Name: Wendy
Country: US

Message: I don't think you've had this one yet.  I stored some leftover fiber reactive dye (mixed with urea water, but NEVER touched by any soda ash) a couple weeks ago & stored the leftovers in my daughter's old dorm fridge.  It got too cold and the dye froze.  If thawed out to room temp, will it still give good results?

The dye in your mixtures should not be harmed by freezing. It may settle out of solution, but if you allow it to return to room temperature, it should redissolve when you stir it or shake it. 

If one of your dye colors fails to redissolve, that could cause minor problems: particles of undissolved dye might clog your bottles' spouts, or make spots of more intense color on the fabric. That's the only concern that I would have.

I would expect frozen dye to stay good for a long time! Just be sure not to inadvertently overheat the dye solutions while thawing them, since the dye will go bad much more quickly if it gets hot.

Urea-containing solutions are bad if they start to smell like ammonia, because urea turns to ammonia, which will then raise the pH of the solution. As long as you can't smell ammonia, you don't have to worry about the urea itself.

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The first question is, why did it turn out splotchy? If it's because you did not stir the garment enough during dyeing (it's really essential to stir A LOT), or if you did not wash it before dyeing it the first time, then yes, you should redye it, because you can do better next time. If that's not the case, though, then maybe you should not. It might not work any better when you try again.

Redyeing commercial garments can be a gamble. If the garment has an invisible stain, or a permanent-press or anti-pilling finish that was applied unevenly by the manufacturer, then it may not be possible to avoid a repeat of the same problem.

Did you carefully prewash the garment before dyeing? It's very easy to miss seeing a stain, as there are many stains that are simply invisible. Invisible stains don't matter unless you are dyeing, when suddenly they matter hugely, since they can affect how well the dye can access the fiber you're trying to color. It's common for a garment that looks clean, but which has not been thoroughly prewashed, to have stains of this sort.

It would probably be a good idea to try to remove the dye now on your sweatshirt before dyeing it again. This is because any additional dye you apply will not entirely cover the difference in color that you have now. All dyes are transparent and will show the original blotchiness, to some extent.

First prewash your sweatshirt in the hottest water it can tolerate. For a 100% cotton garment without special finishes, if it's been preshrunk (which by this time is very likely), this can be as hot as you can get. It's best to use wash water that is 140°F or higher (that's 60°C). Use detergent, and add some extra soda ash or washing soda for additional cleaning power. This "pre-scouring" is an essential step before doing any sort of dyeing. Since Tintex is an all-purpose dye, it is poorly washfast; a significant amount of dye will come out when you wash it, especially in hot water.

Next, use a color remover treatment. Household chlorine bleach, which is based on hypochlorite, is one option. The other option is a product specifically made for this purpose, such as Tintex Color Remover or Rit Color Remover, which are gentler to the fabric than hypochlorite bleach, and are also safe to use to synthetic fibers that will be destroyed by bleach. (See "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?". It is impossible to predict whether any of these treatments will remove some or all of the color in your sweatshirt, since some dyes resist any means of removal, but chances are pretty good that they will at least lighten its color.

Finally, when it comes time to redye your shirt, consider using a higher quality dye. Any dye will produce splotchy results when things go wrong, but there are other respects in which a better quality dye will give far better results that your Tintex ever could. All-purpose dyes, such as Tintex, are known for fading badly in the laundry and ruining anything you wash with them. The color of all purpose dye inevitably fades quickly. You will get much longer-lasting results if you choose a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or Dylon Permanent Dye. For the smoothest color, it is best to do your dyeing in the washing machine, which will not harm the machine; see "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". You can buy Procion MX dyes in Canada by mail-order; see "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World", for a wide range of mail-order suppliers.

If you decide to again use the all-purpose dye, there is a way to prevent it from fading in the future. This is by treating it afterwards with a commercial dye fixative. You can buy this treatment by mail-order from any good dye supplier; popular brands include Retayne, iDye Fixative, Dharma Dye Fixative, and Raycafix, depending on where you shop for it. See "Commercial Dye Fixatives".

Don't listen to the claims of the ignorant that vinegar or salt can be added to make all-purpose dye more permanent; neither will help. You should add salt only if the package instructions tell you to, and use vinegar only if you are dyeing wool, silk, or nylon, never if you are dyeing cotton. To make garments dyed with all-purpose dye stay dark for a long time, you must use Retayne or a similar product.

I did not stir or mix while the garment was being dyed.  Should i try again and keep mixing for a half hour this time?

Yes, but wash it first in very hot water, and, optionally, use Tintex Color Remover before dyeing it again. You will get better results if you use the Color Remover first, because otherwise the lights and darks of the splotches you have now will show through.

this is great to have you as a sounding board.  The reason i dyed the sweatshirt is because i got bleach on it.  The tintex covered the bleach stain, but because I didn't stir it the wholel time, while dying it, it had splotches on the back.  Do i still need to use the colour remover and then dye it again.  Someone said RIT is better then tintex..is that true.
 
If you just dye it really dark, you can probably get by without using the color remover.

Rit is not one bit better than Tintex. They have the same problems: they ruin everything else in the same laundry load, and they fade quickly. I much prefer Procion or Dylon dyes. You can find Dylon dyes locally, or mail-order Procion dyes from G and S Dyes in Toronto or Maiwa Handprints in Vancouver.

sorry to bother you again, but where can I get the procion or dylon dyes.  i just need a small package of dark navy.  I live in Montreal.  Can I buy it in a store or do I have to order it on line?  Is one product better then the other?  Thank you again.  Ellie

I have heard that, in Canada, Dylon dye can be bought in many of the same stores that sell Rit or Tintex dye, but I don't know how true that is, or whether it's true for only some regions in Canada. I live in Texas, where Dylon dye is not so easy to find. Rit dye is sold here in every grocery store or pharmacy, but for Dylon dye we have to go to the fabric sewing store, and for Procion dye we're lucky if the best crafts store in our area carries it at all. The art and craft supply stores do usually have tie-dye kits that contain Procion type dyes, but less frequently the single-color packages of Procion dye. Mail-order dye suppliers charge much less per gram of dye.

If you have a fabric store nearby, trying going there, or calling first, to ask what brands of dyes they carry. If they don't have navy blue, but do have other colors, you could combine half a packet of black with half a packet of blue.

If you can't find a convenient local source for Procion or Dylon dyes, the closest mail-order place to you that sells Procion MX dyes is G&S dye, in Toronto. They have a good web site and a good selection of dyes. Dylon dyes have the additional chemicals you need already mixed in with the dye, but for Procion dyes you will also need washing soda or soda ash to set the dye, plus ordinary table salt for dyeing in a large volume of water.

One last point. Even if you use the exact same Tintex dye as before, you will have much better results if you stir throughout the dye process this time. Keep in mind that all-purpose dyes perform best at 190°F (that's 88°C), so the stovetop method works best, though you really should not plan to ever again reuse your dyepot for cooking food. Rit and Tintex dyes, like other textile dyes, are not considered safe to use in your cooking pots. 

And, if you do not use a commercial dye fixative such as Retayne, you should always hand-wash each garment that you dye with Tintex or Rit dye, separately from other garments, in cool water. Retayne allows you to machine-wash your all-purpose-dyed garments with your regular laundry, without fear of ruining your other clothes, and it makes the dye last in the fabric for a much longer time. Retayne is not needed when you use a superior dye such as Procion MX or Dylon Permanent.

Please let me know where you end up finding your dye.



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Name: Kane
Country: Australia

Message: Hey, I'm doing an assignment on tie dye, and I was hopeing you could help me. One of my questions, is what was your inspiration for some of your work?

My inspiration for dyeing is my love of color. I particularly love rainbow gradations of color, which are not usually commercially available. I do not like to be limited to the small number of colors and shades available at any given time in the clothing that is being sold. I want to be able to wear whatever color I want, even if the fashion designers have decreed that that color is unstylish this year. (To aee what I mean about the limited palette of colors the designers choose for us each season, look at Pantone's Fashion Color Report for Spring 2010. [PDF])

My other inspiration was when I had a baby boy, and quickly discovered that there was no pretty clothes anywhere being sold for boys to wear. Even the most amateurish tie dyes I produced, when I first started, were vastly prettier than any of the clothes I could find in stores or in mail-order catalogs. It was an excellent introduction to the world of hand dyeing.

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Message: Hi, 

first off, your shirts are amazing!!  Tie-dye has always been the favorite for me, I've just never gotten around to creating any.  My first attempt is a doozy, tho--I'm going to a Halloween Snuggie party and I want to TD mine.  Darker colored material just seems to have a more impressive look to it so I was going to go with that, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it.  In one area you say to use bleaching for dark colors but when I looked through your gallery you're talking about dyeing with colors, so I'm a bit confused.  

The most important thing to know, when choosing the dye for any project, is what fiber the fabric is made from. Snuggies, as well as the alternative brands such as Slankets and Freedom Blankets, are always made of polyester. This is a bit of a problem, though not an insurmountable one. You won't be able to dye a polyester garment with any ordinary sort of dye, since polyester can be dyed only with a special dye for synthetics, called disperse dye. Other dyes will rub off on furniture and wash out quickly in the laundry. You won't be able to use a tie-dye kit.

Dyeing polyester is a pain. You have to boil it with the dye in a huge cooking pot. There is a recipe for directly painting the disperse dye onto the polyester, just like tie-dye, but you must follow this step by steaming, or, preferably, using a pressure-cooker to pressure-steam the dye into the fiber. (An autoclave in a biology lab would be good for this.)

There is an easy alternative, a much easier way to apply disperse dye to polyester, but, like the dye above, it requires that you start with a pale color of fabric. You can make iron-on transfers using disperse dye crayons or paints, and then iron them on to your Snuggie. There's an example of this method at "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers", which is on this site. This is a great project for a dye beginner. You can get very intense, dark colors, so starting with a light-colored background will not be a handicap for you in getting an impressive effect. You can even buy the dye crayons at a local fabric store, instead of having to wait for mail-order to get the dye.

The other alternative is to use fabric paints. Fabric paints are different from other paints in that they bind well to fabric and are soft, not scratchy. Ordinary paints are horribly scratchy on fabric after they dry. Unlike dyes, fabric paints can be used without hot water or steaming, which saves a lot of bother in tie-dyeing polyester. Not all fabric paints will work on polyester. The two that I generally recommend for polyester tie-dye are Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow and Dharma Pigment Dyes. Dharma will ship either of these overnight if you are in a real hurry. However, you must have a white or very pale color of fabric to use either of these types of fabric paints effectively.

You can't dye a material that is already dark and have noticeable results. Dye is transparent, so it will not even show on a dark background. Most fabric paints are as transparent as dye, and will not show up any better. However, there are a few fabric paints that are opaque. If the label for a fabric paint does not say opaque, you can assume it is transparent. If you find or mail-order some Neopaque fabric paint, it will show up well on a dark background. One caveat, however: paint that is thick enough to cover a dark material will not look like dye. It will look like paint. Still, a tie-dye-inspired design of bright colors could look very good on a black background.

Bleaching out the color from fabric can be a fun way to tie-dye, but there are limitations. You must never use household bleach on polyester, because the hypochlorite it contains will permanently damage the polyester, producing an ugly yellow stain that is impossible to remove. You can use other color removing chemicals on polyester, such as Rit Color Remover, Jacquard Color Remover, or Jacquard Discharge paste. All of these require high heat to work. Rit Color Remover and Jacquard Color Remover are best used in a huge cooking pot on the stove, though you can try them in the washing machine. Jacquard Discharge Paste can be activated with an iron. However, there is a huge problem: many dyes cannot be discharged by any means. You will not know until it's too late whether or not the Snuggie you buy can have its color removed, because it's impossible to know which dye the manufacturer used. It's impossible to tell whether color removal will work until you try it.

If you do succeed in removing color from your Snuggie, you can then color in the white spots with Dye-Na-Flow fabric paint or Fabric Transfer Crayon iron-ons. That would look great. I just don't know if you would get to that point.

I really do recommend that you start with a white or pale-colored Snuggie or Slanket, if you can find one, and then apply enough color to get the impressive result you want, either using Dharma Pigment Dyes or the Iron-on dye crayons. Keep adding color until it looks good to you.

Let me point out that tie-dyeing cotton is much easier. You will find it easy to get started with tie-dyeing t-shirts, when you get around to that. Just don't try to use Rit dye, because all-purpose dye is unsuitable for tie-dyeing. A good tie-dye kit of almost any other brand will contain fiber reactive dyes that work great on cotton, though.

All of the fabric paints I have mentioned can be shipped overnight from Dharma Trading Company. They also carry the Fabric Transfer Crayons, Jacquard Color Remover, and Jacquard Discharge Paste. Local crafts stores sometimes carry the Jacquard fabric paints such as Neopaque or Dye-Na-Flow, and any drug store should carry Rit Color Remover.

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Probably not. Is there any water-resistant finish on the outside of the jacket? Usually, ski jackets have some sort of water resistance applied, so that they don't become heavy and soggy from melted snow. The problem is that any finish that resists water will also resist dye, and will even resist fabric paint. If the finish has worn or become thinner in some places than others, then the thinner spots will take more dye, resulting in a markedly splotchy effect.

You can test it by sprinkling water across the surface. If any of the droplets of water bead up, instead of soaking in, you know that it's not dyeable. Unfortunately, this test is not perfect. Sometimes accumulated dirt will render a water-resistant coating temporarily ineffective, but the coating is still there. Washing and drying the jacket will usually renew the water-resistance of the coating. There is no way to completely remove a water-resistant coating for an effective application of dye, even if it has temporarily lost its effectiveness.

If it turns out that the ski jacket never did have any water-resistance, then it may be possible to recolor it. In that case, the vital question is, what fiber is it made of? You must know the exact fiber content of the shell of the jacket, and match your dye selection, as well as the recipe for applying it, to the fiber content of the fabric.

The most common choices for the outside shell of a ski jacket are polyester and nylon. Nylon is not too bad to dye, because you can dye it with acid dyes at a water temperature of 185°F (that's 85°C). Acid dyes are the same type of dye used for dyeing wool, because nylon, surprisingly, has a strong chemical resemblance to wool. (See "About Acid Dyes".)

There are many different types of acid dyes, and I can advise you on your choice if it comes to that. Note, however, that even 185°F is must hotter than the hottest of tap water, so you will need to, essentially, cook your jacket in the dye. That requires an extremely large cooking pot, since if the garment is not able to move freely as it heats in the dyebath, you will get terribly uneven results. You have to stir frequently while dyeing, and this is impossible unless the volume of the pot is larger than the volume of the garment. Note also that, since none of the very good textile dyes have been tested for safety for use in food preparation utensils, you should not plan to reuse your dyeing pot for food. Also, since acid dyes must be used with a mild acid such as vinegar (hence their name), you cannot use an aluminum or iron pot, because the acid will react with the pot, eating the metal away as you heat it. It might be more economical to buy a used jacket somewhere, instead of investing in a good dyeing pot. However, there are instructions available for dyeing with acid dyes in a washing machine, using merely hot tap water; the colors achieved will be paler, but the bother is tremendously less, so it's worth a try. Acid dyes will not hurt your washing machine. (See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".)

Dyeing polyester is even more challenging than dyeing nylon. Polyester cannot be dyed with any ordinary dye, and it cannot be dyed at washing machine temperatures, since it requires a full boil. The only type of dye that will work on polyester is disperse dye. (See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".) You cannot use acid dye, or all-purpose dye, or any sort of dye for cotton. All dyes not specifically designed for use on polyester and other synthetics will wash out afterwards, or even rub off onto other clothing when dry. Dyeing polyester with disperse dyes requires the same sort of cooking pot as dyeing nylon with acid dyes, unless you use the disperse dyes to make some sort of iron-on transfer, which does work very well on polyester. (See "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".)

If your jacket is free from any water-resistant finish, then there's an easier alternative to dyeing. There are some high-quality fabric paints available, which work on both natural and synthetic fibers. Not all fabric paints will work on synthetic fibers, but all of the fabric paints manufactured by Jacquard Products do, including their fabric paint Dye-Na-Flow, a very thin fabric paint that flows almost like a dye. Another brand of fabric paint that you can use on both natural and synthetic fibers is Dharma Pigment Dyes (which, in spite of their name, are really a paint). Using either of these will be much easier than using a true dye on synthetic fibers. The results will not be as smooth and even as you can get from true dyes, but there's a lot to be said for their ease of use.

After you consider the alternatives for recoloring your faded ski jacket, you may decide to look around for a new or previously used ski jacket. Buying another jacket would be easier than dyeing this one. Unfortunately, dyeing synthetic fibers tends to be a lot more trouble than dyeing natural fibers such as cotton, silk, or wool.

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Name: NM
Country: Canada

Message: Hello Ms. Burch,
I searched your unbelievably comprehensive and enormously educating site for a quite a few days now, and could not find an answer to my question, possibly because it might be too simple and obvious for anyone with any experience in this.

I want to dye a 100% white cotton Tshirt into plain, basic, non-gradated dark charcoal (not black) for an Oct 30 event. I also bought a plain black Tshirt, in case it's easier to just bleach it to get charcoal?). I bought several jars of the Jet Black Procion dye that youre site recommends, but could not quite understand how to use the colour mixing table that you listed. For charcoal, it says, use 1 part - or 24 spoons - of the dye; but how do I use it and not turn the garment into black? Does this mean I just use lower temperature, or take the garment out of the dye bath earlier, or...?

Is it possible to get additional "mileage" out of the duye bath after I'm done with the charcoal Tshirt and add more dye to dye other 100% cotton garments black?
Would very much appreciate your help, if you would.


To get charcoal gray instead of black, the usual approach is to use less dye. That color mixing chart is not helpful in this case, because it does not clearly indicate how much dye to use per unit of fiber. Charcoal gray is just a lighter shade of black. If you make a mistake, it is easier to redye a shirt that is too light in color than it is to remove some of the dye that has already been applied, so I recommend that you try to err on the side of using too little dye, rather than too much. If you find that your first try is too light in color, just dye it again to make it darker.

Using a cooler temperature or a shorter reaction time will tend to produce lighter colors, but I do not recommend either of those, because the results are unpredictable. Using less dye powder is the right method for you. If you use a dyebath to dye on e garment black, and put a second garment in after twenty or thirty minutes, the second one will come out some lighter shade of gray, but, again, the results are not predictable enough, if what you want is a particular shade of gray.

How much does your white shirt weigh? A size XL t-shirt weighs around half a pound, depending on how thick the fabric is, but it would be better to know exactly how much it weighs. Try a kitchen scale or a postal scale or one of the scales in the produce department of the grocery store. Be sure that your shirt was not marketed as being stain-resistant, because a stain-resistant finish will repel the dye and create splotchy results.

For one full pound of fabric, dyeing in a large bucket, PRO Chemical & Dye recommends that you use 1 teaspoon of dye, or 2.5 grams, for a pale shade (weighing dyes gives more accurate results than measuring them by the spoonful). For a medium shade, they recommend 3 teaspoons, or 7.5 grams; for a dark shade, 6 teaspoons, or 15 grams; and for a dark black, 12 teaspoons, or 30 grams. Charcoal gray is a dark shade, so it's likely you'd want 15 grams of dye per pound of fiber, or probably half that for your shirt, but I think it would be safest to try for a medium shade first, using 7.5 grams of black dye powder per pound of fabric, which works out to be about a teaspoon and a half for one half-pound shirt (less for a smaller size shirt).

The method you should use to obtain a single smooth solid color requires a high volume of water and an inordinate amount of stirring. If you use too small of a container or do not stir enough, you will get a tie-dyed effect, which is not what you're going for this time. I recommend that you obtain a five-gallon plastic bucket and closely follow the instructions provided by PRO Chemical & Dye in their sheet, "Immersion Dyeing using PRO MX Reactive Dyes", at 
http://www.prochemical.com/directions/MX%20PDF/Immersion.pdf , or those by Dharma Trading Company, "The Tub (Washing Machine, Vat, Bucket) Dye Method", at 
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/164823-AA.shtml . Either recipe is good; pick one and follow it carefully. You will need a large quantity of ordinary table salt, which is very important in high-water-volume dyeing, and some soda ash to set the Procion MX dye in the fiber. It is a good idea to add some powdered water softener, sodium hexametaphosphate, if you have hard water.

Discharging the color in an already-dyed black shirt, using bleach or Color Remover, is a fun way to make designs, but it is an unpredictable way to obtain any particular desired color. You are more likely to get brown than gray if you try to bleach or discharge a black t-shirt. I think you should save your black t-shirt for another project. (Make some cutouts, arrange them on the shirt, and spray with dilute bleach, taking precautions not to breath it, for a very cool effect.)

You could reuse your charcoal gray dyebath by adding more dye to it, particularly if you're having a water shortage. Pre-dissolve the dye before adding it to the dyebath. You won't need to add more salt, and probably not any additional soda ash, either.

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Name: Cody
Country: Canada
Message: Hi, I see you know your stuff with dyeing. I have garments that are already hot pink and 50 cotton/50 poly and 300gram, do you know how I could dye them navy blue, black, purple, etc. permanently? The home dye kits seem to run after awhile. Thanks.

Dyeing a polyester/cotton blend is a problem. Any dye that will work on polyester will wash out of cotton, and vice versa. 

This is okay for pale colors. If you dye a 50% cotton/50% polyester garment with a cotton dye, such as fiber reactive dye or direct dye, you will get a pink that is about 50% of the strength of the color you'd get on 100% cotton. Use a red dye, you'll get a pink garment; use a black dye, you'll get a gray garment (though since you're starting with hot pink, that color will also show through any pale dye colors you apply). The same thing happens if you use a polyester dye to dye only the polyester part of the blend.

For dark colors such as navy, purple, or black, however, you're going to have to dye both the cotton and the polyester.

Normally this is done, by home dyers, as a two-step process. The best dyes for cotton are the fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes; the only dyes for polyester are the disperse dyes. You can apply Procion MX dyes in a bucket or a top-loading washing machine, for a smooth solid color, but polyester will have to be boiled on the stovetop in a very large cooking pot, large enough for the garments to move in freely; don't plan to reuse a dyepot for food preparation in the future.

Alternatively, you can buy Jacquard Products new iDye for cotton, which is a type of direct dye, and iDye poly for polyester, which is a type of disperse dye, and apply them at the same time by boiling them in a very large cooking pot. The iDye for cotton can be applied in the washing machine, though it works better on the stovetop, but you cannot expect good results for dyeing polyester at anything less than a full rolling boil.

The disperse dyes carried by PRO Chemical & Dye are probably superior to the lower-energy disperse dyes included in the iDye Poly, longer-lasting and more predictable in color, and fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX are certainly superior to any direct dye such as iDye, but you can't beat the convenience of being able to apply both dyes at the same time, as you can with the iDye plus iDye Poly. Be sure to buy some iDye Fixative to make the iDye more wash-resistant. Direct dyes really need this type of cationic dye fixative in order to endure through many launderings; adding salt or vinegar will not do the job.

There's at least one mail-order supplier in Canada for the iDye dyes, Island Blue Art Store, in Victoria, BC. PRO Chemical & Dye, which carries superior disperse dyes, as well as many other types of dye, is located in Massachusetts in the US, but they do sell and ship internationally.

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I'm afraid this is not guaranteed to yield a truly white jacket. It's hard to get all of any dye out enough to make it truly white (you're more likely to achieve a beige), and some dyes cannot be bleached or removed at all. Dye removers other than bleach require heat, which might not be good for fake fur, and of course bleach itself will permanently damage synthetic fibers such as polyester.

You could give it a try, though. While color removers such as Rit Color Remover (sodium dithionite) and Jacquard Color Remover (thiourea dioxide) work best when heated on the stovetop, you might be able to get some color removal just by using the hottest tap water you can, in a five-gallon plastic bucket. Be sure to stir a lot, or the color may come off unevenly. Both Rit Color Remover and Jacquard Color Remover are safe to use on polyester, unlike chlorine bleach.

See also:
"What chemicals can be used to remove dye?"


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Name: Gabby

Country: USA
Message: Hi, I am working on a science fair project for Chemistry. Could you possibly answer a few of these questions?

1- Are you familiar with any research on how vinegar can effect the color of tie-dyes? 
2- Do you have any ideas that might help me do a project on this?
3- Could you tell me a little about this topic?

Vinegar will not affect tie-dye, at least not in any helpful way. Vinegar does not set the dyes that are used on cotton. The use of vinegar to set dyes is a useless old wives' tale. See the following pages:

• "FAQ: Is there any way to "set" dye in purchased clothing?"
• "What kind of vinegar should I soak my tie-dyed shirts in?"
• "Can one set the colors for tie dying with vinegar when the project is complete rather than buying the sodium carbonate and soaking the fabric before dyeing?"

I would suggest you use a different chemical other than vinegar. The chemical that is used to set the dyes in a good tie-dye kit is soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate or washing soda. You can buy a Jacquard brand tie dye kit and use it for your experiments. You could try dyeing three pieces of cotton fabric (or three t-shirts, or three cotton handkerchiefs): one with soda ash to presoak the shirt in, as recommended in the instructions, one with just plain water, and even, if you like, one with vinegar. The only shirt that the dye will work well on is the one with soda ash; for the others, the dye will wash out, because soda ash is important for getting the dye to set. The vinegar shirt will be by far the worst, if you're dyeing cotton.

It is important to choose the right type of tie-dye kit. Never buy the Rit tie-dye kit, because it contains the wrong type of dye for tie-dyeing, and will fade extremely quickly in the wash, possibly also ruining your other clothes that you wash with it. You can often find the Jacquard Tie Dye Kit, or the Funky Groovy Tie Dye Kit, which is also made by Jacquard, at your local crafts store, or you can mail-order it from an art supply store such as Blick Art Materials, or, even better, from a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company. There is another brand, Tulip, which contains the same good type of dye as the Jacquard kits, but they might already have mixed the soda ash powder with the dye, which would make it impossible to try just leaving it out. You could still compare the effect of the Tulip Tie Dye kit on clean t-shirts versus vinegar-soaked t-shirts. Since the vinegar will neutralize the soda ash in the tie-dye kit, it will prevent the dye from bonding well to the fabric, so it will wash out.

It's also important to choose the right kind of fabric. You should use 100% cotton fabric, or cotton t-shirts that are made of 100% cotton, unless you decide to compare how well different fabrics work.

There is a lot of additional advice on doing science fair projects using dyes on my web site. Spend some time looking at the links on the schoolwork topic in my Hand Dyeing Q&A blog. Scroll down to see the titles of the different articles answering students' questions on the science of dyeing. I particularly recommend these:

• "5th Grade Science Project on What Materials Dye the Best"
• "Graphing Dye Experiment Results for a Science Fair Project"
• "Dependent and Independent variables in a Dyeing Experiment"

Depending on how advanced your grade level is, you can also find out a lot more about the chemistry of how dyes work on my web site. If you have more questions, I can try to answer them, but you may find the answers already provided on my site.

Good luck with your project. Dyes make very good subjects for science fair projects, because the chemicals are reasonably non-toxic, and you can really see how well the dyes do or do not work.

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Name: Jane

Region: Maryland, USA
Message: Hi! I am trying to reproduce the black bombazine worn by mourners in the 19th century. I have found a silk-wool twill blend. I have done the research to know that logwood was used with either copperas and blue vitrol or logwood blue vitrol and sugar of lead. Needless to say I'm concerned about the toxicity of these combinations. Can you recommend a combination of mordant and logwood that would simulate the logwood-blue vitriol hue? I.E. logwod, iron and something else-perhaps something modern? I want it colorfast and historically accurate but don't want to die doing this. Any help would be appreciated.  I'm likely to dye 1 to 2 yards of fabric at a time. Thanks.

While copper sulfate (blue vitriol) and iron sulfate (copperas) can be fatal if swallowed, they can be used safely by following normal safety procedures, and not using or storing them around children. "Blue vitriol" sounds horribly dangerous, but, in fact, if you wear gloves, wear a face mask while measuring out powders until they are dissolved in water, use reasonably good ventilation, use a dedicated dyepot for dyeing instead of reusing it for food, and don't spill it without cleaning it up, it should be quite safe. These are rules that should always be followed with any dyeing, anyway. Aurora Silks says that you don't even have to wear gloves to work safely with iron sulfate, though they recommend you do so as a habit.

I do recommend against using chrome as a mordant, because potassium dichromate is very toxic and a known human carcinogen; it's better to stick to the other mordants, using them with care. Lead sulfate (sugar of lead) is also a probable human carcinogen, and a known cause of brain damage, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease. Lead sulfate is not required for textile dyeing, judging from its rarity in recipes for natural dyeing, though it is surprisingly popular for use in progressive hair dyes that you can actually buy at your local pharmacy. I personally much prefer the idea of using copper sulfate and iron sulfate, as mordants for textile dyeing, and would recommend you seek out a recipe that uses them instead of lead or chrome. 

Jim Liles's book, The Art and Craft of Natural Dyeing, has a recipe for Common Black for Wool (p. 192), which calls for copper sulfate (blue vitriol), iron sulfate (copperas), logwood, and fustic.  This would be a good bet for you to use for this project. There is a similar recipe for silk.

Jim Liles's book also has a recipe for black on silk and wool that uses walnut on top of deep indigo, at the beginning of the chapter on natural black dyes. Do you feel up for trying an indigo vat? It's more challenging for  beginning dyer, but indigo has the advantage of not requiring any mordants at all, and of course it makes beautiful blues. To make it easier, you can start with instant indigo. This would have to be a two-step process, since indigo must be applied separately from any other dye, and indigo should be applied first, so that the reducing chemicals used with the indigo to keep it soluble do not bleach out the other dyes. It's important not to make the indigo vat too strong, as this will deposit dye on the outside of the fibers, so that it will crock (rub off) when dry; instead, use the recommended strength of indigo, and dip repeatedly, to get a dark blue. Liles recommends you use iron with oxalic acid to mordant the walnut.

For all non-historical uses, I prefer safer, more economical, easier-to-use modern dyes that don't require any mordants at all. For dyeing silk and wool, I recommend Lanaset Jet Black or Washfast Acid Jet Black, both of which contain a little chromium but only in the safer hexavalent form, so they are completely safe when used according to the instructions, and both of which are so astonishingly washfast, unlike most acid dyes, that they can be washed even in hot water without fading. There is something very satisfying about the idea of historically correct natural dyes, however, and success with natural dyeing is certainly more impressive than success with modern dyes, since the traditional dyes are more of a challenge to use correctly.

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Name: Paul

Country: U.S.
Message: I have several pairs of WHITE 94% nylon/6% spandex compression shorts that I want to dye BLACK. Is JACQUARD Acid Dye your first and best choice?

My first and best choice would be to choose some different shorts to dye. A cotton/spandex blend is easy to dye with cool water fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX, and 100% nylon, without spandex, is easy to dye with acid dyes. Both of these fiber choices would be far better for dyeing black.

The problem is that, for maximum effectiveness, which is particularly important for dyeing dark colors such as black, acid dyes will require high heat in the dyeing process, preferably to 185°F or even higher. However , this is a huge problem, because the spandex is extremely heat-sensitive. Check the care label in your nylon/spandex shorts, and you will probably see a warning against using hot water for washing them. The usual temperature limit for spandex is 105°F; temperatures above this may cause it to lose its shape. The maximum temperature for the industrial dyeing of spandex, before the fiber is spun into threads, is 160°F; do not exceed this temperature with spandex for any reason. See "How to Dye Spandex".

The normal procedure in the textile industry, for coloring a spandex blend black, is to color the fiber it is to be blended with, before the two are ever spun or woven together.

If you're not worried about the shorts losing their shape due to damage to the spandex, then you can follow the recipe for a good acid dye. While Jacquard Acid Dye is an excellent choice, there are two black acid dyes that are superior. The "Jet Black" in the Washfast Acid Dye line, sold by PRO Chemical & Dye, Paradise Fibers, Maiwa Handprints, etc., is unusually wash-resistant. Unlike most acid dyes (including the other colors in the WashFast Acid dye line, which are far less washfast), clothing made from the Washfast Acid Jet Black can be washed in hot water and still stay black! Most acid dyes produce clothing that must be washed in lukewarm water, at temperatures below 105°F, or. alternatively, dry-cleaned. One other black dye is superior even to the Washfast Jet Black: the Lanaset Jet Black contains a mixture of two blacks for the very best, deepest black color; one of the two is the same as the WashFast Acid Jet Black, plus there is another. The Lanaset Jet Black is widely agreed to be the very best black dye for wool or nylon that is available for hand-dyers in the US; however, the Washfast Acid Jet Black costs half as much, per pound of fiber to be dyed, and is quite good. Both the Lanaset Jet Black and the WashFast Acid Dyes Jet Black are extremely resistant to fading in the laundry, assuming that the manufacturer's instructions for application are closely followed. See "Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers", and "About WashFast Acid Dyes". For more information specifically about the black dyes in the Lanaset and WashFast Acid Dyes, see the Dye Forum entry, "Lanaset Jet Black contains Washfast Acid Jet Black WF672 plus another black dye".

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Name: Danine

Country: USA
Message: Can an ivory wedding dress made of polyester be dyed white?

No. You can't dye anything to make it lighter in color. Dyes only add color, they do not remove it.

There are several different chemicals, which are not dyes, which will attack and destroy most but not all dyes. Unfortunately, none of them are suitable for your purpose. You should never use household bleach on polyester, because the hypochlorite it contains will damage the polyester fiber with permanent yellow stains. However, all other dye removing chemicals are used in hot water, which will ruin your dry-clean-only dress, so there is no good alternative.

Conclusion: either learn to love the ivory dress as it is, or get another dress that is the white that you want.

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Country: WALES UK

Message: Hi there. Sorry but I can't find answer. Do you ship to UK please, roughly how much is postage per kilo etc, how longs does it take to ship. I am dying dark brown wool black, will you sell everything I need to do this. I am not able to find supplies in UK.

I don't ship supplies to the UK, but I can recommend sources for you. You will probably have to buy your dyes by mail-order, as most hand-dyers do anywhere. Please look on my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World". Scroll down to the section listing suppliers in Europe. Dye suppliers in the UK include Fibrecrafts, Kemtex Educational Supplies, and Rainbow Silks. There is almost never any need to buy your dyeing supplies from outside of the UK.

Some dyers in Europe prefer to mail-order their supplies from PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company in the US, because their prices are excellent, often sufficiently low that the cost of overseas shipping is not unreasonable. If you choose to do this, you should order by phone, as web sites generally do not mention the options for slower forms of shipping which cost less. Rapid shipping is extremely expensive, but if you can specify a slower form of shipping then the total price of the dye will be good.

Some of the best dyes for dyeing wool are the Lanaset dyes. Lanaset Jet Black is particularly good, compared to other black dyes for wool. (See "Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers". It's difficult to find Lanaset dyes in the UK, but there is one source. See "Do you know of a supplier for Lanaset dyes in the UK?". You can also order Lanaset dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye in the US, or Kraftkolour in Australia, as both of these firms are happy to ship internationally. Again, be sure to request economy shipping and determine in advance how much it will cost.

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Name: Kasey
Country: USA

Message: I know on your website you say to do dye a polyester/cotton like cotton, but what about a polyester/cotton/spandex garment? 

Don't even try. The dyes required for polyester must be boiled with the fabric, but spandex must be kept cool. You can't do both at the same time. The hight heat required for polyester dye will ruin the spandex.

If the garment contains more than 50% cotton, you can dye it with cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes. These can be used at room temperature, so that the spandex doesn't get twisted up. When you use these dyes, the polyester and the spandex will remain white, so there's no point unless the fabric is mostly cotton. Even 50% cotton will be considerably paler than 100% cotton.

See also:
"How to Dye Spandex"

"Dyeing Polyester/Spandex Blend Clothing"

"Finding a Dye for Polyester/Spandex Blend Shirts"

The only way to recolor clothing made from polyester and spandex is to use fabric paints such as Dye-na-Flow or Dharma Pigment Dye. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers".

Follow-up: Thank you so much for your response. The garment is 62% cotton so I will try for the Procion MX dyes. We are looking for a maroon color, so hopefully it will work. Your website is extremely helpful :)

That sounds good. Maroon dye on a 62% cotton garment will obviously be much lighter in color than on a 100% cotton garment, but, if the lighter color will meet your needs, it's an easy way to do the dyeing, and there will be no danger of damaging the spandex as long as you use room-temperature water.

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Name: Jenn

Country: USA
Message: Do you have any recommendation for dying cotton chenille stems (aka pipe cleaners) a fleshy peach color?  I tried a couple of RIT dyes and didn't even come close.  I'm not even sure how much water/dye to use since I can't find any info on dying anything like pipe cleaners.

Are you certain that the stems are made of 100% cotton? If the fiber content is mismarked and they are actually made of polyester, the dye will not work. If you're not positive, you can try a burn test (see Fabrics.net's page on 'Fabric Identification'.)

If the chenille stems are made of cotton or rayon, you can dye them most easily with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes. Unlike Rit all-purpose dye, these are cool water dyes and do not require heat. Perhaps the simplest method would be to buy a tie-dye kit (any brand but Rit) and follow the instructions, except of course for the tying itself. If you order the Procion MX dyes by mail-order, you can choose a peach-colored dye mixture so that you won't have the difficult job of mixing the different colors to get the color you like. Be sure to add soda ash, unless you have the sort of kit that contains the soda ash already mixed in with the dye powder.

I am concerned that the metal stems might bleed rust onto the fibers. It would probably be best to rinse the dye out only an hour after applying the dye. I think that perhaps a fabric paint would be a better choice, with a hair dryer used to dry the paint quickly, to prevent rusting.

A good fabric paint that flows and blends almost like dye is Dye-Na-Flow, made by Jacquard Products. This will work well on cotton and also on most synthetic fibers. While it takes some time for dyes to react with fibers, it doesn't take any particular time for fabric paints to do so, so you can dry the fabric paints as quickly as you can manage, without interfering with the color intensity. If you go to your local crafts store, you might be able to find Dye-Na-Flow or another good fabric paint, but you'll want to avoid "puffy", "slick", or dimensional fabric paints. If you can't find a suitable fabric paint locally, mail order them from a supplier such as Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. You might have to dilute bright orange with white or ecru, or mix with salmon, in order to get the exact hue you need.

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Name: Sean
Country: USA

Message: I am looking for a dye that can be mixed in water and then stored in clear glass bottles and used to demonstrate glass coatings. 

I have a video of what the dye looks like in the bottle. 

I am really stuck and need a solution...any help would be great.

What do you mean, a dye that can coat glass, or just colored water to demonstrate whether a coating on the glass repeals the water?

Assuming the latter, I would choose food coloring. This will be the easiest choice because you won't have to worry about avoiding contact with your hands. Any dye that has not been tested for use as food or cosmetic coloring should be treated as though it is at least slightly toxic, just as a matter of appropriate caution, requiring you to wear gloves at the very least. Food coloring is water soluble and easy to use.

Food coloring can be purchased in several forms. There are sets of four little bottles in the baking aisle at the grocery store. In the springtime, pharmacies, grocery stores, and department stores sell tablets of Easter Egg dye. You can buy liquid or paste food colorings intended for use in cake decorating at a crafts store, or you can even buy unsweetened artificially flavored drink mixes, such as Kool-Aid, and use them for coloring. All of these different types of food coloring contain the same dyes.

For more information on the dyes in food colorings, see my page, "Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers".

Thanks so much for getting back to me...I'm really in a bind. We used to import the powder from Europe but we no longer have access to the product or even the people that provided the powder, so I can't even tell you for sure what it was. Based on what I read on your website, it was most likely a dye because it would stain almost anything it came in contact with, including hands and every type I cloth I saw it touch.

Food coloring did not make the water dark enough to demonstrate the special glass coating. It's called low maintenance/easy clean glass.

As you can see, the dye was dark brown in color and we referred to it as "mud", although it still maintained the consistency of water.

Okay, given the video you sent, it looks like you won't be needing to handle it without gloves, so anything reasonably non-toxic should be good enough.

The food coloring sold in stores is lighter in color because it is dilute. Probably all you really need is a water-soluble dye that is very dark and intense.

The dyes that can be bought in any grocery store or pharmacy, the Rit or Tintex brand all-purpose dyes, are not suitable for your purposes because they are heavily diluted with salt and detergent. The dyes I mostly work with, Procion MX fiber reactive dyes, would be fine, but they are more expensive than you need, since their special properties are of no use in your application. The cheapest dyes to use, per pound of dye, are the direct dyes. You can buy these by mail-order from many different sources.

What I would recommend would be for you to contact a large dye supplier such as Standard Dye; their contact info is included on my Sources for Supplies page. Describe what you need and they should have some good suggestions; if not, ask them for samples of some very dark, dull, water-soluble dyes.

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Name: Sean

Country: Unites States of America
Message: How long can I let a Procion dyed shirt sit without washing it out? We may need to let them sit for a week. Is this alright or will auxiliary chemical reactions happen?

It's not ideal, but it should be okay, as long as you're talking about cotton with soda ash, or silk with an acid such as vinegar. 

If you're dyeing silk with Procion MX dyes and soda ash, then it is very important to rinse it out after no more than a day, because soda ash is damaging to silk.

When you do wash out, start by washing once in cool water, either without detergent or with Synthrapol. This is important for removing auxiliary chemicals. After the initial cool wash, wash at least twice in the hottest water available, with Synthrapol or another detergent, to remove all unreacted dyes.

If you have hard water, be sure to add the water softener sodium hexametaphosphate, as otherwise the dyes may form complexes with the hard water chemicals, making it much harder to wash out all of the unattached excess dye. (See "Dyeing with hard water: water softeners, distilled water, and spring water".)

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Name: kim

Country: USA
Message: I know this will sound crazy, but here goes. My brother received a helmet for a gift. The problem is the inside of the helmet is white - there is no way to take the inside out - any suggestions on what to do? Now that he's worn it 4-wheeling it looks terrible. Help, please.

I don't know what material the inside of your brother's helmet is made of. It's an important question, because you always have to match your dye type to the substance that you are dyeing. Since this means there will certainly be some trial and error required, I'd recommend that you temporarily remove some padding so that you can do tests in an area that will not show.

Dyes will not be the best choice. Nylon plastics can be dyed with acid dyes, but they require heating, which does not seem like a good thing to do to a safety helmet, since it might warp the shape or make it less strong. Something that you can apply like a marker or a paint would be best.

A permanent marker might be a good choice. If you were dyeing fabric, I'd recommend fabric paint or a fabric marker, which has special properties that enable it to last through the laundering of the garment it's on, but, unless the liner of the helmet is made of a fabric such as cotton or nylon knit, they would not be suitable. You might try a Sharpy brand marker on hard plastic; these are non-toxic and easy to work with. If the Sharpy pen doesn't work, the next option would be a paint pen or a solvent-based marker.

There is also a type of spray paint which is effective for coloring plastics. Instead of sitting on the surface where it can peel, Krylon Fusion for Plastic soaks into the plastic, giving a better appearance. Other types of spray paint will be much less satisfactory.

Another idea that might be effective would be fishing bait dye, which comes in two forms, aerosol or markers. One brand is Spike-It Dip-N-Glo. It's a coloring that apparently penetrates plastics well. However, a major drawback of this product is the fact that it is garlic-scented, ostensibly for additional attractiveness to fish. The strong scent could be a real problem.

Please let me know how it works out.

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Region: Westchester County, New York State
Message: Hi,

I'm trying to find out more about "super wash" wool.  For a stash busting project, I'm thinning of using my wool and cotton scraps for bird's nests...but am concerned that superwash wool is not a "natural fiber" once it is superwashed.  Your site is the only reference I've found that speaks to its naturalness after superwash treatment,  but it was a brief reference. Do you have any more information?

You're probably referring to my page answering the question, "Is there some way to make my own Superwash Wool?". The main reason why I want to discourage attempts to make Superwash wool at home is that it is dangerous to work directly with chlorinating chemicals under the acid conditions required by wool. That is not an issue after the treatment is complete, however.

It's true that wool is not completely natural after it has been given the Superwash treatment. The question is, is there any reason why this should matter for your project? Is Superwash wool safe for birds to be exposed to?

The vast majority of commercially available Superwash wool has been chlorinated and then treated with a sort of plastic, a polymer resin called Hercosett 125, that glues down the scales that are found on the surface of mammalian hairs (like the scales on our own hair); this enables the wool fibers to be treated roughly without interlocking, shrinking, and felting. Hercosett 125 is a polyamide-epichlorohydrin polymer. While the chemicals that comprise this polymer are themselves highly toxic, that does not mean that the polymer itself is. Many plastics that are harmless once combined together into long chemical chains are made from smaller molecules that are toxic before they are combined. However, I can't find any information on the safety of Hercosett-treated wool. It certainly appears to be non-irritating to wear as clothing, so it's probably okay for bird nesting material.

Since Superwash wool is coated with plastic, you really can't consider it a 100% natural fiber. Let's put it into the same category as synthetic fibers, or wrinkle-free cotton, (which is treated with formaldehyde-containing resins) or any stain-resistant natural-fiber fabric (which is coated with Teflon). If you have a personal rule of not using any synthetic fiber for this project, such as polyester, then don't use Superwash wool. It is chemically treated and plastic-coated, so it doesn't quite belong in the same category as untreated natural wool or cotton, although it feels nice, and it certainly does dye beautifully with the same dyes used on natural wool.

Since birds do not actively eat yarn, they will consume only tiny traces of whatever chemicals are in the wool. I think it's probably more important to avoid giving them mothproofed wool, because the treatments used to make wool mothproof are pesticides which kill insects. They are listed as having "low mammalian toxicity", but that may or may not go along with low avian toxicity. I don't know how much of the commercially available wool supply is mothproofed, nor how to tell whether the wool you have has been treated with mothproofing.

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Name: Darlene

Country: USA
Message: My teenage daughter leaned her rip stop polyester/nylon blend ski coat (which has a waterproof system, is breathable and fully seam lined, with the inside fill of down) into drying paint. She immediately washed it in warm water and put it in the dryer. The ski coat is light beige and the paint is between a light and medium grey color. She thought she got most of it out but it is still very noticeable now that the paint has dried on the coat. We do not know if the paint was latex or oil but I put paint thinner on the coat and it didn't take any of the paint off. I think the dryer set the paint directly into the rip stop material. I checked with the coats manufacturer and they can not tell me the ratio of polyester to nylon. Is there anything you carry I can use to save this coat? We live in the mountains of Colorado, the coat was expensive and it's her 1 and only ski coat. If so, we would like to dye it dark enough to cover the medium grey paint but stay as light in color as we possibly can. My fear, if there is such a dye, is that the paint stain will stain differently than the rest of the coat.

You are quite right. The paint mark will inevitably take dye differently than the rest of the coat. There is no way to hide house paint stains with dye.

Dyeing is not your answer. The paint will act as a resist for any dye you might apply, like the wax in batik.

Once latex paint has dried, there is no solvent that can remove it. Even oil paint will polymerize as it dries, making it highly resistant to any paint remover. The fact that they cannot be dissolved is one of the things that makes paint durable. Washing right away was a good move, but, as you observed, the heat of the dryer can set a paint stain that has not been removed. High heat hastens the polymerization of a paint's binder. You have to start washing immediately, before any drying of the paint has occurred, and continue to wash until all paint is removed.

The fact that the coat is water resistant means that it is completely undyeable. The water resistant coating will also resist any dye. There is no way to remove a water resistant finish well enough to allow even dyeing.

It's not impossible to dye a polyester/nylon blend that is not water resistant, but it's certainly not practical. You would have to boil the coat in disperse dye for an extended period of time, a process that is likely to ruin any down filling and any stretchy parts that contain spandex. This would require an enormous cooking pot, one large enough to permit the fabric to move freely as you stir it; since you should not plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food preparation, the cost of the pot would be a considerable investment, possibly greater than the cost of a new coat. 

The only thing you can do now to improve the appearance of this coat is to apply more paint. Fabric paint gives better results on fabric than other types of paint. Unfortunately, the water resistant finish will also resist paint, making it adhere unevenly, which will give splotchy results. Don't even try to get a smooth solid color. You can try adding similar marks to the one you already have, to try to make it look like you meant to do that, but I'm not sure that this will really improve the appearance of the coat.

The best answer, if replacing the coat with a new one is unworkable right now, may be to take a look at used clothing stores and online sellers to see if you can get another coat more cheaply.

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Message: Hi Paula,
first of all love your site!  your designs are beautiful.  I am looking to tie dye sport towels or swimmer/diver shammys... just wondering how I should go about doing this.  Ive seen in a few places that they have tie dyed them and they look great.

The key is to match the type of dye to the fiber content. Can you get these items made with a natural fiber such as cotton? Cotton towels are easy to tie-dye with the same Procion MX dyes used for most tie-dyeing. These are among the most wash-resistant of dyes, and they can be used at room temperature, much more easily than with any hot-water dye. All you have to do is buy a good tie-dyeing kit. (Don't ever buy the Rit tie-dye kit, because it contains all-purpose dye, but almost any other brand of tie-dye kit will contain good fiber reactive dye.)

Rayon is also good because it's made of cellulose and dyes like cotton. Bamboo towels are made of rayon. Buy just one as a sample and try dyeing it before you invest in a lot of them, because some bamboo fiber is chemically altered (acetylated) so that it does not dye well.

I think that diver's shammies are made of polyester fiber blends. (It doesn't mean anything about the fiber content when they describe it as "microfiber", since microfibers can be spun of various synthetic fibers.) You can dye the polyester portion of the blend with disperse dyes. They're a pain to use, compared to the cool water dyes used for tie-dyeing cotton, but it can work. See my page "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes"; read that page, and scroll down to find the link for ProChem's instructions for "Direct Application on Polyester". You can buy the dyes only buy mail-order, and ProChem is a good source.

Another option, if your towels are made of a synthetic fiber, is to make disperse dye iron-on transfers. Look at my page on "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".

None of the other options are as easy as dyeing cotton or rayon with Procion dyes, but they are possible.

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Name: LauraLynn

Country: USA
Message: What is the best and most cost effective way to overdye 40 to 50 printed white t shirts to red? How much dye would I need?

The most cost-effective method depends on whether you want the dye to last well on the shirts even after they are washed.

The cheapest dyes for 100% cotton shirts are the direct dyes. These are the same type of dye that is found in the mixture known as all-purpose dye, but it's much less expensive when bought in bulk. Don't buy all-purpose dye, as it is extremely expensive per garment. If you mail-order direct dye from a good dye supplier, such as Dharma Trading Company under their name "Industrial Dyes", you can get enough dye to color a hundred pounds of clothing for under seven dollars, plus about ten dollars shipping. The same amount of dye in the form of the little boxes of Rit All Purpose Dye would cost four or five hundred dollars! The quality of the dye is similar, too.

The cheapest and best long-lasting dye for cotton t-shirts is Procion MX. Because it's a fiber reactive dye, it forms a permanent bond to the fiber which will last for years. For fifty shirts, or about twenty-five pounds of cotton fabric, you'll need about a pound of this sort of dye, which will cost about $21 plus shipping from a good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company. You'll also need a large quantity of common table salt, and some soda ash or washing soda to enable the dye to react with the fiber. Use more dye for a more intense color, or less dye for a pastel color.

You can make the direct dye in the Industrial Dyes last much better through laundering if you after-treat them with a cationic dye fixative, such as Retayne. Of course, this adds to the price, but not a lot, since this product is inexpensive when purchased from a dye supplier. I prefer the fiber reactive dyes, but direct dye plus fixative is cheaper.

To dye so many shirts a solid color, you will want to do your dyeing in the washing machine; this will not hurt the machine. Note that a standard washing machine load is about five to eight pounds of fabric. Don't overload your machine; the shirts must be able to move freely in the water if you are to get a smooth solid color. You'll need to split up your pile of shirts into several loads, unless you have access to  a commercial dyeing machine. Use a top-loading washing machine, not a front-loader. Find a good recipe and follow it closely. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".

Be careful when buying your shirts to make sure that they are 100% cotton, not a poly/cotton blend, and that they have not been treated to make them stain resistant, as that treatment will also resist dye. Shirts that have been screen-printed with a design in a strongly contrasting color look very good when dyed, if the color of the printing is very dark or else opaque; it does not matter whether you dye before or after the shirts are screen-printed.

See also the table "comparison of dye costs" in the Dye Forum, which compares the cost of enough dye to color one pound of fiber, including different dyes for different fibers.

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Name: Jami

Country: USA
Message: I am buying a yellow lycra hoodie for my horse -- but it needs to be RED for my halloween costume.  I think I can dye it with Rit dye -- can you give me exactly what I will need to dye it properly? 

Lycra® blend garments generally contain mostly cotton or mostly nylon, and only a relatively small fraction of Lycra spandex. Choose your dye based on the other fibers in the blend. See my page, "How to Dye Spandex", for more details. If your hoodie is cotton/lycra, use a cool water fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX dye; if your hoodie is nylon/lycra, dye it with an acid dye and some vinegar. If your hoodie is made of a polyester/Lycra blend, you will not be able to dye it, though you can use some fabric paints.


Rit dye is a type of all-purpose dye. All-purpose dye is not a very good dye, but it will work on both nylon and cotton, and for something you will wear only once, it doesn't matter much that it's a poor dye that washes out quickly. Unfortunately, it will not work on polyester.

You can use many fabric paints even on synthetic fibers that are not dyeable. The result will probably be somewhat splotchy, not perfectly smooth and even, but for most costumes will be good enough. Fabric paint sticks to fabric better than other types of paints, and feels much softer and less scratchy. Go to a crafts store to buy fabric paint, or mail-order it from Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. A good brand to try is Dye-na-Flow, because it is very thin and spreads like a dye, and the manufacturer specifically notes that it can be used on polyester or nylon, as well as on cotton and other fibers.

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I can't find anywhere what the color of disodium phthalocyanine is. Do you know?

That's an interesting question. The phthalocyanine dyes we work with generally contain a copper atom at the center of the phthalocyanine ring, so I always assumed the copper was necessary to the color. Copper sulfate is a similar lovely turquoise color, after all. Disodium phthalocyanine lacks the copper, so what color does it turn out to be? 

An MSDS at Fisher Scientific says the undissolved, undiluted powder is blue-black, while, in contrast, an MSDS at Strem Chemicals describes it as a purple powder. The color of the dye powder doesn't tell you the color in solution, though. We often notice that the undiluted dye powder is often a bit different from that of the same dye in solution, usually much darker.

On the other hand, without the sulfonate groups typically added to a dye's structure to make it soluble in water, disodium phthalocyanine is apt to be extremely difficult to dissolve in water, anyway. How do you use it?

Sigma Aldritch says the absorption spectrum of disodium phthalocyanine has two peaks, the larger one at 649 nm and the smaller at 721 nm. Comparing that to the absorption spectra on this page for a reactive dye that contains copper phthalocyanine, it looks clear that it must be turquoise in color. They describe their disodium phthalocyanine product as having a dye content of 90%.

Wikipedia says that even metal-free phthalocyanine is blue in color, but of course you always need to get independent confirmation of anything you find there. The article looks credible, though. 

There are some fascinating old videos available online about the discovery of the phthalocyanines by Sir Patrick Linstead. Look at these:

• Introduction: Patrick Linstead: Phthalocyanines [.mov]
• Index: Patrick Linstead: Phthalocyanines [.mov]

They load slowly but are worth the wait. It's astonishing now to see the chemist doing experiments, some with nearly explosive results, without any safety glasses or gloves, and smoking a pipe or cigarette throughout.

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