for dyeing in a five-gallon bucket. Using a small container for dyeing, or failing to stir a great deal, will result in uneven color tones, something like low water immersion.
Another plus for the Procion MX dye is that it does not require that you use a good cooking pot, since room temperature (70°F or above) works fine. A plastic bucket is fine. You should not reuse a cooking pot for food preparation after you have used it with a textile dye such as Rit.
In deciding between red and black, keep in mind that the stitching that holds the seams together on the pajamas is almost certainly polyester, unless you were told otherwise. The polyester will not take the dye that works on the protein fiber, so it will remain the current color of pink. Which would look better, black with pink stitching, or red with pink stitching?
Both red and black require a lot more dye powder than paler shades will. Where a recipe gives you a range of how much dye powder to use, use the largest amount for an intense color like red or black.
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Sunday, January 11, 2009
Tye Dye-ing Silk-Satin?
I'd like to tye-dye this silk-satin material I have. Will the tye
dye stay permanently, or do I need a special type of tye dye - if so,
which?
Real silk dyes beautifully with the Procion MX dyes found in good tie-dye kits. I've dyed satin made of 100% silk many times, with wonderful results. Wash it first to make sure it can handle washing; you can't dye anything that is not washable.
You can't buy good dye at the grocery store, but any good crafts store will sell it to you, or you can look at dye suppliers online in the link below. Look for a tie-dye kit made by Dylon, Rainbow Rock, Jacquard, or Tulip. Avoid all-purpose dyes, such as Rit or Tintex, and the Rit tie-dye kits, because they contain inferior dyes that fade quickly and run in the laundry.
Polyester satin is much harder to dye. You can't use tie-dye dyes on polyester satin, because they will just wash out.
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[Portions of this answer were first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]
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Real silk dyes beautifully with the Procion MX dyes found in good tie-dye kits. I've dyed satin made of 100% silk many times, with wonderful results. Wash it first to make sure it can handle washing; you can't dye anything that is not washable.
You can't buy good dye at the grocery store, but any good crafts store will sell it to you, or you can look at dye suppliers online in the link below. Look for a tie-dye kit made by Dylon, Rainbow Rock, Jacquard, or Tulip. Avoid all-purpose dyes, such as Rit or Tintex, and the Rit tie-dye kits, because they contain inferior dyes that fade quickly and run in the laundry.
Polyester satin is much harder to dye. You can't use tie-dye dyes on polyester satin, because they will just wash out.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]
Saturday, January 10, 2009
What's going to happen to my tie-dye t-shirt when I wash it?
I used RIT dye at a friend's house when tie-dying a t-shirt, and
I'm pretty sure that we did it totally wrong.
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We put the dye in boiling water and then dipped the shirt directly in
there after tying it up with rubber bands. After dipping it into a few colors,
we hung the shirts up to air dry. What's going to happen to my shirt when I wash
it, and how should I wash it?
All-purpose dye, such as Rit All Purpose Dye or Tintex Easy Fabric Dye, is not very good for tie-dyeing, unfortunately. You will need to wash your shirt only in cold water, by hand, separately from other garments, and yet, even if you do so, you can still expect it to fade rapidly and bleed every time it gets wet.
Boiling the dye in the water and dipping the shirts in it is the best method, if you hold the shirts in the boiling dye for half an hour or longer. You can hold the shirts in the boiling dye for as little as four minutes, if all you want is a pale pastel color, but bright colors take more time. Dipping for a few seconds is not very good. It takes extended heat to get all-purpose dye to attach to the fiber as well as possible.
After you rinse your shirts in cool water, you can help to prevent further fading by applying a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne or the new Rit Dye Fixative. There is no home remedy that can substitute for these dye fixatives. Neither vinegar nor salt will help to make the Rit dye in your shirts permanent. You can buy Retayne by mail-order from any good dye supplier.
Next time you tie-dye, please do not use all-purpose dye! You cannot get excellent results with this inferior dye. Instead, next time, use a good fiber reactive dye, such as the Procion MX dyes that are used in all good tie-dye kits. You can't buy good dye in the grocery store, but you can find it in most crafts stores and some fabric stores. Look for a tie-dye kit made by Jacquard, Dylon, Rainbow Rock, or Tulip. All of these brands of tie-dye kits contain excellent cool-water dyes that can be applied at room temperature, no boiling needed, and which will last for years without fading. All you have to do is use 100% natural fibers and closely follow the easy instructions included in the kit. Don't buy the Rit brand tie-dye kit, because it contains hot water dyes dye that do not work well for tie-dyeing.
For more information, see:
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]
All-purpose dye, such as Rit All Purpose Dye or Tintex Easy Fabric Dye, is not very good for tie-dyeing, unfortunately. You will need to wash your shirt only in cold water, by hand, separately from other garments, and yet, even if you do so, you can still expect it to fade rapidly and bleed every time it gets wet.
Boiling the dye in the water and dipping the shirts in it is the best method, if you hold the shirts in the boiling dye for half an hour or longer. You can hold the shirts in the boiling dye for as little as four minutes, if all you want is a pale pastel color, but bright colors take more time. Dipping for a few seconds is not very good. It takes extended heat to get all-purpose dye to attach to the fiber as well as possible.
After you rinse your shirts in cool water, you can help to prevent further fading by applying a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne or the new Rit Dye Fixative. There is no home remedy that can substitute for these dye fixatives. Neither vinegar nor salt will help to make the Rit dye in your shirts permanent. You can buy Retayne by mail-order from any good dye supplier.
Next time you tie-dye, please do not use all-purpose dye! You cannot get excellent results with this inferior dye. Instead, next time, use a good fiber reactive dye, such as the Procion MX dyes that are used in all good tie-dye kits. You can't buy good dye in the grocery store, but you can find it in most crafts stores and some fabric stores. Look for a tie-dye kit made by Jacquard, Dylon, Rainbow Rock, or Tulip. All of these brands of tie-dye kits contain excellent cool-water dyes that can be applied at room temperature, no boiling needed, and which will last for years without fading. All you have to do is use 100% natural fibers and closely follow the easy instructions included in the kit. Don't buy the Rit brand tie-dye kit, because it contains hot water dyes dye that do not work well for tie-dyeing.
For more information, see:
- How can I fix the shirts I just tie-dyed with Rit brand all-purpose dye so that they'll quit bleeding in the wash and stay bright?
- How can I tie-dye with Rit dye?
- Commercial Dye Fixatives
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]
Friday, January 09, 2009
dyeing over sweat and deodorant stains
Name: Rebecca
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Message: I have looked through all the questions but there isn't a specific one related to sweat and deoderant stains. My friend asked me to dye his (expensive) shirt olive green for him as it was a faded light brown. I did so with a Dylon machine dye as this had worked well for his shorts, but where he had used deoderant and sweated it stayed white after it had dried and the areas around the neck also remained a lighter colour. Do you have any suggestions on how to get an even colour across these problem areas? Thanks
No, I'm sorry, but any foreign matter, including antiperspirant stains and perspiration stains, must be removed from clothing before it is dyed. Now that the stains on the shirt have acted as a resist against the dye that you applied, there is probably no way to get the color completely smooth, though you could try using Rit Color Remover or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper to see if you can remove the dye you used.
As a general rule, once a stain has penetrated fabric, it might not be possible to remove it completely enough that there will be no problem afterwards in dyeing. Next time, if this situation occurs again, you should prepare for dyeing by trying whatever cleaning remedy is recommended by Heloise or another housecleaning advisor, but it is possible that there will still be enough residue to cause some difference in color. If you overdye a worn shirt again in the future, follow the instructions Heloise gives for removing these stains first. Afterwards, scour your garment to prepare for dyeing, by washing in the hottest water it will tolerate, along with detergent and some extra soda ash or washing soda for added cleaning power.
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Thursday, January 08, 2009
Do you have any suggestions of specific kinds of dyeing I can do with bleach?
Name:
cody
Wear an acid gas cartridge respirator when working with household bleach.
Message: Hi, do you have any suggestions of specific kinds of dyeing I can do with bleach? Splatters I know, anything else?
You can use a Clorox Bleach Pen to draw lines and words.
If you wear a respirator to protect your lungs, and preferably work outside to avoid damaging furnishings, you can spray diluted bleach on fabric using a hand-held sprayer, the kind used for window cleaners and the like.
(Do not reuse a window cleaner bottle for bleach, because the ammonia in window cleaner reacts with the hypochlorite in bleach to create deadly poison gas; you can usually buy new, unused sprayers for about a dollar from the drug store.)
Placing stencils on the fabric before spraying can give wonderful effects. Look at this post about a "bleach stencil tutorial". Also see "How to make cool designs on shirts using bleach".
Using a 3-dimensional object as a stencil while spraying from an angle can make intriguing shadowy shapes; Jane Dunnewold demonstrates this in her book Complex Cloth.
Bleach and other color removers can also be used for tie-dyeing by dipping the fabric into the bleach, or pouring bleach over the fabric. See "How to Tie Dye on Dark Fabric".
Since bleach is a dangerous chemical, I have to include my usual warnings:
Whatever techniques you use, please keep in mind that household bleach is a very toxic chemical. Be careful not to breathe fumes from it, nor to allow excessive skin exposure. A respirator with an acid gas cartridge will protect your lungs from chlorine fumes. Use sturdy rubber gloves, not flimsy latex gloves, to protect your hands while working with bleach.
Bleach can continue to damage fabric even after you have washed it. To completely stop the destructive action of bleach, after rinsing your bleached material, soak it in Anti-Chlor or Bleach Stop or a mixture of hydrogen peroxide with water. Do not use vinegar or another acid to neutralize bleach. See "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?".
Never use household bleach on synthetic fibers, such as nylon or spandex, in which it will eat holes, or polyester, which it will permanently stain an ugly yellow. Also, strictly avoid using bleach on animal-type fibers, such as silk or wool. Only natural plant fibers such as 100% cotton, linen, or hemp can withstand chlorine bleach. For fibers that should not be bleached, it is often possible to use sulfur-based dye removal chemicals, such as Rit Color Remover; see "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
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Wear an acid gas cartridge respirator when working with household bleach.
Message: Hi, do you have any suggestions of specific kinds of dyeing I can do with bleach? Splatters I know, anything else?
You can use a Clorox Bleach Pen to draw lines and words.
If you wear a respirator to protect your lungs, and preferably work outside to avoid damaging furnishings, you can spray diluted bleach on fabric using a hand-held sprayer, the kind used for window cleaners and the like.
(Do not reuse a window cleaner bottle for bleach, because the ammonia in window cleaner reacts with the hypochlorite in bleach to create deadly poison gas; you can usually buy new, unused sprayers for about a dollar from the drug store.)
Placing stencils on the fabric before spraying can give wonderful effects. Look at this post about a "bleach stencil tutorial". Also see "How to make cool designs on shirts using bleach".
Using a 3-dimensional object as a stencil while spraying from an angle can make intriguing shadowy shapes; Jane Dunnewold demonstrates this in her book Complex Cloth.
Bleach and other color removers can also be used for tie-dyeing by dipping the fabric into the bleach, or pouring bleach over the fabric. See "How to Tie Dye on Dark Fabric".
Since bleach is a dangerous chemical, I have to include my usual warnings:
Whatever techniques you use, please keep in mind that household bleach is a very toxic chemical. Be careful not to breathe fumes from it, nor to allow excessive skin exposure. A respirator with an acid gas cartridge will protect your lungs from chlorine fumes. Use sturdy rubber gloves, not flimsy latex gloves, to protect your hands while working with bleach.
Bleach can continue to damage fabric even after you have washed it. To completely stop the destructive action of bleach, after rinsing your bleached material, soak it in Anti-Chlor or Bleach Stop or a mixture of hydrogen peroxide with water. Do not use vinegar or another acid to neutralize bleach. See "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?".
Never use household bleach on synthetic fibers, such as nylon or spandex, in which it will eat holes, or polyester, which it will permanently stain an ugly yellow. Also, strictly avoid using bleach on animal-type fibers, such as silk or wool. Only natural plant fibers such as 100% cotton, linen, or hemp can withstand chlorine bleach. For fibers that should not be bleached, it is often possible to use sulfur-based dye removal chemicals, such as Rit Color Remover; see "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
After I dye let's say 10 shirts, can I wash them all together to remove excess dye?
Name:
Kevin
Message: Hello
my name is Kevin and I was wondering. After I dye let's say 10 shirts, can I wash them all together to remove excess dye? or do I have to wash each shirt seperately? Thanks!!
It depends on what kind of dye you are using.
If you are using Rit or another all-purpose dye (not recommended for high quality tie dyes), then each shirt must be hand washed separately in cool water.
In contrast, if you are using a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, which is the kind of dye found in most tie-dye kits other than Rit, then it is safe to wash them all together, assuming you have already allowed the dye to react with the fabric overnight at 70°F or above. (A cold place will not allow the dye reaction to complete.)
After allowing plenty of time for the dye reaction to complete, you should wash your shirts once in cool water without detergent (though it's okay to use Synthrapol detergent if you happen to have that). This step removes the soda ash and any salts. After that, wash them twice with detergent in the hottest water available, at least 140°F. Hotter water really works better than warm water. If you need to conserve hot water, soaking in hot water is more efficient than just washing, for removing dye.
If you are using fiber reactive dyes and have allowed plenty of time in a warm place for the dyes to all react, then any transfer of dye from one shirt to another, which is called backstaining, can be washed out in sufficiently hot water. If, however, the dyes are still active when you wash them out, due to washing out too soon and/or not allowing a warm enough place for the dye reaction, backstaining can be permanent.
When I do a bunch of tie-dyes, I always wash them out together. I usually don't even rinse them out before putting them in the washing machine. I carefully cut the rubber bands right at the washing machine, using a child's pair of blunt-ended scissors.
Also see:
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Message: Hello
my name is Kevin and I was wondering. After I dye let's say 10 shirts, can I wash them all together to remove excess dye? or do I have to wash each shirt seperately? Thanks!!
It depends on what kind of dye you are using.
If you are using Rit or another all-purpose dye (not recommended for high quality tie dyes), then each shirt must be hand washed separately in cool water.
In contrast, if you are using a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye, which is the kind of dye found in most tie-dye kits other than Rit, then it is safe to wash them all together, assuming you have already allowed the dye to react with the fabric overnight at 70°F or above. (A cold place will not allow the dye reaction to complete.)
After allowing plenty of time for the dye reaction to complete, you should wash your shirts once in cool water without detergent (though it's okay to use Synthrapol detergent if you happen to have that). This step removes the soda ash and any salts. After that, wash them twice with detergent in the hottest water available, at least 140°F. Hotter water really works better than warm water. If you need to conserve hot water, soaking in hot water is more efficient than just washing, for removing dye.
If you are using fiber reactive dyes and have allowed plenty of time in a warm place for the dyes to all react, then any transfer of dye from one shirt to another, which is called backstaining, can be washed out in sufficiently hot water. If, however, the dyes are still active when you wash them out, due to washing out too soon and/or not allowing a warm enough place for the dye reaction, backstaining can be permanent.
When I do a bunch of tie-dyes, I always wash them out together. I usually don't even rinse them out before putting them in the washing machine. I carefully cut the rubber bands right at the washing machine, using a child's pair of blunt-ended scissors.
Also see:
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Can I use a store-bought tie-dye kit to dye cotton/polyester blend pillowcases?
Name:
Karen
Message: Can I use a store-bought tie-dye kit (party pack at Michaels Arts & Crafts) to dye cotton/polyester blend pillowcases? My daughter wants to have this as her craft at her birthday party next week. I thought it would work but now am worried about the polyester in the pillowcases.
If you want bright, intense colors, then don't use the cotton/polyester blend pillowcases. Target and some other stores sell some 100% cotton pillowcases for reasonable prices. Or, if you order today and select two-day shipping, it's not too late to order from Dharma Trading Company; they sell wonderful 100% silk satin pillowcases, for $10 each, which can be dyed exactly like cotton, but are much more beautiful after dyeing, and they feel nicer against your skin, as well.
The problem with polyester is that you can't dye it, except by boiling it in a special polyester dye; this is far, far more trouble than tie-dyeing cotton, and not suitable for your party. Polyester will not take any dye that works on cotton. The polyester portion of the blend will remain undyed.
How much of a problem the polyester presents depends on how much polyester is in the blend. If your pillowcases are 80% cotton and 20% polyester, they will dye up pretty well.
If they are 50% cotton and 50% polyester, then you can use the brightest, most intense dye colors, but only the cotton will take the dye. The result will be a light pastel. This is not too bad for some girls. If you mix up a bright red dye, it will produce pink; if you use bright blue dye, you'll get baby blue; if you mix deep purple, you'll get lavender. You can use 50% cotton/50% polyester for tie-dyeing only if your girls will be happy with light pastel colors. The results can look quite pretty. If your girls want intense bright colors, then go out and buy some 100% cotton or 100% silk pillowcases.
If your pillowcases are MORE than 50% polyester, don't even try to tie-dye them. The colors will be too pale and washed-out. Don't use tie-dye dyes on 65% polyester.
Michael's Arts and Crafts sells some good tie-dye kits. Avoid the Rit tie-dye kit and the Magic Strings tie-dye kit, because they container inferior hot-water dyes that fade quickly. You are much better off with any other brand of tie-dye kit, which contains cool water dyes, which work at room temperature (70°F and above). Some good brands include Jacquard Procion MX, Tulip, Rainbow Rock, and Dylon, but there are others, as well.
Be sure to wash all of the pillowcases before you dye them, using the hottest water your washing machine can manage, along with detergent and some extra washing soda or soda ash for added cleaning power, if you have it. Washing twice would not be a bad idea. Sheets and pillowcases often have surface finish treatments that can interfere with dyeing, but very hot water helps to remove them.
There is an alternative for pillowcases that contain more than 50% polyester. You can either use a good fabric paint instead of dye to decorate the pillowcases, or you can use Fabric Transfer Crayons to make designs on paper which can then be ironed onto synthetic-fiber fabric by an adult. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers" and "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers". (Don't confuse Fabric Crayons with ordinary wax crayons! Ordinary crayons will not work on fabric that will ever be washed.)
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
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Message: Can I use a store-bought tie-dye kit (party pack at Michaels Arts & Crafts) to dye cotton/polyester blend pillowcases? My daughter wants to have this as her craft at her birthday party next week. I thought it would work but now am worried about the polyester in the pillowcases.
If you want bright, intense colors, then don't use the cotton/polyester blend pillowcases. Target and some other stores sell some 100% cotton pillowcases for reasonable prices. Or, if you order today and select two-day shipping, it's not too late to order from Dharma Trading Company; they sell wonderful 100% silk satin pillowcases, for $10 each, which can be dyed exactly like cotton, but are much more beautiful after dyeing, and they feel nicer against your skin, as well.
The problem with polyester is that you can't dye it, except by boiling it in a special polyester dye; this is far, far more trouble than tie-dyeing cotton, and not suitable for your party. Polyester will not take any dye that works on cotton. The polyester portion of the blend will remain undyed.
How much of a problem the polyester presents depends on how much polyester is in the blend. If your pillowcases are 80% cotton and 20% polyester, they will dye up pretty well.
If they are 50% cotton and 50% polyester, then you can use the brightest, most intense dye colors, but only the cotton will take the dye. The result will be a light pastel. This is not too bad for some girls. If you mix up a bright red dye, it will produce pink; if you use bright blue dye, you'll get baby blue; if you mix deep purple, you'll get lavender. You can use 50% cotton/50% polyester for tie-dyeing only if your girls will be happy with light pastel colors. The results can look quite pretty. If your girls want intense bright colors, then go out and buy some 100% cotton or 100% silk pillowcases.
If your pillowcases are MORE than 50% polyester, don't even try to tie-dye them. The colors will be too pale and washed-out. Don't use tie-dye dyes on 65% polyester.
Michael's Arts and Crafts sells some good tie-dye kits. Avoid the Rit tie-dye kit and the Magic Strings tie-dye kit, because they container inferior hot-water dyes that fade quickly. You are much better off with any other brand of tie-dye kit, which contains cool water dyes, which work at room temperature (70°F and above). Some good brands include Jacquard Procion MX, Tulip, Rainbow Rock, and Dylon, but there are others, as well.
Be sure to wash all of the pillowcases before you dye them, using the hottest water your washing machine can manage, along with detergent and some extra washing soda or soda ash for added cleaning power, if you have it. Washing twice would not be a bad idea. Sheets and pillowcases often have surface finish treatments that can interfere with dyeing, but very hot water helps to remove them.
There is an alternative for pillowcases that contain more than 50% polyester. You can either use a good fabric paint instead of dye to decorate the pillowcases, or you can use Fabric Transfer Crayons to make designs on paper which can then be ironed onto synthetic-fiber fabric by an adult. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers" and "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers". (Don't confuse Fabric Crayons with ordinary wax crayons! Ordinary crayons will not work on fabric that will ever be washed.)
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Monday, January 05, 2009
Bleach spots on a green Timberland sweatshirt
Name: Paul
Message: I have a Timberland sweatshirt in colour wakami green, can you help me? I have bleach spots, what can I do?
In general, the answer to bleach spots is to find a close color match in a permanent marker, or, better, a fabric marker, and color in the spot. See "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", part of the FAQ about dye-related questions on my web site.
For a dull grayish green like your Wakami green, you will probably have to choose more than one color of marker, and color the spot in completely first with the gray marker, then with a green one. Marvy Uchida's "khaki" color fabric marker would probably be a good start. You won't be able to get a perfect match, but you can make the spots less conspicuous.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
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Message: I have a Timberland sweatshirt in colour wakami green, can you help me? I have bleach spots, what can I do?
In general, the answer to bleach spots is to find a close color match in a permanent marker, or, better, a fabric marker, and color in the spot. See "How can I fix the bleach spots on my favorite clothing?", part of the FAQ about dye-related questions on my web site.
For a dull grayish green like your Wakami green, you will probably have to choose more than one color of marker, and color the spot in completely first with the gray marker, then with a green one. Marvy Uchida's "khaki" color fabric marker would probably be a good start. You won't be able to get a perfect match, but you can make the spots less conspicuous.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Sunday, January 04, 2009
I would like to dye my own muslin for photography backdrop
Name:
Sue
Message: I would like to dye my own muslin for photography backdrop. I like the color pattern in your hammerhead shark tshirt. I have tried to dye in a large bucket by scrunching up the fabric and pouring dye here and there, but I don't like the results. I'm getting dark splotchy patterns.
What kind of dye are you using? Are you using a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye?
It sounds like you are using low water immersion dyeing, which is one of my favorite methods for dyeing fabric. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". I recommend that you use Procion MX dye with the recipe on that page. You can also substitute one 5-gram tin of Dylon Cold Water Dye for each teaspoon of Procion MX dye.
I would recommend you dilute your dye in a larger quantity of water than you have been using, and use less dye overall, in order to get lighter colors. To get more subtle variation in colors, poke at your fabric in the low water immersion dyebath, using a large plastic spoon such as is used for cooking, or even stir it a small amount, or use a larger container so that the fabric is not held tightly enough by the container to result in a tie-dye resist effect. You don't need to try all of these ideas at once. Just one of them may be sufficient.
For low water immersion, I like to have the level of my water, with the dye and soda ash in it, slightly above the top of the fabric. This is a matter of trial and error for you. Perhaps you need to add more water than you have been using.
A very nice effect for a photography backdrop is to use a premixed color, such as any of the green Procion MX colors (there is no single-hue unmixed Procion MX green dye), mix it in water, and pour it all over the fabric. The different colors in the mixture will separate out of the fabric, especially if the fabric is held tightly by its container. You may obtain some surprising color combinations in this way.
The hammerhead shark's background is similar to what I get with low water immersion, but in fact what I did for that shirt was soak it in soda ash, mix up Procion MX dyes according to the tie dye recipe, lay the shirt out flat, and squirt the dyes here and there on the shirt with plastic squeeze bottles.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
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Ann Johnston's book
Color By Accident
shows how to do low water immersion dyeing
Message: I would like to dye my own muslin for photography backdrop. I like the color pattern in your hammerhead shark tshirt. I have tried to dye in a large bucket by scrunching up the fabric and pouring dye here and there, but I don't like the results. I'm getting dark splotchy patterns.
What kind of dye are you using? Are you using a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye?
It sounds like you are using low water immersion dyeing, which is one of my favorite methods for dyeing fabric. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". I recommend that you use Procion MX dye with the recipe on that page. You can also substitute one 5-gram tin of Dylon Cold Water Dye for each teaspoon of Procion MX dye.
I would recommend you dilute your dye in a larger quantity of water than you have been using, and use less dye overall, in order to get lighter colors. To get more subtle variation in colors, poke at your fabric in the low water immersion dyebath, using a large plastic spoon such as is used for cooking, or even stir it a small amount, or use a larger container so that the fabric is not held tightly enough by the container to result in a tie-dye resist effect. You don't need to try all of these ideas at once. Just one of them may be sufficient.
For low water immersion, I like to have the level of my water, with the dye and soda ash in it, slightly above the top of the fabric. This is a matter of trial and error for you. Perhaps you need to add more water than you have been using.
A very nice effect for a photography backdrop is to use a premixed color, such as any of the green Procion MX colors (there is no single-hue unmixed Procion MX green dye), mix it in water, and pour it all over the fabric. The different colors in the mixture will separate out of the fabric, especially if the fabric is held tightly by its container. You may obtain some surprising color combinations in this way.
The hammerhead shark's background is similar to what I get with low water immersion, but in fact what I did for that shirt was soak it in soda ash, mix up Procion MX dyes according to the tie dye recipe, lay the shirt out flat, and squirt the dyes here and there on the shirt with plastic squeeze bottles.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Saturday, January 03, 2009
I want to dye my cotton dark blue printed curtain to light cream colour
Name: shobna
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Hypochlorite bleach
a toxic chemical that must be used with care
Tintex color remover
gentler to fibers than bleach
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Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper (UK)
Message: I want to dye my cotton dark blue printed curtain to light cream colour. I understand I will have to bleach them first, how can i bleach them properly? Can I do that in washing machine?do I need to use bleach which is for domestic bleeching purposes and soak the curtains in bleach for 10-12 hours and then dye them in washing machine with light cream colour dye? I will highly appreciate your reply. thanks n happy new year----.
It's unpredictable whether or not you will be able to remove enough of the dye to turn dark blue to light cream. In any case, at least some trace of the print will remain.
If the curtains are 100% cotton, then you can use bleach, but if the fiber content includes any synthetic fiber, such as nylon, polyester, or spandex, household bleach (which contains hypochlorite) will destroy it. Hypochlorite bleach makes holes in nylon or spandex, and it creates a permanent ugly yellow color on polyester. Animal-type fibers such as silk or wool will also be eaten to holes by bleach.
Even cotton and other sturdy plant fibers will be eaten to holes by bleach if you use too much of it, or if the bleach is too warm when you use it, or if you leave the fabric in the bleach for too long. Do not use straight undiluted bleach, and don't leave it soaking even in diluted bleach without checking on it regularly, so that you can remove the fabric from the bleach as soon as it has lightened sufficiently in color. Another point is that frequent stirring is required if you want smooth, even, solid-color results. Leaving the cotton in bleach without agitation will result in a tie-dye effect, assuming that the dye in your cotton is affected at all. Using the washing machine is in excellent idea. Be careful what clothing you wear while working with bleach, as it is easy for a stray spatter to ruin what you are wearing.
Many commercial dyes are highly resistant to bleach. One set of curtains will decolorize wonderfully in bleach, while another loses no color at all, or changes to a weird color that you don't want. It is unusual to obtain a bright white or light cream from bleaching a dark color such as navy. You are more likely to obtain some sort of brown color. It is impossible to predict what color you will get, or whether it will be light or dark, until you try it.
After using hypochlorite bleach, you should rinse or wash the bleach out quickly, then submerge the fabric in a bleach stop or anti chlor solution, to prevent the bleach from continuing to act and eat holes in your fabric even after you have rinsed it. See "How can I neutralize the damaging effects of chlorine bleach?".
Household bleach is not the only chemical you can use to remove dye. Another group of products removes dye in a completely different way, and may work well on a few dyes that completely resist chlorine bleach. (Always wash your curtains well in between using the two steps!) Look for Rit Color Remover, or Jacquard Color Remover, or Dylon Fabric Colour Stripper. All of these products contain sulfur-based dye reducing chemicals. They are gentler to the fabric than chlorine bleach, and safer for the user, as well. I prefer them to the use of bleach in most cases. However, they do require some case, since the sulfur dioxide they produce can be hazardous to people with asthma. I recommend the use of a respirator with acid gas cartridges whenever you are using either hypochlorite bleach or any other color-removing chemical. See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
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Friday, January 02, 2009
Could I dye a North Face Denali jacket?
Could I dye a North Face Denali jacket?
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton or poly/rayon blends
Unfortunately, you cannot dye a North Face Denali jacket. The polyester fleece has a DWR water-resistant coating, which will also resist dye. There is no way you can remove a DWR coating well enough to get a good result from dyeing.
If the fleece did not have the DWR coating, it would be dyeable by boiling it with disperse dye, which is the only kind of dye that can color polyester. Ordinary dyes such as Rit or Dylon will not work at all on polyester. You would also need a very large stainless steel or enamel cooking pot to do the dyeing in, since polyester requires so much boiling in order to take even the right kind of dye. A dyeing pot is a good investment for someone who's going to be doing a lot of dyeing with hot water dyes, but it costs almost as much as a new jacket, so it's not a money saver for a one-time use.
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[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on October 18, 2008.]
Thursday, January 01, 2009
I have a white tulle canopy, and I would like to dye it, but how do I go about doing that?
I have a white tulle canopy, and I would like to dye it, but how
do I go about doing that? I'm not sure how to dye tulle, especially something as
big as this. It's a white net canopy, and it's just one that you hook up in the
ceiling with fishbooks. Can anyone tell me how to dye it black?
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton or poly/rayon blends
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at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on nylon. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
What fiber is it made of? You can buy polyester tulle or nylon tulle, but the way to dye these two kinds of tulle is very different.
Nylon tulle is easier to dye. You can dye it with a kind of dye called acid dyes. The best black acid dye is Lanaset Jet Black. You cannot buy this dye in stores, but will have to mail-order it, for example from Paradise Fibers. It's a very rich, dark, wash-resistant dye. The second-best black dye for nylon is Washfast Acid Jet Black. Like the Lanaset Jet Black, it resists fading and bleeding even when washed in hot water. Other types of acid dye must be washed only in cool to lukewarm water. WashFast Acid Dye Jet Black can be mail-ordered from PRO Chemical & Dye or Paradise Fibers. See my "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around The World" page.
You can also dye nylon with all-purpose dye, such as Rit, since it, too, contains acid dye, but you will have to use a great many boxes of the dye to get a good dark black. One box is enough for only one-quarter to one-half pound of fabric. The color may be off a little, too, since this is a common complaint for Rit dyes.
In any case, dyeing nylon tulle requires cooking the fabric with the dye and some acid (such as vinegar) at high heat, preferably 185°F. This will require a large cooking pot that you will not reuse for food, since Rit dye, like all textile dyes, will contaminate food. If you try to use acid dye at a lower temperature, you will probably end up with no more than a medium gray color, instead of a dark black. Also, Rit dye will bleed badly in the laundry and fade far, far more quickly than Lanaset or WashFast Acid Dyes. I's easier to find but almost a waste of time.
Dyeing polyester tulle is completely different. Polyester cannot be dyed with acid dye or all-purpose dye. The only dye that works on polyester is called disperse dye. You can mail-order disperse dye from Aljo Dyes in New York or PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or if you're in Australia, order from Batik Oetoro. You can also buy it as "iDye Poly" from dye suppliers that sell Jacquard Products dyes. (Don't get the plain "iDye", which works only on natural fibers; only "iDye Poly" will work on polyester.)
Dyeing polyester requires more heat than dyeing nylon. You must boil your polyester at high heat for at least half an hour with the dye. Unlike nylon, it will not work at all at lower temperatures. Extensive boiling is required to get the dye into the polyester, and then only if you have purchased the right dye.
You can also dye nylon with disperse dyes, but the color will not be as dark, and it will wash out more easily, than if you use a good black dye designed for nylon and wool.
It is simpler to just buy black tulle, if you can find it.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
[Portions of this answer were also posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on November 21, 2008.]