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Monday, November 30, 2009
I bought some molas in Panama and thought I should use something like Retayne to set the colors
That might be a good idea, if they are washable at all, and if you don't trust their washfastness. Don't do it if even one immersion will cause the colors to run and ruin the designs.
Retayne and other cationic dye fixatives will work on most dyes, though not indigo (the blue dye used for denim jeans, among other things). They should be used only on items that can be immersed without ruining them by causing the colors to bleed, since they are applied by mixing them with a large amount of hot water and then soaking the fabric.
The major drawback of cationic dye fixatives is some reduction in lightfastness, so you will want to avoid making a habit of line-drying the molas in direct sunlight.
When you apply Retayne or other cationic dye fixatives, be sure to have good ventilation. All of the cationic dye fixatives I have been able to find for sale in the US, in quantities small enough for individuals to use, contain small amounts of formaldehyde, though some contain so little that they do not have to mention it in their MSDS information. Even small amounts of formaldehyde can be irritating to some people, and can trigger breathing problems for those who have asthma. Of course there are many other, often greater, sources of formaldehyde in the home (particularly pressed wood furniture), but I think it's important to try to minimize exposure. If you are sensitive to formaldehyde, consider wearing a NIOSH-approved respirator with organic vapor cartridges while working closely with cationic dye fixatives.
Eventually, after many, many washings, a cationic dye fixative may stop working. It's best to continue to wash the treated fabric separately from other colors, and consider reapplying the dye fixative after a couple of years.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
pounded leaf prints on untreated muslin
Friday, November 27, 2009
perspiration marks on naturally dyed garments
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Dyeing white cloth shoes that are made of all man-made materials
Neopaque is an opaque fabric paint, so white and light colors will cover a dark or colored background.
Country: USA
Message: Hey, I have a pair of completely cloth shoes that are white, and I want to dye them green. The label on them says 'all man made materials.' Should I even bother to dye them because it's too hard to find a dye and too hard to dye, or is it possible at all?
Instead of using dyes you should use fabric paint.
The trouble with the dyes is that you've probably got some polyester in your shoes, or perhaps acrylic canvas. Dyeing cotton or hemp shoes with the fiber reactive dyes in a tie-dye kit gives great results, but for polyester or acrylic you have to use a completely different type of dye, which requires high heat to transfer. I don't think it would be a good idea to boil your shoes in polyester dye, because chances are the glue would soften and the shoes would come apart.
Not all fabric paints will work on synthetic materials, but Jacquard Products says that their fabric paints all work on polyester and other synthetic fabrics. Their fabric paints include Lumiere, Neopaque, Jacquard Traditionals, Dye-Na-Flow, and others. Dye-na-Flow is thinner and flows more like a dye, but Neopaque provides better coverage over areas that are not white.
Another fabric paint you could try is Dharma Pigment Dye. In spite of its name, it's a paint, not a dye. It does work on polyester, and it's more economical because it can be diluted with a much larger volume of water.
It is important to use fabric paints, rather than any other sort of paint, because other paints dry to a rough and scratchy finish, and in many cases do not adhere to the fabric as well.
The various Jacquard Products fabric paints can sometimes be found in good art supply or crafts stores, and they can also be mail-ordered from suppliers such as Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. Dharma Pigment Dyes must be ordered directly from Dharma Trading Company.
There's one problem I need to warn you about. If your shoes have been treated with a water-resistant or stain-resistant finish, then neither dye not paint will adhere well. Before ordering your fabric paints, try sprinkling a few drops of water on the surface of your shoes. If it soaks in quickly, then fabric paints will probably work well, but if the drops of water bead up and stay on the surface, there will be no way to change the color of the shoes.
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Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Looking for either a web or printed book reference with Lanaset color recipes
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Is Superwash treatment too toxic for my customers?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Can I dye a dark denim blue that looks like jeans with that little bit of white in them? I want to get them to a charcoal grey
Sunday, November 15, 2009
How do you dye white twill to a more natural (off-white) color?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
I wish to purchase a 100% cotton broad cloth dress with some cut out design, all white and dye it black.
Friday, November 13, 2009
The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan
Country: USA
Message: Hi, I just finished dyeing my pair of 100% cotton cargo pants from tan to black using Jacquard Procion MX Dye Jet Black. The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan, the original color. Would you know why, and what I can do to correct it? (The company that sold the pants is Old Navy.) Thank you for your time.
This always happens when you dye store-bought cotton clothing. All commercial clothing, if it is not specifically claimed to be sewn together with cotton thread, is instead sewn with polyester. Since polyester cannot be dyed with any cotton dye, this means that the stitching always remains the original color, whenever you redye clothing.
The best solution is to buy clothing that is labeled PFD, which means "Prepared For Dyeing", or RTD, which means "Ready To Dye"; these two labels usually mean that the stitching at the seams is made with cotton thread, which will take any dye you use to change the color of the fabric. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find PFD or RTD clothing. I don't know of any source for PFD cargo pants or jeans. The best sources I know of for online retail sales of PFD and RTD clothing is Dharma Trading Company.
If the thread is unwaxed and not treated with any sort of finish, then it is possible to dye it with polyester dye, or cover it with a fabric paint that works on polyester. However, this is a lot of trouble, almost invariably more trouble than it's worth. It's usually better to learn to love the contrasting color of the stitching.
I've tried using fabric markers to color in the thread, but gave it up as too much trouble when the fabric marker turned out to work less well on the polyester thread than on the cotton fabric. Using fabric paint will take forever, since you can only paint the thread on one part of the garment at a time, lest you transfer wet paint to another part of the fabric. Disperse dye Fabric Crayons, such as Crayola Fabric Crayons, can be used to make iron-ons that you then transfer to the thread with a hot iron; any disperse dye that you mistakenly get on the cotton should wash out later. Of course, it will take a long time to cover all the thread.
Finally, you could mail-order some of Jacquard Products "iDye Poly" and boil your cargo pants with the dye; iDye Poly is a low-energy disperse dye that will dye the polyester thread without dyeing the cotton fabric. (It can be mixed with their hot-water cotton dye, named plain "iDye", and applied at the same time, but the "iDye" dye will wear off far more quickly than Procion MX dye, unless you apply a cationic dye fixative afterwards, such as Retayne or iDye Fixative.)
Also see my page, "Dyeing thread in pre-sewn clothing", in the FAQ section of my website.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Do we need to mix the entire packet of dye at once?
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
My polyester wedding dress was dyed too dark. Can I bleach it?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
How can I salvage a stained corduroy coat?
Country: United State
Message: Paula,
I have a white corduroy trench coat that has leather accents, on the belt and sleeves. My dry cleaners ruined the coat when I tried to have it cleaned. There is a large blue stain on the front now. I received money for it but I'm not ready to let the coat go, its so warm! I asked someone online if they could dye it but she said the leather could shrink so they would not dye it for me. Do you have any suggestions? Could I hand dye it instead of dipping it? I really like this coat and I'm trying in any way to be able to salvage it.
If it's unwearable with the stain, then you might as well try washing it. Washing might ruin the coat, but, then again, it might not. If the coat survives washing, then you can dye it. You cannot dye anything that cannot be washed. You should do the dyeing in the washing machine, and you should match the dye type to the fiber content. If the coat is 100% cotton or other natural plant-based fibers, other than those leather accents, then you should use a cool water fiber-reactive dye such as Procion MX dye. It's undoubtedly a mistake to use a hot water dye, such as Rit, not only because it gives poorer results, but also because hot water will be more destructive to the leather than cool water will be. See "About Fiber Reactive Dyes" and "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
A different approach that you might try if you're not willing to risk washing the coat would be to use a good fabric paint. You can't get a perfectly smooth, solid color with fabric paint, but you can apply designs that will cover up or distract from the stain. Be sure to use only paints that are specifically labeled for use on fabric. If your coat is made of synthetic material such as polyester, you can still use fabric paint if you are careful to buy the right brands. All fabric paints made by Jacquard Products, such as Lumiere, Neopaque, Dye-Na-Flow, and Jacquard Textile Colors, are said by the manufacturer to work on polyester. Dye-Na-Flow is the thinnest, so it acts more like a true dye. Dharma Trading Company also sells a fabric paint called Dharma Pigment Dyes which can be used on polyester, as well as other fibers, as long as there is no water-resistant or stain-resistant finish. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers".
However, if the coat is water-resistant, so that water beads up when you sprinkle it on it, then you won't be able to dye it or paint it, because the water-resistant coating will also resist all dyes and all fabric paints.
If the coat is made of at least 50% polyester or other synthetic fiber (but not rayon, which acts like a natural fiber), then you can make iron-on designs with a special sort of fabric transfer crayons. See "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers". This could work well to camouflage a stain.
Even if you dye the coat a solid color, the stain will still be darker than the rest of the garment. This means that you will probably get better results with anything other than a smooth solid color. Consider Low Water Immersion Dyeing, or tie-dyeing, or fabric painting, to mask the stain.
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Monday, November 09, 2009
Do you know any books about dyes and screenprinting?
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Why are acidic dyes called acidic dyes, and basic dyes called basic dyes?
Saturday, November 07, 2009
dyeing a shirt for a Steelers fan
Message: I'd like to make a shirt for a friend of mine who is a Steelers fan. Their uniform colors are gold and black, and their helmet colors are yellow, red and blue.
I'd like to use low water immersion, but I don't know what color combination to choose. Also, I'm going to silk screen a picture of my friend (in black) on the front of the shirt. I'm going to silk screen his name across the top of the back, kind of like a football jersey.
I was thinking about using different shades of gold and yellow and painting the collar and sleeve ends black so the black slightly bleeds into the golden colors of the shirt. But I can also work with the red, blue and yellow helmet colors, but I'm afraid low water immersion will cause the colors to get muddy.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for this wonderful website. Thank you for sharing your techniques as well as your art.
Black silkscreen ink will work perfectly well on top of any fiber reactive dye, as long as the dye around the image is a light color for contrast, such as your golden yellow. You can do the screening before or after dyeing (of course you must wash and dry the shirt after dyeing, before silk screening).
However, it's true that red, blue, and yellow, in low water immersion, will make muddy colors that don't suit your friend's team's colors. Even black plus yellow will make green where they overlap (black dye is often a very dark navy blue). Your idea of doing low water immersion for just the yellows, and then direct dye application for the black at the edges is a good one, laying the shirt out flat and dripping or painting each color of dye exactly where you want it, making allowances for some spreading of the dye. I think you may want to let the yellows dry before you apply the black, to reduce the amount the black blends with yellow to make dull greens. You can add sodium alginate to thicken the dye if you need to further restrain how much it spreads.
For low water immersion that involves applying both golden yellow and black at the same time, if the yellow and black are going to overlap even a little, I'd rather avoid using premixed colors. Premixed colors can do very interesting and beautiful things, in low water immersion dyeing, as the different colors in the mixtures spread out and blend in unexpected ways; it's a process I highly recommend, but not when the aim is to stick at all close to a sports team's colors. This is not so important if you let the yellows react fully and dry before you add the black, though. Wet-on-dry doesn't spread and mix as much as wet-on-wet.
All Procion MX blacks are mixtures of multiple colors. There is only one reactive black dye I know of that is a single black, not a mixture of many brighter colors. There are only two ways for you to buy a small quantity of this particular black dye. One is in the form of Dylon Permanent Black 12. My local Joann's fabric store carries this dye. You can also buy it by mail-order from Create For Less. The other source is much more economical in the long run, but less so if you are going to do this only once, on a single shirt. PRO Chemical & Dye, which happens to be an excellent place for hand-dyers to buy there dyes, sells the identical black dye in liquid form, in their series of PRO Liquid Reactive Dyes, which are a type of Remazol dye. (A different source of reactive Remazol dyes, the Jacquard Vinyl Sulphon dyes sold by Dharma Trading Company and other suppliers, does not contain this particular black, but only a premixed black containing multiple colors. They are otherwise a good dye source but not useful for this particular black unmixed single-hue dye. Also, there is a Dylon Cold Black which is another mixture, not suitable for his project.)
Golden yellow dyes are easy to come by. Any sort of black dye you buy, you can get yellows and golden yellows in the same line. You can also use both Procion and Remazol dyes in a single project.
I'd like to know what you decide to do with this project and how it works out. Good luck with it.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
How do I set regular ink from a blue ballpoint pen?
Message: How do I set regular ink from a blue ballpoint pen? I drew an amazing design on my daughter's coat and I am worried about it fading, or worse, bleeding in the wash. It is drawn on I think a polyester, cause it's like that shiny silky coat fabric like you buy at Walmart that everyone's coats are made out of, but it does not have a tag to tell me what it's really made out of. Not a natural fabric for sure.
The only thing you can do is never, ever wash the coat! You will probably also want to store it away from direct sunlight, when it's not being worn. Washing with detergent and water will remove the ink. Sunlight might fade it, eventually.
There is no way to set ballpoint pen ink on fabric, as you would set a dye. Ballpoint pen ink is not a dye, and most of the ink in your design, although not all, will wash out, if you ever wash that coat. You could try painting heavily over the design with a colorless fabric paint extender, to protect it, but that will stiffen the the fabric some. You will not be able to find clear fabric paint in your local stores, but you can buy it by mail-order from a company like Mister Art or Dharma Trading Company.
In the future, if you want your designs to withstand washing, you will need to plan ahead and use the right materials. What would be great for you to use would be fabric markers. The ink in fabric markers contains special binders to make them stick to the fabric. Some fabric markers must be ironed to fix these binders, while others will last without any heat fixing step. You might be able to find Crayola Fabric Markers at a crafts store. There are a lot of other brands, with finer points, but you will probably have to buy those by mail. Look at the different markers at this link. I like the FabricMate markers, the Marvy markers, and the Identipen markers the best. The Identipen markers might be best for a fine detailed drawing, since their ink is supposed to spread less. Here's a link to a picture of a shirt I drew with Marvy markers.
Fabric markers look like the felt-tip pens that are used on paper, but the ink they contain is different. A fabric marker will always be labeled to indicate that it is intended for use on fabric. Some fabric markers will work well only on natural fibers, so check the label before you begin to draw, to make sure that it's the right marker for your fabric.
There's another problem with drawing on a coat. It probably has a water-resistant finish. That's good when you get caught in the rain, but unfortunately it keeps even the best fabric marker ink from sinking into the fiber and bonding with it. Fabrics that get wet easily when you sprinkle water on them are much better to use for drawing. Also, natural fiber fabrics may hold the fabric marker ink better than synthetic fibers.
Take a picture of the drawing on your daughter's coat, if you can, so that you'll have a record of it even after the ink washes out, or when the coat gets dirty. I hope you'll do more drawings after you get some good fabric markers.
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Will using the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a batik work with the dyes in the Jacquard Silk Colors?
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
How do you make a true fluorescent (UV-reactive) tie-dyed t-shirt?
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
How much dye to tie-dye 120 plain white cotton t-shirts?
Monday, November 02, 2009
Can you dye a sweater that's 60% cotton, 40% polyester?
Rit All Purpose Dye is a particularly poorly washfast dye—that is, it fades quickly when washed, and tends to ruin anything else in the laundry you wash it with—but so is iDye. This is because both contain direct dye, which is inherently poor at resisting washing. If you choose to use either of these dyes, I strongly recommend that you mail-order a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne or iDye Fixative. This set the dye, although both of the remedies suggested by tradition, salt and vinegar in the wash, will fail. The commercial fixatives really do work, when applied as directed. I consider both all-purpose dye and direct dye to be unacceptable for most uses unless they are set afterwards with one of these cationic dye fixatives.
Alternatively, you can apply the polyester dye and the cotton dye in separate steps, and substitute a really good cotton dye, such as Procion MX dye, for the direct dye. You can't apply fiber reactive dyes such as Procion at the same time as the polyester dye, but they are far more permanent and satisfactory than all-purpose or direct dyes, and they do not require a cationic dye fixative, only soda ash or washing soda. Unfortunately, going through two separate dyeing steps is more trouble.
However, I must warn you that dyeing will often fail to cover up a stain. All dyes are transparent, so the stained portion of the sweater will continue to be darker even after you dye it. In addition, some stains will themselves resist dye. Oily stains are the worst, in this respect. Do everything you can to clean the sweater before you ever try dyeing. Wash in hot water with Pinesol to remove oily stains; use Rit Color Remover to remove dye stains; use a good stain remover and/or soak in color-safe oxygen bleach, one such as OxyBoost that contains perborate or percarbonate. Whenever you redye clothing, it is important to get it as clean as possible before you dye it. Avoid using household bleach, however, because the hypochlorite it contains will permanently damage synthetic fibers.
If you want to buy Jacquard iDye and mix it with Jacquard iDye Poly, you will almost certainly have to buy the dyes by mail-order. You can buy both of these dyes from an art supplier such as Blick Art Materials or a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company. For the two-stage method, using disperse dyes as well as fiber reactive dyes, you can buy both superior disperse dyes and fiber reactive dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye, in Massachusetts, or from Aljo Mfg. in New York. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Has the designer considerd the environmental impact of their work?
I bought some molas in Panama and thought I should use something like Retayne to set the colors
Name: Janet
Country: United States
Message: I bought some molas in Panama and thought I should use something like Retayne to set the colors. I know they are cotton and there are many with lots of dark colors. Is this a good idea? If so, I plan to do them by hand. I would appreciate hearing from you.
Country: United States
Message: I bought some molas in Panama and thought I should use something like Retayne to set the colors. I know they are cotton and there are many with lots of dark colors. Is this a good idea? If so, I plan to do them by hand. I would appreciate hearing from you.
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That might be a good idea, if they are washable at all, and if you don't trust their washfastness. Don't do it if even one immersion will cause the colors to run and ruin the designs.
Retayne and other cationic dye fixatives will work on most dyes, though not indigo (the blue dye used for denim jeans, among other things). They should be used only on items that can be immersed without ruining them by causing the colors to bleed, since they are applied by mixing them with a large amount of hot water and then soaking the fabric.
The major drawback of cationic dye fixatives is some reduction in lightfastness, so you will want to avoid making a habit of line-drying the molas in direct sunlight.
When you apply Retayne or other cationic dye fixatives, be sure to have good ventilation. All of the cationic dye fixatives I have been able to find for sale in the US, in quantities small enough for individuals to use, contain small amounts of formaldehyde, though some contain so little that they do not have to mention it in their MSDS information. Even small amounts of formaldehyde can be irritating to some people, and can trigger breathing problems for those who have asthma. Of course there are many other, often greater, sources of formaldehyde in the home (particularly pressed wood furniture), but I think it's important to try to minimize exposure. If you are sensitive to formaldehyde, consider wearing a NIOSH-approved respirator with organic vapor cartridges while working closely with cationic dye fixatives.
Eventually, after many, many washings, a cationic dye fixative may stop working. It's best to continue to wash the treated fabric separately from other colors, and consider reapplying the dye fixative after a couple of years.
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Saturday, November 28, 2009
pounded leaf prints on untreated muslin
Name:
Joni
Message: My daughter's preschool class pounded leaves into fabric and got leaf prints on squares of muslin. I don't think they pretreated the fabric at all. I would like to make a wall hanging for the teacher and I want to know if it's possible to fix the color before sewing it.
Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.
The best way to make a hanging of the original fabric would be to frame it behind glass, in order to protect the design from damage due to moisture and the oxygen in the air, and to reduce the damaging effects of light. Don't ever launder these fabric squares, because the designs will mostly wash out. There is no way to use the green color from pounded leaves as a permanent dye.
You could use fabric paint or fabric markers to paint over the designs to make them permanent, but you would risk changing the designs that the kids made. Using fabric paint or fabric markers, to make pounded leaf designs permanent, is best done by the original artist. You could minimize the changes by painting over the designs with a colorless clear fabric paint extender, such as Neopaque colorless extender, which would help to protect the images as close to their current state as possible.
A better choice would be to have the images color-copied and printed onto fabric, either at your local copy shop, or by scanning the images in yourself onto your computer. After scanning them in, you can print onto a specially prepared fabric that accepts computer printer ink, or you could print them onto inkjet transfer paper, and use a hot dry iron to transfer the images onto cotton fabric. The new permanent-image fabric squares can then be sewn together like a quilt top and bordered with additional fabric. You could hang it from a quilt hanger, or you could stretch it over the wooden stretcher bars used by oil painters for their canvases to make an easy-to-hang professional-looking display.
For more details on leaf-pounded images, see my page, "How can I set the dye from pounding flowers onto cloth?", from the FAQ section of this website.
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Message: My daughter's preschool class pounded leaves into fabric and got leaf prints on squares of muslin. I don't think they pretreated the fabric at all. I would like to make a wall hanging for the teacher and I want to know if it's possible to fix the color before sewing it.
Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.
The best way to make a hanging of the original fabric would be to frame it behind glass, in order to protect the design from damage due to moisture and the oxygen in the air, and to reduce the damaging effects of light. Don't ever launder these fabric squares, because the designs will mostly wash out. There is no way to use the green color from pounded leaves as a permanent dye.
You could use fabric paint or fabric markers to paint over the designs to make them permanent, but you would risk changing the designs that the kids made. Using fabric paint or fabric markers, to make pounded leaf designs permanent, is best done by the original artist. You could minimize the changes by painting over the designs with a colorless clear fabric paint extender, such as Neopaque colorless extender, which would help to protect the images as close to their current state as possible.
A better choice would be to have the images color-copied and printed onto fabric, either at your local copy shop, or by scanning the images in yourself onto your computer. After scanning them in, you can print onto a specially prepared fabric that accepts computer printer ink, or you could print them onto inkjet transfer paper, and use a hot dry iron to transfer the images onto cotton fabric. The new permanent-image fabric squares can then be sewn together like a quilt top and bordered with additional fabric. You could hang it from a quilt hanger, or you could stretch it over the wooden stretcher bars used by oil painters for their canvases to make an easy-to-hang professional-looking display.
For more details on leaf-pounded images, see my page, "How can I set the dye from pounding flowers onto cloth?", from the FAQ section of this website.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
perspiration marks on naturally dyed garments
Name:
Albert
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
Country: India
Message: My company uses a lot of fabric that has been dyed or printed with natural dyes. What special care handling instructions do these fabrics require. We get a lot of complaints due to perspiration marks on naturally dyed garments. Is there a reason for this? Do look forward to your feedback !
Many Thanks...
Albert
Do you have any idea which natural dyes, specifically, were used to dye or print your fabrics? It makes a huge difference. It's impossible to say anything about one natural dye that will be true for all other natural dyes. Many natural dyes are mordant dyes, some are direct dyes, and one or two fall into the category of vat dyes.
Another problem is that I strongly suspect that, in many cases, a fabric will be sold with false claims that only natural dyes were used on it. The fabrics may actually have been dyed with a synthetic dye belonging to any of several classes, in particular vat dyes, which are used the same way as natural indigo. This has no bearing on how well the dyes will resist perspiration, but, as you see, it does complicate the question of which dyes were used.
There are two main problems with perspiration. One is the fact that it can be either slightly acidic or slightly alkaline, and it contains salts, as well as an amino acid, histidine, which causes dyes to be more susceptible to light-fading, if it is not washed out before sun exposure. Some dyes will react to the perspiration as a pH indicator, changing color based on the pH. Other dyes will fade in the light, but fade considerably more in the presence of perspiration. The other main problem in perspiration staining, completely unrelated, is caused by the presence of aluminum compounds in the antiperspirants people commonly wear, rather than by the perspiration itself. In some instances, aluminum salts act like a mordant to interact with dyes to change them to surprisingly different colors.
Some dyes, whether natural or synthetic, are very susceptible to the effects of perspiration, while others are resistant. (There is information listed for perspiration fastness for many synthetic dyes in the charts on my page about lightfastness, showing that some synthetic dyes are excellent in this regard, while others are very poor, but unfortunately there is no information there on perspiration fastness of natural dyes.) The best answer to problems with a susceptible dye is to switch to a different dye that lacks the susceptibility. Do you have any alternatives, in the form of different dyes, for the same colors of fabric? The suppliers of your fabrics should be testing their dyes, as used on their fabrics, for perspiration fastness, and providing you with the test results.
Another option is to use a cationic dye fixative that increases resistance to perspiration. Dharma Dye Fixative, for example, which is a brand name for Clariant's Cassofix FRN300, is claimed to increase resistance to perspiration. It will also increase resistance to fading in the wash, though it will possibly, like other cationic dye fixatives, increase fading due to sunlight. A 1990 book by Ernest W. Flick, "Textile finishing chemicals: an industrial guide", lists a number of cationic dye fixatives, including at least one that is formaldehyde-free, that are described as increasing perspiration fastness. One caveat is that many cationic dye fixatives will decrease lightfastness, so you'll want to test whether or not this is a problem.
I'm afraid that I do not have care instructions for unidentified natural dyes. As a general rule, washing separately from other colors in cool water is appropriate for clothing colored with dyes of relatively low washfastness. Perspiration stains will be lessened if the clothing is washed promptly after wear. Some advisors suggest soaking the clothing in a vinegar solution to remove perspiration stains, or an ammonia solution, but whether either of these is appropriate for a particular garment will depend on the specific dyes used; you will need to test to make sure that it does not strip out the dye, before including this advice in your care instructions.
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—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Natural Dye COLORS Collection
This comprehensive natural dyes kit contains Cochineal extract, Quebracho red, Logwood grey, Fustic, Indigo, Alum (Aluminum Acetate), Alum (Aluminum Sulfate), Cream of Tartar, Madder extract, Logwood purple, Cutch, Soda Ash, Iron, Scour (Washing agent for cellulose), Reducing agent for indigo (thiourea dioxide), Hide glue, pH strips, Mask and Gloves, Instruction Book
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
Country: India
Message: My company uses a lot of fabric that has been dyed or printed with natural dyes. What special care handling instructions do these fabrics require. We get a lot of complaints due to perspiration marks on naturally dyed garments. Is there a reason for this? Do look forward to your feedback !
Many Thanks...
Albert
Do you have any idea which natural dyes, specifically, were used to dye or print your fabrics? It makes a huge difference. It's impossible to say anything about one natural dye that will be true for all other natural dyes. Many natural dyes are mordant dyes, some are direct dyes, and one or two fall into the category of vat dyes.
Another problem is that I strongly suspect that, in many cases, a fabric will be sold with false claims that only natural dyes were used on it. The fabrics may actually have been dyed with a synthetic dye belonging to any of several classes, in particular vat dyes, which are used the same way as natural indigo. This has no bearing on how well the dyes will resist perspiration, but, as you see, it does complicate the question of which dyes were used.
There are two main problems with perspiration. One is the fact that it can be either slightly acidic or slightly alkaline, and it contains salts, as well as an amino acid, histidine, which causes dyes to be more susceptible to light-fading, if it is not washed out before sun exposure. Some dyes will react to the perspiration as a pH indicator, changing color based on the pH. Other dyes will fade in the light, but fade considerably more in the presence of perspiration. The other main problem in perspiration staining, completely unrelated, is caused by the presence of aluminum compounds in the antiperspirants people commonly wear, rather than by the perspiration itself. In some instances, aluminum salts act like a mordant to interact with dyes to change them to surprisingly different colors.
Some dyes, whether natural or synthetic, are very susceptible to the effects of perspiration, while others are resistant. (There is information listed for perspiration fastness for many synthetic dyes in the charts on my page about lightfastness, showing that some synthetic dyes are excellent in this regard, while others are very poor, but unfortunately there is no information there on perspiration fastness of natural dyes.) The best answer to problems with a susceptible dye is to switch to a different dye that lacks the susceptibility. Do you have any alternatives, in the form of different dyes, for the same colors of fabric? The suppliers of your fabrics should be testing their dyes, as used on their fabrics, for perspiration fastness, and providing you with the test results.
Another option is to use a cationic dye fixative that increases resistance to perspiration. Dharma Dye Fixative, for example, which is a brand name for Clariant's Cassofix FRN300, is claimed to increase resistance to perspiration. It will also increase resistance to fading in the wash, though it will possibly, like other cationic dye fixatives, increase fading due to sunlight. A 1990 book by Ernest W. Flick, "Textile finishing chemicals: an industrial guide", lists a number of cationic dye fixatives, including at least one that is formaldehyde-free, that are described as increasing perspiration fastness. One caveat is that many cationic dye fixatives will decrease lightfastness, so you'll want to test whether or not this is a problem.
I'm afraid that I do not have care instructions for unidentified natural dyes. As a general rule, washing separately from other colors in cool water is appropriate for clothing colored with dyes of relatively low washfastness. Perspiration stains will be lessened if the clothing is washed promptly after wear. Some advisors suggest soaking the clothing in a vinegar solution to remove perspiration stains, or an ammonia solution, but whether either of these is appropriate for a particular garment will depend on the specific dyes used; you will need to test to make sure that it does not strip out the dye, before including this advice in your care instructions.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Dyeing white cloth shoes that are made of all man-made materials
Name: Kristen
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Country: USA
Message: Hey, I have a pair of completely cloth shoes that are white, and I want to dye them green. The label on them says 'all man made materials.' Should I even bother to dye them because it's too hard to find a dye and too hard to dye, or is it possible at all?
Instead of using dyes you should use fabric paint.
The trouble with the dyes is that you've probably got some polyester in your shoes, or perhaps acrylic canvas. Dyeing cotton or hemp shoes with the fiber reactive dyes in a tie-dye kit gives great results, but for polyester or acrylic you have to use a completely different type of dye, which requires high heat to transfer. I don't think it would be a good idea to boil your shoes in polyester dye, because chances are the glue would soften and the shoes would come apart.
Not all fabric paints will work on synthetic materials, but Jacquard Products says that their fabric paints all work on polyester and other synthetic fabrics. Their fabric paints include Lumiere, Neopaque, Jacquard Traditionals, Dye-Na-Flow, and others. Dye-na-Flow is thinner and flows more like a dye, but Neopaque provides better coverage over areas that are not white.
Another fabric paint you could try is Dharma Pigment Dye. In spite of its name, it's a paint, not a dye. It does work on polyester, and it's more economical because it can be diluted with a much larger volume of water.
It is important to use fabric paints, rather than any other sort of paint, because other paints dry to a rough and scratchy finish, and in many cases do not adhere to the fabric as well.
The various Jacquard Products fabric paints can sometimes be found in good art supply or crafts stores, and they can also be mail-ordered from suppliers such as Blick Art Materials or Dharma Trading Company. Dharma Pigment Dyes must be ordered directly from Dharma Trading Company.
There's one problem I need to warn you about. If your shoes have been treated with a water-resistant or stain-resistant finish, then neither dye not paint will adhere well. Before ordering your fabric paints, try sprinkling a few drops of water on the surface of your shoes. If it soaks in quickly, then fabric paints will probably work well, but if the drops of water bead up and stay on the surface, there will be no way to change the color of the shoes.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Looking for either a web or printed book reference with Lanaset color recipes
Name:
Iliana
Lanaset Dyes are among the very best dyes for hand-dyeing wool, silk, angora, mohair, and most nylons. You will also need: citric acid, sodium acetate, Glauber salt, Albegal SET, and Synthrapol.
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
Shibori: Creating Color and Texture on Silk
by Karren Brito
Country: USA
Message: Hello Paula,
I'm looking for either a web or printed book reference with Lanaset color recipes. I've found a few color recipe links on your (fantastic) website, but none specific to mixing Lanaset's primary colors (plus black) into pretty purples, lavenders, camels, caramels, cinnamons, etc.
Any and all pointers most welcome!
I'm a new dyer, and dyeing mostly wool fiber and yarn.
I haven't seen any general online guides to mixing colors with the Lanaset/Telana/Sabraset dyes, but there are several useful books available.
Karren Brito's book Shibori includes a few sample formulas for specific colors on silk, as well as tips for using a Munsell color system to decide how to mix other colors. She has good advice on how to measure out and mix stock solutions.
Deb Menz's book, Color in Spinning, has been described as the best resource on learning how to mix Lanaset colors, even if spinning is not something you do. (Her book ColorWorks: The Crafter's Guide to Color provides a useful introduction to color theory, but was not useful for me since I already have a strong grounding in that.) Like Brito's book, it is widely available and easy to find through booksellers. Your local independent bookseller can order them for you if they do not have them in stock.
A more expensive two-volume set, Color by Number Basic Book and Color by Number Book 2, by Sara Lamb and Deb Menz, should truly meet all of your Lanaset color mixing reference needs, if the authors have it in stock and if you can pay $225 for each volume, which is certainly a considerable investment. From the authors' description, "Their particular usefulness is that in addition to containing actual dye formulas, the notebooks contain real samples of dyed fiber showing what the end result will look like. One-thousand-one hundred sixteen color samples to be precise. This complete guide is invaluable to experienced dyers as well as accessible to beginners. The basic book has samples of DOS ranges of 0.1 to 4 of each dye color, each dye color mixed with proportions of black and brown as well as a whole range of analogous two-color mixes in both a DOS of 1 and 0.1. It is a great reference for any level of dyer." These two books are not available from most booksellers; contact the authors through Deb Menz's web site.
Sheep Hollow Farm and Fiber produces Lanaset Rainbows, a Dyer's Reference, a notebook of 422 actual yarn samples dyed with Lanaset dyes, including the formula used to mix each color. The notebook is considerably less expensive than Deb Menz's, at $93 including shipping. It's necessary to order directly from their web site, since bookstores do not carry it. See their Sheep Hollow Lanaset Dyes page for some sample color formula cards, as well as valuable information on how too mix stock solutions, and recipes for using the dyes.
Linda Knutson, author of the essential book, Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers, also wrote a book containing actual samples of dyed wool yarn, called Shades of Wool for Lanaset Dyes, but it is long out of production and extremely difficult to find, even from bookstores that carry used books.
PRO Chemical & Dye carries a color card with actual yarn samples dyed with each of the colors and mixtures of Lanaset dyes they sell (under the name Sabraset). It's worth looking at when deciding which dyes to order, but it does not include any mixes that you could make between the dyes, just the dyes as they sell them.
Aside from the very important question of color mixing, it can be worthwhile to collect more of the unmixed single-hue colors in a line of dye than just the mixing primaries of magenta, cyan, and yellow. There are individual dyes whose beauty and luminosity cannot quite be captured by mixing other dyes as primaries. Lanaset Violet B is particularly noted for its beauty, intensity, and richness. It would be useful in mixing other shades of purples and violets, as well. Also, since there is no good bright magenta in the Lanaset dye line, many dyers, including Karren Brito, combine their Lanaset dyes with an acid dye named Polar Red. Deb Menz prefers Acid Red 138. See the earlier post, "Did Lanaset once make a fuschia dye? Is there a replacement?".
Also see the following related posts and pages:
Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers
Dyeing variegated wool with Lanaset dyes
Who Sells Lanaset dyes?
Help with Leveling Lanaset Dyes | community of dyers
Do you know of a supplier for Lanaset dyes in the UK?
What colors should I buy to start out with?
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Lanaset Dyes are among the very best dyes for hand-dyeing wool, silk, angora, mohair, and most nylons. You will also need: citric acid, sodium acetate, Glauber salt, Albegal SET, and Synthrapol.
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Books that explain how to use Lanaset dyes
Shibori: Creating Color and Texture on Silk
by Karren Brito
Color in Spinning
by Deb Menz
mixing your own colors with Lanaset dyes
The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook
by Lynne Vogel
Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers
By Linda Knutson
Country: USA
Message: Hello Paula,
I'm looking for either a web or printed book reference with Lanaset color recipes. I've found a few color recipe links on your (fantastic) website, but none specific to mixing Lanaset's primary colors (plus black) into pretty purples, lavenders, camels, caramels, cinnamons, etc.
Any and all pointers most welcome!
I'm a new dyer, and dyeing mostly wool fiber and yarn.
I haven't seen any general online guides to mixing colors with the Lanaset/Telana/Sabraset dyes, but there are several useful books available.
Karren Brito's book Shibori includes a few sample formulas for specific colors on silk, as well as tips for using a Munsell color system to decide how to mix other colors. She has good advice on how to measure out and mix stock solutions.
Deb Menz's book, Color in Spinning, has been described as the best resource on learning how to mix Lanaset colors, even if spinning is not something you do. (Her book ColorWorks: The Crafter's Guide to Color provides a useful introduction to color theory, but was not useful for me since I already have a strong grounding in that.) Like Brito's book, it is widely available and easy to find through booksellers. Your local independent bookseller can order them for you if they do not have them in stock.
A more expensive two-volume set, Color by Number Basic Book and Color by Number Book 2, by Sara Lamb and Deb Menz, should truly meet all of your Lanaset color mixing reference needs, if the authors have it in stock and if you can pay $225 for each volume, which is certainly a considerable investment. From the authors' description, "Their particular usefulness is that in addition to containing actual dye formulas, the notebooks contain real samples of dyed fiber showing what the end result will look like. One-thousand-one hundred sixteen color samples to be precise. This complete guide is invaluable to experienced dyers as well as accessible to beginners. The basic book has samples of DOS ranges of 0.1 to 4 of each dye color, each dye color mixed with proportions of black and brown as well as a whole range of analogous two-color mixes in both a DOS of 1 and 0.1. It is a great reference for any level of dyer." These two books are not available from most booksellers; contact the authors through Deb Menz's web site.
Sheep Hollow Farm and Fiber produces Lanaset Rainbows, a Dyer's Reference, a notebook of 422 actual yarn samples dyed with Lanaset dyes, including the formula used to mix each color. The notebook is considerably less expensive than Deb Menz's, at $93 including shipping. It's necessary to order directly from their web site, since bookstores do not carry it. See their Sheep Hollow Lanaset Dyes page for some sample color formula cards, as well as valuable information on how too mix stock solutions, and recipes for using the dyes.
Linda Knutson, author of the essential book, Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers, also wrote a book containing actual samples of dyed wool yarn, called Shades of Wool for Lanaset Dyes, but it is long out of production and extremely difficult to find, even from bookstores that carry used books.
PRO Chemical & Dye carries a color card with actual yarn samples dyed with each of the colors and mixtures of Lanaset dyes they sell (under the name Sabraset). It's worth looking at when deciding which dyes to order, but it does not include any mixes that you could make between the dyes, just the dyes as they sell them.
Aside from the very important question of color mixing, it can be worthwhile to collect more of the unmixed single-hue colors in a line of dye than just the mixing primaries of magenta, cyan, and yellow. There are individual dyes whose beauty and luminosity cannot quite be captured by mixing other dyes as primaries. Lanaset Violet B is particularly noted for its beauty, intensity, and richness. It would be useful in mixing other shades of purples and violets, as well. Also, since there is no good bright magenta in the Lanaset dye line, many dyers, including Karren Brito, combine their Lanaset dyes with an acid dye named Polar Red. Deb Menz prefers Acid Red 138. See the earlier post, "Did Lanaset once make a fuschia dye? Is there a replacement?".
Also see the following related posts and pages:
Lanaset Dyes: A Range of Reactive and Acid Dyes for Protein Fibers
Dyeing variegated wool with Lanaset dyes
Who Sells Lanaset dyes?
Help with Leveling Lanaset Dyes | community of dyers
Do you know of a supplier for Lanaset dyes in the UK?
What colors should I buy to start out with?
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Is Superwash treatment too toxic for my customers?
Name:
Morwenna
Lanaset Dyes are among the very best dyes for hand-dyeing wool, silk, angora, mohair, and most nylons. You will also need: citric acid, sodium acetate, Glauber salt, Albegal SET, and Synthrapol.
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on wool. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
Books with Instructions for Dyeing Wool
Country: United States
Message: Hi Paula,
I am a small-time wool yarn dyer. My business has been growing rapidly these past 1-2 years and now my customers are starting to request that I carry more superwash yarns (I currently carry a small amount of Superwash sock yarns). I am hesitant to add more Superwash, as I understand that the Superwash process is quite toxic. I see from an article on your site that you believe it's toxic as well. I read on Ravelry that the Superwash processes are so toxic that they are outlawed in this country and that most Superwash yarn comes from China. Do you know if this is true? I was also wondering if you know of any yarn or fibers that can be dyed with acid dyes, don't felt, and are NOT Superwash? So far I haven't found anything--with the exception of silk (but I am not using silk for ethical reasons).
Hi Morwenna,
This has taken me a while to respond because it's a complicated issue. I've had to do a lot of research, and I can't really condense it into a brief answer.
First, I do not believe that the Superwash wool we can buy is toxic to wear or to work with. If the problem is your concern for the health of your buyers, there's no reason not to carry it. The only reasons not to carry Superwash wool are ideological, due to either a preference for locally sourced materials or a concern with the production of environmental waste. Even the most vehemently anti-Superwash industrial source concedes that garments made from this wool do not pose any risk to the consumer.
After the chemical processing required to make Superwash wool has been completed, the treated wool is no longer toxic. The chlorine-based chemicals are neutralized and washed off, and the resin coating is polymerized to a safe form. Many plastics that we use every day are safe in their polymerized form, but are made by linking together small chemicals that are very toxic in liquid form before polymerization. If your customers want Superwash wool, it will not harm them for you to supply it. You should, of course, make it clear which of your products have been treated, whether they were grown and spun in the US, and, if not, where they were imported from.
If you don't like the idea of the Superwash process, or of the possibility of environmental contamination at the factories that use it, then you'll want to look into other fibers. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a source in any country for wool yarns that have been shrink-proofed with ozone, peroxy compounds, or enzyme treatments, although they are used by at least one large clothing company. Wool is the most prone to felting of all protein fibers, because of the scales on the outer layer, which lock together if there is too much agitation in the presence of heat and water. Other animal fibers are less prone to felting and may be more suitable for your needs. As a rule, however, other animal hair fibers will also felt if conditions are extreme enough. Mohair, angora, and cashmere are less prone to felting than wool is, but alpaca is more so. Felting can be avoided by refraining from stirring the wool in the hot dyebath. Agitation is not the only way to obtain level solid-color dyeing. Some dyes are more inclined toward level dyeing than others, and there are auxiliary chemicals that assist in leveling; these vary according to which dye you use.
If you don't want to use ordinary silk, in which the cocoons are steamed to kill the silkworms before they can cut the fibers, you can use silk from cocoons whose moths have been allowed to emerge naturally. The fibers are shorter, so you don't get the extraordinary fiber length seen in most silk, but these shorter fibers can be spun into yarn like other fibers. Aurora Silks sells several different types of "Peace" silk prepared in this way. For example, their Tussah silk yarns are a type of Peace silk.
Soy Silk is another fiber that can be dyed with acid dyes. Soy silk is a protein fiber made from soybeans, as the name implies. There is a fair amount of foolishness in the claims you sometimes see for Soy Silk, such as that it is a byproduct of the tofu industry or that it is produced in a "chemical free" process. It is likely that not all of the claims you see about the environmental wonderfulness of Soy Silk can be substantiated. How easily dyeable soy silk is will depend on how much it has been chemically modified. It's worth nothing that, just as with real silk, many dyers prefer to use fiber reactive dyes, rather than acid dyes, to dye Soy Silk.
If your customers are requesting Superwash wool, and yet you want to encourage the use of locally-sourced products, you may find that you have a greater effect by keeping these people as your customers by giving them what they want, while promoting other products to them, than by not carrying the products they've requested. You'll want to label each of your yarns according to country of origin, if you can even find this information. It's certainly worthwhile to seek out and promote relatively local sources of wool yarns, if only to encourage the survival of American wool farmers.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Acid Dyes for Wool and Other Protein Fibers
Lanaset Dyes are among the very best dyes for hand-dyeing wool, silk, angora, mohair, and most nylons. You will also need: citric acid, sodium acetate, Glauber salt, Albegal SET, and Synthrapol.
Buy from
Paradise Fibers
at Paradise Fibers
Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on wool. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!
Books with Instructions for Dyeing Wool
Country: United States
Message: Hi Paula,
I am a small-time wool yarn dyer. My business has been growing rapidly these past 1-2 years and now my customers are starting to request that I carry more superwash yarns (I currently carry a small amount of Superwash sock yarns). I am hesitant to add more Superwash, as I understand that the Superwash process is quite toxic. I see from an article on your site that you believe it's toxic as well. I read on Ravelry that the Superwash processes are so toxic that they are outlawed in this country and that most Superwash yarn comes from China. Do you know if this is true? I was also wondering if you know of any yarn or fibers that can be dyed with acid dyes, don't felt, and are NOT Superwash? So far I haven't found anything--with the exception of silk (but I am not using silk for ethical reasons).
Hi Morwenna,
This has taken me a while to respond because it's a complicated issue. I've had to do a lot of research, and I can't really condense it into a brief answer.
First, I do not believe that the Superwash wool we can buy is toxic to wear or to work with. If the problem is your concern for the health of your buyers, there's no reason not to carry it. The only reasons not to carry Superwash wool are ideological, due to either a preference for locally sourced materials or a concern with the production of environmental waste. Even the most vehemently anti-Superwash industrial source concedes that garments made from this wool do not pose any risk to the consumer.
What is toxic is the process of making it. I wrote previously that I don't want anyone to try to produce Superwash wool at home by chemically treating virgin wool. To be done safely, the Superwash process requires industrial equipment and methods that hand-dyers do not have access to. If your concern is toxicity to the wearers of the garments made with SuperWash wool, or the crafters who are working with it, then you do not need to worry.
The chemicals used in the Superwash treatment cannot have been outlawed in the US for safety reasons, because, in fact, they are also used for a number of other industries which are still located in the US! The chlorination process that removes the tips of the scales can be performed with hypochlorite, which is the active ingredient in ordinary household bleach, or with dichloroisocyanuric acid, which is commonly used to chlorinate swimming pools and is found in Comet scrubbing powder, or with chlorine gas, which is commonly used in water purification facilities. An increasingly popular alternative to the chlorine compounds used for this process is ozone2, in order to reduce the costs of wastewater disposal; while ozone is itself highly toxic, ozone-treated textiles can be safe. Other alternatives include peroxy compounds and enzymatic processes. The polyamide-epichlorohydrin which is used in a thin resin coating on the fibers in most Superwash wool is also used in the paper industry and in the production of glycerin and epoxy resins.3 The United States is one of the two largest producers of epichlorohydrin in the world.4 A 2009 industry publication points out that consumption of polyamide-epichlorohydrin resins is growing in the US every year, largely due to demand for soft facial tissues and sturdy disposable paper towels.5
There are many chemical and industrial processes that have moved to China for economic reasons. The factories that process Superwash wool are located in areas that produce a lot of wool, such as South Africa6, and also in Germany7; the latter is worth noting because of the strict environmental protection rules in Germany. China, perhaps surprisingly, is the world's second-largest producer of wool. I've read that the amount of wool produced in the US, less than 1% of worldwide production8, is not large enough to make a Superwash production facility here economically feasible.
The amount of organic chlorine compounds in wastewater is an issue. The Patagonia clothing company claims in their promotional materials9 that the chlorinated chemicals in wastewater from Superwash processing of wool are not accepted by American wastewater treatment plants, but that claim is not altogether convincing, given that there are other industries in the US producing the same sorts of organic halogen waste, and also that Germany's rules in general appear to be stricter than those in the US, and yet they do make Superwash wool. Furthermore, the use of the ozone method to replace chlorination avoids the whole problem of organic chlorine compounds in wastewater.
On another page10, the Patagonia people make a claim that the process of chlorinating wool is so toxic that it's illegal in the US; I cannot find any evidence for that, and believe that the claim must be the result of distortion by an advertising copywriter who is more concerned about sales than truth. Perhaps they were referring to the fact that it is illegal to discharge certain pollutants without appropriate treatment. This may be the source for the wilder claims you saw.
After the chemical processing required to make Superwash wool has been completed, the treated wool is no longer toxic. The chlorine-based chemicals are neutralized and washed off, and the resin coating is polymerized to a safe form. Many plastics that we use every day are safe in their polymerized form, but are made by linking together small chemicals that are very toxic in liquid form before polymerization. If your customers want Superwash wool, it will not harm them for you to supply it. You should, of course, make it clear which of your products have been treated, whether they were grown and spun in the US, and, if not, where they were imported from.
If you don't like the idea of the Superwash process, or of the possibility of environmental contamination at the factories that use it, then you'll want to look into other fibers. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a source in any country for wool yarns that have been shrink-proofed with ozone, peroxy compounds, or enzyme treatments, although they are used by at least one large clothing company. Wool is the most prone to felting of all protein fibers, because of the scales on the outer layer, which lock together if there is too much agitation in the presence of heat and water. Other animal fibers are less prone to felting and may be more suitable for your needs. As a rule, however, other animal hair fibers will also felt if conditions are extreme enough. Mohair, angora, and cashmere are less prone to felting than wool is, but alpaca is more so. Felting can be avoided by refraining from stirring the wool in the hot dyebath. Agitation is not the only way to obtain level solid-color dyeing. Some dyes are more inclined toward level dyeing than others, and there are auxiliary chemicals that assist in leveling; these vary according to which dye you use.
If you don't want to use ordinary silk, in which the cocoons are steamed to kill the silkworms before they can cut the fibers, you can use silk from cocoons whose moths have been allowed to emerge naturally. The fibers are shorter, so you don't get the extraordinary fiber length seen in most silk, but these shorter fibers can be spun into yarn like other fibers. Aurora Silks sells several different types of "Peace" silk prepared in this way. For example, their Tussah silk yarns are a type of Peace silk.
Soy Silk is another fiber that can be dyed with acid dyes. Soy silk is a protein fiber made from soybeans, as the name implies. There is a fair amount of foolishness in the claims you sometimes see for Soy Silk, such as that it is a byproduct of the tofu industry or that it is produced in a "chemical free" process. It is likely that not all of the claims you see about the environmental wonderfulness of Soy Silk can be substantiated. How easily dyeable soy silk is will depend on how much it has been chemically modified. It's worth nothing that, just as with real silk, many dyers prefer to use fiber reactive dyes, rather than acid dyes, to dye Soy Silk.
If your customers are requesting Superwash wool, and yet you want to encourage the use of locally-sourced products, you may find that you have a greater effect by keeping these people as your customers by giving them what they want, while promoting other products to them, than by not carrying the products they've requested. You'll want to label each of your yarns according to country of origin, if you can even find this information. It's certainly worthwhile to seek out and promote relatively local sources of wool yarns, if only to encourage the survival of American wool farmers.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Can I dye a dark denim blue that looks like jeans with that little bit of white in them? I want to get them to a charcoal grey
Name:
Skully
Country: USA
Message: I looked through all your questions but didn't find exactly what I wanted to know. I have charcoal grey elastic waist pants from Walmart with the White Stag label. They say cotton twill blend and are 96% cotton and 4% spandex. I can't find them anymore. Can I dye a dark denim blue that looks like jeans with that little bit of white in them but are the exact same pants as the charcoal grey just a different color? I want to get them to a charcoal grey not black. I don't care if the dyed pants do not have the white fibers in them. I just want charcoal grey pants. Walmart carries alot of this style in the blue denim like color so if I can dye them to charcoal black I will have the same pants that I can't find anymore. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Yes, you can do this. The blue yarns will dye a different color than the white ones, darker and (of course) bluer, but, if you use a dark charcoal gray, the difference should be slight.
I recommend that you do NOT use all-purpose dye, such as Rit or Tintex. These dyes are hot water dyes, but hot water is bad for spandex and will shorten its life, if it doesn't ruin it immediately. Other dyes last much longer, anyway. The best choice would be fiber reactive dye. You can mail-order good Procion MX fiber reactive dye that can be applied in cool water, and set with soda ash; it will stay dark years longer than any all-purpose dye.
If you are going to dye a single pair of pants, you can use the Procion MX dye in the washing machine or in a five-gallon plastic bucket. The washing machine is easier, since the bucket method requires a lot of stirring in order to get a smooth solid color. If you will be dyeing more than one pair of pants, I strongly recommend the washing machine method. The technique is otherwise the same. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
I have to warn you about fabric treatments. If the pants have a permanent press finish, anti-pill finish, or, especially, a stain-resistant finish, you won't be able to get as good results in dyeing. Don't even try to dye stain-resistant clothing, because it will also resist the dye, and the results will be splotchy and pale. The other finishes are less drastic in their effects, but will result in a paler color. A pair of pants that is made of 96% cotton and does not have any of these surface finishes will dye very well if you follow the steps in the recipe closely.
It is unlikely that you will be able to buy good dyes in your local store, except as part of a tie-dyeing kit (which does not contain the color you need). Don't be tempted, by their availability, to use all-purpose dyes. You can mail-order Procion MX dyes from a number of different suppliers; see the lists on my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World". Check the recipe first to see how much dye you'll need. It's based on how much the fabric weighs. For a dark color such as charcoal gray, you should use more dye powder than you would use for another color, but not as much as for black. If you buy your dye and decide on how you're going to do the dyeing first, I can help you decide how much dye to use. You'll also need either soda ash or washing soda, and a large quantity of ordinary table salt.
If they turn out to dye well, you can also consider dyeing another pair of the blue pants to another dark color that contains blue, choosing among dark green, navy, or purple.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Country: USA
Message: I looked through all your questions but didn't find exactly what I wanted to know. I have charcoal grey elastic waist pants from Walmart with the White Stag label. They say cotton twill blend and are 96% cotton and 4% spandex. I can't find them anymore. Can I dye a dark denim blue that looks like jeans with that little bit of white in them but are the exact same pants as the charcoal grey just a different color? I want to get them to a charcoal grey not black. I don't care if the dyed pants do not have the white fibers in them. I just want charcoal grey pants. Walmart carries alot of this style in the blue denim like color so if I can dye them to charcoal black I will have the same pants that I can't find anymore. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
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Yes, you can do this. The blue yarns will dye a different color than the white ones, darker and (of course) bluer, but, if you use a dark charcoal gray, the difference should be slight.
I recommend that you do NOT use all-purpose dye, such as Rit or Tintex. These dyes are hot water dyes, but hot water is bad for spandex and will shorten its life, if it doesn't ruin it immediately. Other dyes last much longer, anyway. The best choice would be fiber reactive dye. You can mail-order good Procion MX fiber reactive dye that can be applied in cool water, and set with soda ash; it will stay dark years longer than any all-purpose dye.
If you are going to dye a single pair of pants, you can use the Procion MX dye in the washing machine or in a five-gallon plastic bucket. The washing machine is easier, since the bucket method requires a lot of stirring in order to get a smooth solid color. If you will be dyeing more than one pair of pants, I strongly recommend the washing machine method. The technique is otherwise the same. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
I have to warn you about fabric treatments. If the pants have a permanent press finish, anti-pill finish, or, especially, a stain-resistant finish, you won't be able to get as good results in dyeing. Don't even try to dye stain-resistant clothing, because it will also resist the dye, and the results will be splotchy and pale. The other finishes are less drastic in their effects, but will result in a paler color. A pair of pants that is made of 96% cotton and does not have any of these surface finishes will dye very well if you follow the steps in the recipe closely.
It is unlikely that you will be able to buy good dyes in your local store, except as part of a tie-dyeing kit (which does not contain the color you need). Don't be tempted, by their availability, to use all-purpose dyes. You can mail-order Procion MX dyes from a number of different suppliers; see the lists on my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World". Check the recipe first to see how much dye you'll need. It's based on how much the fabric weighs. For a dark color such as charcoal gray, you should use more dye powder than you would use for another color, but not as much as for black. If you buy your dye and decide on how you're going to do the dyeing first, I can help you decide how much dye to use. You'll also need either soda ash or washing soda, and a large quantity of ordinary table salt.
If they turn out to dye well, you can also consider dyeing another pair of the blue pants to another dark color that contains blue, choosing among dark green, navy, or purple.
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Sunday, November 15, 2009
How do you dye white twill to a more natural (off-white) color?
Name: Donna
Country: USA
Message: How do you dye white twill to a more natural (off-white) color?
This depends on what fiber the twill is woven from. It's very important to choose a dye based entirely on what the fiber content of your material is.
If your twill is 100% cotton, or another natural plant fiber such as hemp or linen, then your best choice would be a fiber reactive dye. This type of dye is easy to apply, since it is set with soda ash or washing soda rather than with heat, and it is more permanent than any other type of dye. You can mail-order Procion MX fiber reactive dye in "ecru" from a Jacquard supplier such as Blick Art Materials, or in "ivory" or "ecru" from Dharma Trading Company, or in "winter white", "vanilla bean", or "ecru" from PRO Chemical & Dye. Or, if you happen to already have a brown color mixture of Procion MX dyes, you can use a tiny amount of this powder, say one-quarter teaspoon, to dye a pound of twill fabric a pale natural color. Another fiber reactive dye mixture that produces a nice natural-looking beige is Dylon Tea Dye.
Sometimes you see recommendations to dye cotton with tea leaves, but the results will not last as long as a true dye, and there is some concern that the tannic acid in tea is inappropriate for archival use, as, given enough time, it might damage the cotton.
You can also use a Rit powder dye for dyeing natural fibers a beige color. All-purpose dye, such as Rit, is less satisfactory than fiber reactive dye, because it requires heat to apply, and it wears off far more quickly. However, it is better than dyeing with real tea, and you can use it in the washing machine with hot water. Rit dye is available in an "ecru", "taupe", and "tan"; it's clear from the colors they indicate that their idea of ecru is rather different than that of some other dyer makers. In any case, to produce a paler color than indicated, just use less dye. One box of Rit dye will color one half to one pound of fabric to a medium shade, but you might want to use as little as a quarter of a box, for a pound of fabric, or less for a smaller weight.
If your twill is made of a cotton-containing fiber blend, such as polyester/cotton, dye it just as for 100% cotton. The polyester threads in the fabric will not take the dye at all, but the overall effect from dyeing just the cotton in the blend is fine, if you're looking for a pale color.
If your twill is 100% polyester, or another synthetic fiber such as acrylic or acetate, you will need to use a completely different sort of dye, called disperse dye. These synthetic fibers cannot be dyed with any dye that works on natural fibers. One brand of disperse dye that is easy to find by mail-order is Jacquard iDye Poly. Don't get plain "iDye", which works only on natural fibers; get "iDye Poly" for synthetic fibers such as polyester, acrylic, or acetate. They do not sell an ecru color of iDye Poly, but you can use one-tenth of a packet of brown dye, instead of the whole packet, for a pale beige color.
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Country: USA
Message: How do you dye white twill to a more natural (off-white) color?
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends
This depends on what fiber the twill is woven from. It's very important to choose a dye based entirely on what the fiber content of your material is.
If your twill is 100% cotton, or another natural plant fiber such as hemp or linen, then your best choice would be a fiber reactive dye. This type of dye is easy to apply, since it is set with soda ash or washing soda rather than with heat, and it is more permanent than any other type of dye. You can mail-order Procion MX fiber reactive dye in "ecru" from a Jacquard supplier such as Blick Art Materials, or in "ivory" or "ecru" from Dharma Trading Company, or in "winter white", "vanilla bean", or "ecru" from PRO Chemical & Dye. Or, if you happen to already have a brown color mixture of Procion MX dyes, you can use a tiny amount of this powder, say one-quarter teaspoon, to dye a pound of twill fabric a pale natural color. Another fiber reactive dye mixture that produces a nice natural-looking beige is Dylon Tea Dye.
Sometimes you see recommendations to dye cotton with tea leaves, but the results will not last as long as a true dye, and there is some concern that the tannic acid in tea is inappropriate for archival use, as, given enough time, it might damage the cotton.
You can also use a Rit powder dye for dyeing natural fibers a beige color. All-purpose dye, such as Rit, is less satisfactory than fiber reactive dye, because it requires heat to apply, and it wears off far more quickly. However, it is better than dyeing with real tea, and you can use it in the washing machine with hot water. Rit dye is available in an "ecru", "taupe", and "tan"; it's clear from the colors they indicate that their idea of ecru is rather different than that of some other dyer makers. In any case, to produce a paler color than indicated, just use less dye. One box of Rit dye will color one half to one pound of fabric to a medium shade, but you might want to use as little as a quarter of a box, for a pound of fabric, or less for a smaller weight.
If your twill is made of a cotton-containing fiber blend, such as polyester/cotton, dye it just as for 100% cotton. The polyester threads in the fabric will not take the dye at all, but the overall effect from dyeing just the cotton in the blend is fine, if you're looking for a pale color.
If your twill is 100% polyester, or another synthetic fiber such as acrylic or acetate, you will need to use a completely different sort of dye, called disperse dye. These synthetic fibers cannot be dyed with any dye that works on natural fibers. One brand of disperse dye that is easy to find by mail-order is Jacquard iDye Poly. Don't get plain "iDye", which works only on natural fibers; get "iDye Poly" for synthetic fibers such as polyester, acrylic, or acetate. They do not sell an ecru color of iDye Poly, but you can use one-tenth of a packet of brown dye, instead of the whole packet, for a pale beige color.
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
I wish to purchase a 100% cotton broad cloth dress with some cut out design, all white and dye it black.
Name:
Janice
Country: USA
Message: I could not find my question and it is simple. I am sorry to burden you!
I wish to purchase a 100% cotton broad cloth dress with some cut out design, all white and dye it black. Is this advisable for this material?
100% cotton broadcloth is great to dye, but only if it is free of fabric coatings such as a permanent press or stain-resistant finish. The best dye to use is a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or Dylon Permanent dye. All-purpose dye is far less satisfactory, because it fades quickly and bleeds badly in the laundry. Use an all-purpose dye such as Rit only if you're going to wear the dress only once or twice, or if you have some Retayne dye fixative to make it permanent.
However, unless you buy a PFD garment such as the ones sold by Dharma Trading Company, the stitching at the seams will be made of polyester, which will stay white when you dye the dress. (See the previous question in my hand dyeing Q&A blog, "The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan".) Almost all commercial clothing is sewn with polyester thread, even if the label says that it is made of 100% cotton. Polyester stays white when dyed with any cotton dye. Is the style of the dress appropriate for having white stitching? If you don't want the dress to have white stitching, but can't find a dress you like that is sewn with cotton thread, then you could have a local seamstress sew a dress for you, using cotton or cotton-wrapped thread.
The dress should also be sturdy enough for machine washing, and you should pre-wash it in the hottest water it can tolerate, before you dye it. If you want to dye the dress a single smooth solid color, I recommend that you dye it in the washing machine. For a more interesting blend of shades or colors, consider Low Water Immersion dyeing, which is the easiest of all methods of dyeing.
For dyeing a solid dark black, no matter what type of dye you use, you must use a lot more dye powder than you would use for any other color, because darker colors require more dye (of course). Although I recommend five tablespoons (or 38 grams) of Procion MX dye powder to dye a five-pound washing machine load of clothing a medium color, it's better to use over a cup of dye in a washing machine to color five pounds of clothing black (or 150 grams of dye). You will also need soda ash or washing soda, and a large amount of ordinary table salt.
If you're using a cool water dye such as Procion MX dye, you can dye a single garment in a five-gallon plastic bucket instead of the washing machine, if you prefer, using about one-fifth as much dye powder as I just specified, but the recipe requires that you stir it for an hour, so, in that case, be prepared to do a lot of stirring. If you don't stir the garment you're dyeing, some regions will come out lighter, and others darker.
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Country: USA
Message: I could not find my question and it is simple. I am sorry to burden you!
I wish to purchase a 100% cotton broad cloth dress with some cut out design, all white and dye it black. Is this advisable for this material?
100% cotton broadcloth is great to dye, but only if it is free of fabric coatings such as a permanent press or stain-resistant finish. The best dye to use is a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye or Dylon Permanent dye. All-purpose dye is far less satisfactory, because it fades quickly and bleeds badly in the laundry. Use an all-purpose dye such as Rit only if you're going to wear the dress only once or twice, or if you have some Retayne dye fixative to make it permanent.
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However, unless you buy a PFD garment such as the ones sold by Dharma Trading Company, the stitching at the seams will be made of polyester, which will stay white when you dye the dress. (See the previous question in my hand dyeing Q&A blog, "The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan".) Almost all commercial clothing is sewn with polyester thread, even if the label says that it is made of 100% cotton. Polyester stays white when dyed with any cotton dye. Is the style of the dress appropriate for having white stitching? If you don't want the dress to have white stitching, but can't find a dress you like that is sewn with cotton thread, then you could have a local seamstress sew a dress for you, using cotton or cotton-wrapped thread.
The dress should also be sturdy enough for machine washing, and you should pre-wash it in the hottest water it can tolerate, before you dye it. If you want to dye the dress a single smooth solid color, I recommend that you dye it in the washing machine. For a more interesting blend of shades or colors, consider Low Water Immersion dyeing, which is the easiest of all methods of dyeing.
For dyeing a solid dark black, no matter what type of dye you use, you must use a lot more dye powder than you would use for any other color, because darker colors require more dye (of course). Although I recommend five tablespoons (or 38 grams) of Procion MX dye powder to dye a five-pound washing machine load of clothing a medium color, it's better to use over a cup of dye in a washing machine to color five pounds of clothing black (or 150 grams of dye). You will also need soda ash or washing soda, and a large amount of ordinary table salt.
If you're using a cool water dye such as Procion MX dye, you can dye a single garment in a five-gallon plastic bucket instead of the washing machine, if you prefer, using about one-fifth as much dye powder as I just specified, but the recipe requires that you stir it for an hour, so, in that case, be prepared to do a lot of stirring. If you don't stir the garment you're dyeing, some regions will come out lighter, and others darker.
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Friday, November 13, 2009
The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan
Name: Eliezer
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends
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Country: USA
Message: Hi, I just finished dyeing my pair of 100% cotton cargo pants from tan to black using Jacquard Procion MX Dye Jet Black. The pants became black, but all the stitching on the pants remained tan, the original color. Would you know why, and what I can do to correct it? (The company that sold the pants is Old Navy.) Thank you for your time.
This always happens when you dye store-bought cotton clothing. All commercial clothing, if it is not specifically claimed to be sewn together with cotton thread, is instead sewn with polyester. Since polyester cannot be dyed with any cotton dye, this means that the stitching always remains the original color, whenever you redye clothing.
The best solution is to buy clothing that is labeled PFD, which means "Prepared For Dyeing", or RTD, which means "Ready To Dye"; these two labels usually mean that the stitching at the seams is made with cotton thread, which will take any dye you use to change the color of the fabric. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find PFD or RTD clothing. I don't know of any source for PFD cargo pants or jeans. The best sources I know of for online retail sales of PFD and RTD clothing is Dharma Trading Company.
If the thread is unwaxed and not treated with any sort of finish, then it is possible to dye it with polyester dye, or cover it with a fabric paint that works on polyester. However, this is a lot of trouble, almost invariably more trouble than it's worth. It's usually better to learn to love the contrasting color of the stitching.
I've tried using fabric markers to color in the thread, but gave it up as too much trouble when the fabric marker turned out to work less well on the polyester thread than on the cotton fabric. Using fabric paint will take forever, since you can only paint the thread on one part of the garment at a time, lest you transfer wet paint to another part of the fabric. Disperse dye Fabric Crayons, such as Crayola Fabric Crayons, can be used to make iron-ons that you then transfer to the thread with a hot iron; any disperse dye that you mistakenly get on the cotton should wash out later. Of course, it will take a long time to cover all the thread.
Finally, you could mail-order some of Jacquard Products "iDye Poly" and boil your cargo pants with the dye; iDye Poly is a low-energy disperse dye that will dye the polyester thread without dyeing the cotton fabric. (It can be mixed with their hot-water cotton dye, named plain "iDye", and applied at the same time, but the "iDye" dye will wear off far more quickly than Procion MX dye, unless you apply a cationic dye fixative afterwards, such as Retayne or iDye Fixative.)
Also see my page, "Dyeing thread in pre-sewn clothing", in the FAQ section of my website.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009
Do we need to mix the entire packet of dye at once?
Name:
Karen
Country: USA
Message: I want to order dyes to do a family tie dye party with my kids. Typically we use what we can find at the drug store, but we want to step it up a notch. Can we mix as little as we want or do we need to mix the entire packet of dye? Thank you!
When you mail-order good fiber reactive dyes, you will be able to mix up just as much dye as you want to use each time. You will open the jar, take out the dye you need, and dissolve it in water, mixed with urea. You can use four teaspoons of dye per cup for bright colors, or a half-teaspoon per cup for a light pastel color. Keep the jar with the remaining dye powder tightly closed, and it will stay good for a long time, usually at least a year or two.
Also buy soda ash, which is the dye fixative for fiber reactive dyes; you can mix up your soda ash presoak fresh each time, or cover and save the bucket from a previous dyeing session, because soda ash stays good forever, even after it's been mixed with water.
After you have mixed them with water (usually with urea as well), the dyes in the bottles will stay good for a week or two, assuming that they don't have any soda ash mixed with them. If they have soda ash mixed with them, they will last half an hour or so. Some tie-dyeing kits have the soda ash already mixed in with the dye powder, but if you are mail-ordering your dyes from a dye supplier, the dye powders will not contain the soda ash.
Will this be your first time using good tie-dyeing dyes? The only dyes I've seen at the drug store have been all-purpose dyes, such as Rit All Purpose Tint and Dye, which is unsuitable for use in tie-dyeing cotton more than one color. You'll get incredibly better results if you use good dyes! Good dyes make your work much more beautiful, and they are easier to use, as well. Fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, stay bright years longer than all-purpose dye, even if you wash all of your clothing together without sorting by color.
If you have been lucky enough to find a good tie-dyeing kit at your store that's not the Rit kit, then you have been using Procion MX type dyes. There are many brands of good tie-dyeing kits, such as the Jacquard tie-dyeing kit, the Funky Groovy Tie Dye Kit, and the various kits made by Tulip, Rainbow Rock, and Dylon. If you mail-order jars of dye from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or Dharma Trading Company in California, you will get to choose from over a hundred different premixed colors of Procion MX dye, and the dyes will cost considerably less, per garment dyed, when you buy your dye in bulk. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
Some tie-dyeing kits come with small bags of dye powder, and some with the dye powder already in the plastic squirt bottle used to apply the dye. It's very important to keep this dye powder dry until you are ready to mix it with water. To save some of the dye from a tie-dyeing kit, transfer it to an airtight container or a ziplock freezer bag. (The freezer bags are thicker and higher quality than the storage or sandwich bags.) Or, store each color in a separate sandwich bag, and store all of the bags inside a larger air-tight bag or container. While you are transferring the dye powder from one container to another, be careful not to breathe any of the powder, and watch out for airborne particles that can stain furnishings. It's best to wear a dust mask over your nose and mouth when working with any loose powder, including both dyes and cleaning products.
I find that dyes last longer when stored in jars, rather than bags. The Procion MX dyes at the good mail-order suppliers come in jars that can be tightly sealed. Sometimes the dyes have lasted me considerably longer than the one to two years promised by the manufacturer.
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Country: USA
Message: I want to order dyes to do a family tie dye party with my kids. Typically we use what we can find at the drug store, but we want to step it up a notch. Can we mix as little as we want or do we need to mix the entire packet of dye? Thank you!
When you mail-order good fiber reactive dyes, you will be able to mix up just as much dye as you want to use each time. You will open the jar, take out the dye you need, and dissolve it in water, mixed with urea. You can use four teaspoons of dye per cup for bright colors, or a half-teaspoon per cup for a light pastel color. Keep the jar with the remaining dye powder tightly closed, and it will stay good for a long time, usually at least a year or two.
Also buy soda ash, which is the dye fixative for fiber reactive dyes; you can mix up your soda ash presoak fresh each time, or cover and save the bucket from a previous dyeing session, because soda ash stays good forever, even after it's been mixed with water.
After you have mixed them with water (usually with urea as well), the dyes in the bottles will stay good for a week or two, assuming that they don't have any soda ash mixed with them. If they have soda ash mixed with them, they will last half an hour or so. Some tie-dyeing kits have the soda ash already mixed in with the dye powder, but if you are mail-ordering your dyes from a dye supplier, the dye powders will not contain the soda ash.
Will this be your first time using good tie-dyeing dyes? The only dyes I've seen at the drug store have been all-purpose dyes, such as Rit All Purpose Tint and Dye, which is unsuitable for use in tie-dyeing cotton more than one color. You'll get incredibly better results if you use good dyes! Good dyes make your work much more beautiful, and they are easier to use, as well. Fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, stay bright years longer than all-purpose dye, even if you wash all of your clothing together without sorting by color.
If you have been lucky enough to find a good tie-dyeing kit at your store that's not the Rit kit, then you have been using Procion MX type dyes. There are many brands of good tie-dyeing kits, such as the Jacquard tie-dyeing kit, the Funky Groovy Tie Dye Kit, and the various kits made by Tulip, Rainbow Rock, and Dylon. If you mail-order jars of dye from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or Dharma Trading Company in California, you will get to choose from over a hundred different premixed colors of Procion MX dye, and the dyes will cost considerably less, per garment dyed, when you buy your dye in bulk. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
Some tie-dyeing kits come with small bags of dye powder, and some with the dye powder already in the plastic squirt bottle used to apply the dye. It's very important to keep this dye powder dry until you are ready to mix it with water. To save some of the dye from a tie-dyeing kit, transfer it to an airtight container or a ziplock freezer bag. (The freezer bags are thicker and higher quality than the storage or sandwich bags.) Or, store each color in a separate sandwich bag, and store all of the bags inside a larger air-tight bag or container. While you are transferring the dye powder from one container to another, be careful not to breathe any of the powder, and watch out for airborne particles that can stain furnishings. It's best to wear a dust mask over your nose and mouth when working with any loose powder, including both dyes and cleaning products.
I find that dyes last longer when stored in jars, rather than bags. The Procion MX dyes at the good mail-order suppliers come in jars that can be tightly sealed. Sometimes the dyes have lasted me considerably longer than the one to two years promised by the manufacturer.
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
My polyester wedding dress was dyed too dark. Can I bleach it?
Name:
Isra
Country: USA
Message: Hello!
I have a situation, where I had my lace (polyester) wedding dress dyed, from white, to ivory...and they turned it goldish/yellow. I want to lighten up the color and I was wondering if you had any advice.
Do you think I can put it in the washer on a gentle hand wash cycle and wash it with Oxy Clean? Or Tide white color safe bleach? Or should I just try bleaching it?
I appreciate any guidance you can give!
Don't ever use regular bleach on polyester! The hypochlorite in household bleach will damage polyester, creating a permanent dingy yellow that cannot be removed.
The oxygen-based bleaches such as OxiClean and Tide Bleach Alternative are safe to use on washable clothing, but I don't know whether they will make a difference in the color of your dress. I also have no idea what the care instructions on your dress call for.
A more effective way to remove color from dyed polyester is to use a color remover. The easiest-to-find color remover is Rit Color Remover, which is sold in many grocery stores and pharmacies, or you can check at a crafts store or sewing store. A different chemical which is equally suitable is found in Jacquard Color Remover.
Both Rit Color Remover and Jacquard Color Remover work best in hot water. Dyeing polyester requires boiling water, so presumably your dress has already survived treatment as rough as this. You can try using either one in warm water first. Since you want only to lighten the color, not remove it altogether, you should try milder conditions first, and proceed to the stovetop method only if necessary.
Note that not all dyes are susceptible to lightening. Some dyes will stubbornly remain the same color, no matter what you do to them. Chances are good that you will be able to lighten the color of your dress, though.
For more information, see my page, "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
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Rit Color Remover Removes DyesCountry: USA
Message: Hello!
I have a situation, where I had my lace (polyester) wedding dress dyed, from white, to ivory...and they turned it goldish/yellow. I want to lighten up the color and I was wondering if you had any advice.
Do you think I can put it in the washer on a gentle hand wash cycle and wash it with Oxy Clean? Or Tide white color safe bleach? Or should I just try bleaching it?
I appreciate any guidance you can give!
Don't ever use regular bleach on polyester! The hypochlorite in household bleach will damage polyester, creating a permanent dingy yellow that cannot be removed.
The oxygen-based bleaches such as OxiClean and Tide Bleach Alternative are safe to use on washable clothing, but I don't know whether they will make a difference in the color of your dress. I also have no idea what the care instructions on your dress call for.
A more effective way to remove color from dyed polyester is to use a color remover. The easiest-to-find color remover is Rit Color Remover, which is sold in many grocery stores and pharmacies, or you can check at a crafts store or sewing store. A different chemical which is equally suitable is found in Jacquard Color Remover.
Both Rit Color Remover and Jacquard Color Remover work best in hot water. Dyeing polyester requires boiling water, so presumably your dress has already survived treatment as rough as this. You can try using either one in warm water first. Since you want only to lighten the color, not remove it altogether, you should try milder conditions first, and proceed to the stovetop method only if necessary.
Note that not all dyes are susceptible to lightening. Some dyes will stubbornly remain the same color, no matter what you do to them. Chances are good that you will be able to lighten the color of your dress, though.
For more information, see my page, "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?".
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
How can I salvage a stained corduroy coat?
Name: Allison
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Country: United State
Message: Paula,
I have a white corduroy trench coat that has leather accents, on the belt and sleeves. My dry cleaners ruined the coat when I tried to have it cleaned. There is a large blue stain on the front now. I received money for it but I'm not ready to let the coat go, its so warm! I asked someone online if they could dye it but she said the leather could shrink so they would not dye it for me. Do you have any suggestions? Could I hand dye it instead of dipping it? I really like this coat and I'm trying in any way to be able to salvage it.
If it's unwearable with the stain, then you might as well try washing it. Washing might ruin the coat, but, then again, it might not. If the coat survives washing, then you can dye it. You cannot dye anything that cannot be washed. You should do the dyeing in the washing machine, and you should match the dye type to the fiber content. If the coat is 100% cotton or other natural plant-based fibers, other than those leather accents, then you should use a cool water fiber-reactive dye such as Procion MX dye. It's undoubtedly a mistake to use a hot water dye, such as Rit, not only because it gives poorer results, but also because hot water will be more destructive to the leather than cool water will be. See "About Fiber Reactive Dyes" and "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".
A different approach that you might try if you're not willing to risk washing the coat would be to use a good fabric paint. You can't get a perfectly smooth, solid color with fabric paint, but you can apply designs that will cover up or distract from the stain. Be sure to use only paints that are specifically labeled for use on fabric. If your coat is made of synthetic material such as polyester, you can still use fabric paint if you are careful to buy the right brands. All fabric paints made by Jacquard Products, such as Lumiere, Neopaque, Dye-Na-Flow, and Jacquard Textile Colors, are said by the manufacturer to work on polyester. Dye-Na-Flow is the thinnest, so it acts more like a true dye. Dharma Trading Company also sells a fabric paint called Dharma Pigment Dyes which can be used on polyester, as well as other fibers, as long as there is no water-resistant or stain-resistant finish. See "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers".
However, if the coat is water-resistant, so that water beads up when you sprinkle it on it, then you won't be able to dye it or paint it, because the water-resistant coating will also resist all dyes and all fabric paints.
If the coat is made of at least 50% polyester or other synthetic fiber (but not rayon, which acts like a natural fiber), then you can make iron-on designs with a special sort of fabric transfer crayons. See "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers". This could work well to camouflage a stain.
Even if you dye the coat a solid color, the stain will still be darker than the rest of the garment. This means that you will probably get better results with anything other than a smooth solid color. Consider Low Water Immersion Dyeing, or tie-dyeing, or fabric painting, to mask the stain.
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Monday, November 09, 2009
Do you know any books about dyes and screenprinting?
Name:
Fabio
Ann Johnston's
Color by Design: Paint and Print with Dye
Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's
Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles
Country: Italy
Message: Hello Paula,
I'm a screenprinter and I'd like to start to print with dyes. Actually I print with common screenprinting inks that are pigments and not dyes, so I was wondering whether do you know any book about dyes and screenprinting. I really can't find anything with those two criteria and this is frustrating me.
I've read from the books of Ann Johnston about the use of sodium alginate, but I'd like to read a comprensive guide about screenprinting and dyes.
Hope you can suggest a book or a source, because dyes are the only reason for that I started to screenprint (I don't like pigments, they're invasive!)
If you hadn't mentioned Ann Johnston, I'd certainly be recommending her book, Color By Design. It contains the techniques you need to let experience be your teacher.
Another book that goes into screenprinting with fiber reactive dyes is sold in combination with a DVD: Screen Printing - Layering Textiles with Colour, Texture & Imagery, by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan, covers a range of screen printing techniques. If you can't find this set locally, you can order it from Dharma Trading Company, in the US.
I always recommend anything written by Jane Dunnewold, and I think you'll want to look at her non-traditional Improvisational Screen Printing, which is available, separately, as both a book and a DVD. The topic is more how to set up the screen with unexpected materials than it is about the dyes and inks used, but there is a appendix about using dyes. If you can't find them locally, you can order them from Dharma Trading Company or from PRO Chemical & Dye, in the US. (See ProChem's links for the DVD and the book.)
A different and still more non-traditional approach is Kerr Grabowski's DVD, Deconstructed Screen Printing. She places the reactive dye on the screen itself, creating a different result with every pass of the print paste. This DVD is also available at both Dharma and ProChem. Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan also have a book about breakdown printing, Breakdown Printing: New Dimensions for Texture and Color.
A book I don't know anything about is Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles. The title implies it might cover exactly what you want, but we can't be certain without looking at it. The Amazon description of it reads,
I hope that you find the book that you need.
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Ann Johnston's
Color by Design: Paint and Print with Dye
Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's
Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles
Country: Italy
Message: Hello Paula,
I'm a screenprinter and I'd like to start to print with dyes. Actually I print with common screenprinting inks that are pigments and not dyes, so I was wondering whether do you know any book about dyes and screenprinting. I really can't find anything with those two criteria and this is frustrating me.
I've read from the books of Ann Johnston about the use of sodium alginate, but I'd like to read a comprensive guide about screenprinting and dyes.
Hope you can suggest a book or a source, because dyes are the only reason for that I started to screenprint (I don't like pigments, they're invasive!)
If you hadn't mentioned Ann Johnston, I'd certainly be recommending her book, Color By Design. It contains the techniques you need to let experience be your teacher.
Another book that goes into screenprinting with fiber reactive dyes is sold in combination with a DVD: Screen Printing - Layering Textiles with Colour, Texture & Imagery, by Claire Benn & Leslie Morgan, covers a range of screen printing techniques. If you can't find this set locally, you can order it from Dharma Trading Company, in the US.
I always recommend anything written by Jane Dunnewold, and I think you'll want to look at her non-traditional Improvisational Screen Printing, which is available, separately, as both a book and a DVD. The topic is more how to set up the screen with unexpected materials than it is about the dyes and inks used, but there is a appendix about using dyes. If you can't find them locally, you can order them from Dharma Trading Company or from PRO Chemical & Dye, in the US. (See ProChem's links for the DVD and the book.)
A different and still more non-traditional approach is Kerr Grabowski's DVD, Deconstructed Screen Printing. She places the reactive dye on the screen itself, creating a different result with every pass of the print paste. This DVD is also available at both Dharma and ProChem. Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan also have a book about breakdown printing, Breakdown Printing: New Dimensions for Texture and Color.
A book I don't know anything about is Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles. The title implies it might cover exactly what you want, but we can't be certain without looking at it. The Amazon description of it reads,
"This guide is aimed at those who wish to expand their knowledge of current printing and dyeing techniques. It should be of interest to both textile and printmaking students. Topics include: recipes for cloth preparation, dyeing and printing, fixation, designing a repeat, and preparing imagery and scenes for exposure. Advice is given on equipment needed for setting up a studio and safe working practices. The step-by-step instructions are accompanied by inspirational illustrations from practitioners around the world."
I hope that you find the book that you need.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009
Why are acidic dyes called acidic dyes, and basic dyes called basic dyes?
Name: Abdul
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Country: Pakistan
Message: Why are acidic dyes called acidic dyes, and basic dyes called basic dyes?
In English, the phrase is "acid" dyes, rather than "acidic" dyes. These dyes are named for the usually mild acid that is used as an assistant in dyeing protein fibers with the acid dyes. Like several other classes of dyes, such as reactive dyes and direct dyes, acid dyes are negatively charged. See "About Acid Dyes".
Basic dyes are also known as cationic dyes. They are named for their unusual ionic charge, which is positive. No other class of dyes contains dyes with a positive charge. The lightfastness of basic dyes on natural fibers is extremely poor, but they are highly useful for dyeing acrylic fibers, producing deeper shades than disperse dyes on acrylic. See "Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye".
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Message: Why are acidic dyes called acidic dyes, and basic dyes called basic dyes?
In English, the phrase is "acid" dyes, rather than "acidic" dyes. These dyes are named for the usually mild acid that is used as an assistant in dyeing protein fibers with the acid dyes. Like several other classes of dyes, such as reactive dyes and direct dyes, acid dyes are negatively charged. See "About Acid Dyes".
Basic dyes are also known as cationic dyes. They are named for their unusual ionic charge, which is positive. No other class of dyes contains dyes with a positive charge. The lightfastness of basic dyes on natural fibers is extremely poor, but they are highly useful for dyeing acrylic fibers, producing deeper shades than disperse dyes on acrylic. See "Dyeing Acrylic with Basic Dye".
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
dyeing a shirt for a Steelers fan
Name: Beth
Region: Philadelphia
Region: Philadelphia
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Message: I'd like to make a shirt for a friend of mine who is a Steelers fan. Their uniform colors are gold and black, and their helmet colors are yellow, red and blue.
I'd like to use low water immersion, but I don't know what color combination to choose. Also, I'm going to silk screen a picture of my friend (in black) on the front of the shirt. I'm going to silk screen his name across the top of the back, kind of like a football jersey.
I was thinking about using different shades of gold and yellow and painting the collar and sleeve ends black so the black slightly bleeds into the golden colors of the shirt. But I can also work with the red, blue and yellow helmet colors, but I'm afraid low water immersion will cause the colors to get muddy.
I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you for this wonderful website. Thank you for sharing your techniques as well as your art.
Black silkscreen ink will work perfectly well on top of any fiber reactive dye, as long as the dye around the image is a light color for contrast, such as your golden yellow. You can do the screening before or after dyeing (of course you must wash and dry the shirt after dyeing, before silk screening).
However, it's true that red, blue, and yellow, in low water immersion, will make muddy colors that don't suit your friend's team's colors. Even black plus yellow will make green where they overlap (black dye is often a very dark navy blue). Your idea of doing low water immersion for just the yellows, and then direct dye application for the black at the edges is a good one, laying the shirt out flat and dripping or painting each color of dye exactly where you want it, making allowances for some spreading of the dye. I think you may want to let the yellows dry before you apply the black, to reduce the amount the black blends with yellow to make dull greens. You can add sodium alginate to thicken the dye if you need to further restrain how much it spreads.
For low water immersion that involves applying both golden yellow and black at the same time, if the yellow and black are going to overlap even a little, I'd rather avoid using premixed colors. Premixed colors can do very interesting and beautiful things, in low water immersion dyeing, as the different colors in the mixtures spread out and blend in unexpected ways; it's a process I highly recommend, but not when the aim is to stick at all close to a sports team's colors. This is not so important if you let the yellows react fully and dry before you add the black, though. Wet-on-dry doesn't spread and mix as much as wet-on-wet.
All Procion MX blacks are mixtures of multiple colors. There is only one reactive black dye I know of that is a single black, not a mixture of many brighter colors. There are only two ways for you to buy a small quantity of this particular black dye. One is in the form of Dylon Permanent Black 12. My local Joann's fabric store carries this dye. You can also buy it by mail-order from Create For Less. The other source is much more economical in the long run, but less so if you are going to do this only once, on a single shirt. PRO Chemical & Dye, which happens to be an excellent place for hand-dyers to buy there dyes, sells the identical black dye in liquid form, in their series of PRO Liquid Reactive Dyes, which are a type of Remazol dye. (A different source of reactive Remazol dyes, the Jacquard Vinyl Sulphon dyes sold by Dharma Trading Company and other suppliers, does not contain this particular black, but only a premixed black containing multiple colors. They are otherwise a good dye source but not useful for this particular black unmixed single-hue dye. Also, there is a Dylon Cold Black which is another mixture, not suitable for his project.)
Golden yellow dyes are easy to come by. Any sort of black dye you buy, you can get yellows and golden yellows in the same line. You can also use both Procion and Remazol dyes in a single project.
I'd like to know what you decide to do with this project and how it works out. Good luck with it.
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Friday, November 06, 2009
How do I set regular ink from a blue ballpoint pen?
Name: Liz
Country: US
Country: US
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Message: How do I set regular ink from a blue ballpoint pen? I drew an amazing design on my daughter's coat and I am worried about it fading, or worse, bleeding in the wash. It is drawn on I think a polyester, cause it's like that shiny silky coat fabric like you buy at Walmart that everyone's coats are made out of, but it does not have a tag to tell me what it's really made out of. Not a natural fabric for sure.
The only thing you can do is never, ever wash the coat! You will probably also want to store it away from direct sunlight, when it's not being worn. Washing with detergent and water will remove the ink. Sunlight might fade it, eventually.
There is no way to set ballpoint pen ink on fabric, as you would set a dye. Ballpoint pen ink is not a dye, and most of the ink in your design, although not all, will wash out, if you ever wash that coat. You could try painting heavily over the design with a colorless fabric paint extender, to protect it, but that will stiffen the the fabric some. You will not be able to find clear fabric paint in your local stores, but you can buy it by mail-order from a company like Mister Art or Dharma Trading Company.
In the future, if you want your designs to withstand washing, you will need to plan ahead and use the right materials. What would be great for you to use would be fabric markers. The ink in fabric markers contains special binders to make them stick to the fabric. Some fabric markers must be ironed to fix these binders, while others will last without any heat fixing step. You might be able to find Crayola Fabric Markers at a crafts store. There are a lot of other brands, with finer points, but you will probably have to buy those by mail. Look at the different markers at this link. I like the FabricMate markers, the Marvy markers, and the Identipen markers the best. The Identipen markers might be best for a fine detailed drawing, since their ink is supposed to spread less. Here's a link to a picture of a shirt I drew with Marvy markers.
Fabric markers look like the felt-tip pens that are used on paper, but the ink they contain is different. A fabric marker will always be labeled to indicate that it is intended for use on fabric. Some fabric markers will work well only on natural fibers, so check the label before you begin to draw, to make sure that it's the right marker for your fabric.
There's another problem with drawing on a coat. It probably has a water-resistant finish. That's good when you get caught in the rain, but unfortunately it keeps even the best fabric marker ink from sinking into the fiber and bonding with it. Fabrics that get wet easily when you sprinkle water on them are much better to use for drawing. Also, natural fiber fabrics may hold the fabric marker ink better than synthetic fibers.
Take a picture of the drawing on your daughter's coat, if you can, so that you'll have a record of it even after the ink washes out, or when the coat gets dirty. I hope you'll do more drawings after you get some good fabric markers.
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Thursday, November 05, 2009
Will using the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a batik work with the dyes in the Jacquard Silk Colors?
Name: Mark B
country_or_region: USA
Message: Hi. I am brand new to silk painting and just got my supplies. Will using the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a batik work with the dyes in the Jacquard Silk Colors (Green Label) - Starter Set? Thanks.
I don't think I can recommend the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a resist for silk painting. The glue gel will certainly act as a resist against the dyes, but will you be able to wash it out afterwards? I've also heard a recent report that the Elmer's glue gel may be getting more difficult to wash out, perhaps due to a formula change. Furthermore, it is almost always more difficult to wash anything out of silk than out of cotton, because silk is made of a more complex molecule that can bond to more types of other materials. If you are going to use Elmer's, please do a quick test first, using the same sort of silk fabric and the same dyes and dye-setting procedure, to make sure you can wash it out when you are done. (Soak the fabric in cold water before laundering.)
Instead, I recommend that you use soy wax. Soy wax must be melted just like regular batik wax, and applied with a brush or a tjanting, but it is easier to remove. You can remove the soy wax, after your dye has been set, by washing it in a bucket of very hot water with Synthrapol or another suitable detergent. Use plenty of detergent to be sure to solubilize the soy wax, so that it does not solidify in your drain pipes. (If you steam-set the Green Label dyes, just wrap your work in many layers of plain newsprint, and the steaming will melt out the wax.) Soy wax give splendid results, very much like real batik wax. Buy it from your dye supplier, or look for pillar-type candle soy wax at your local crafts store.
There are other good alternatives to use as resists in silk painting, as well. The most traditional resist for silk painting is gutta, a natural rubber dissolved in nasty organic solvents, but there's a lot to be said for avoiding extensive exposure to the solvents. Gutta is the very best resist for silk painting, but the organic solvents can damage your brain and internal organs, and it is possible to get excellent results with safer materials.
Water-soluble resists are much safer than solvent-based gutta, and they are highly suitable for dye painting, as long as you are careful not to apply so much dye that it floods right over the resist line. One of the most popular water-soluble resists for use by silk painters is Resistad, from New Zealand (see procolour.co.nz); some of the others include Silkpaint brand water-soluble resist, Jacquard water-based resist, Presist, and Inkodye Resist. Acrylic-based fabric paints, such as Jacquard Products' Lumiere, will also work well as resists, but you must heat-set them before applying your dye.
Using resists gives wonderful effects, but it can take a while to learn how best to use any particular resist, and the different resists are each a little different to work with. To avoid frustration, please start with a simple project, and work your way up to more complex and difficult projects only as you feel you have mastered the techniques.
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country_or_region: USA
Message: Hi. I am brand new to silk painting and just got my supplies. Will using the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a batik work with the dyes in the Jacquard Silk Colors (Green Label) - Starter Set? Thanks.
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I don't think I can recommend the Elmer's Washable Blue Glue Gel as a resist for silk painting. The glue gel will certainly act as a resist against the dyes, but will you be able to wash it out afterwards? I've also heard a recent report that the Elmer's glue gel may be getting more difficult to wash out, perhaps due to a formula change. Furthermore, it is almost always more difficult to wash anything out of silk than out of cotton, because silk is made of a more complex molecule that can bond to more types of other materials. If you are going to use Elmer's, please do a quick test first, using the same sort of silk fabric and the same dyes and dye-setting procedure, to make sure you can wash it out when you are done. (Soak the fabric in cold water before laundering.)
Instead, I recommend that you use soy wax. Soy wax must be melted just like regular batik wax, and applied with a brush or a tjanting, but it is easier to remove. You can remove the soy wax, after your dye has been set, by washing it in a bucket of very hot water with Synthrapol or another suitable detergent. Use plenty of detergent to be sure to solubilize the soy wax, so that it does not solidify in your drain pipes. (If you steam-set the Green Label dyes, just wrap your work in many layers of plain newsprint, and the steaming will melt out the wax.) Soy wax give splendid results, very much like real batik wax. Buy it from your dye supplier, or look for pillar-type candle soy wax at your local crafts store.
There are other good alternatives to use as resists in silk painting, as well. The most traditional resist for silk painting is gutta, a natural rubber dissolved in nasty organic solvents, but there's a lot to be said for avoiding extensive exposure to the solvents. Gutta is the very best resist for silk painting, but the organic solvents can damage your brain and internal organs, and it is possible to get excellent results with safer materials.
Water-soluble resists are much safer than solvent-based gutta, and they are highly suitable for dye painting, as long as you are careful not to apply so much dye that it floods right over the resist line. One of the most popular water-soluble resists for use by silk painters is Resistad, from New Zealand (see procolour.co.nz); some of the others include Silkpaint brand water-soluble resist, Jacquard water-based resist, Presist, and Inkodye Resist. Acrylic-based fabric paints, such as Jacquard Products' Lumiere, will also work well as resists, but you must heat-set them before applying your dye.
Using resists gives wonderful effects, but it can take a while to learn how best to use any particular resist, and the different resists are each a little different to work with. To avoid frustration, please start with a simple project, and work your way up to more complex and difficult projects only as you feel you have mastered the techniques.
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Wednesday, November 04, 2009
How do you make a true fluorescent (UV-reactive) tie-dyed t-shirt?
Name: Melanie West
Country: usa
Message: There is a web page FLUORESCENTWORKS.COM that advertises "the one the only fluoroscent tie dye t-shirt". Any ideas on how they are making these, as I've not ever seen any fluorescent dyes?
They are almost certainly not using fluorescent dyes, but, instead, are using fluorescent fabric paints, also known as pigment dyes. Instead of bonding directly to the fiber as dyes do, these pigments are essentially glued onto the fibers with an acrylic binder. Note that, among the tie-dyed t-shirts at that site, only one is colored with true fluorescent colors; the rest of their tie-dyed t-shirt page is devoted to non-fluorescent fiber reactive dyes, in the usual brilliant though non-fluorescent neon-like colors. They also sell Anvil's pigment dyed solid-color shirts in true fluorescents. Pigment dye will invariably fade more quickly than fiber reactive dyes, because the particles of pigment are on the outside of each fiber, where they tend to wear off.
You can do this yourself with the fluorescent colors of Dharma Pigment Dye, which is a type of fabric paint, or with other fluorescent fabric paints, such as Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow. These lines of fabric paints contain mostly non-fluorescent fabric paints, but also five or so colors of true fluorescents. When working with fabric paint, you're not likely to be able to get such smooth solid colors as they get, but you should get good results for tie-dyeing.
Your best results would probably come from using Procion dyes to do a background in turquoise, fuchsia, and lemon yellow, then, after washing out as usual and drying, applying the fluorescent pigment dye to make the colors "pop". You can dilute the pigment dye and use it like tie-dye dye, or you can paint it directly on the regions of similar colors of non-fluorescent dyes.
There is one good fluorescent fiber reactive dye, Remazol Fluorescent Yellow FL. It is a brilliant fluorescent yellow, and it forms a good permanent covalent bond to the cellulose fiber, like other fiber reactive dyes. Unfortunately, it is not sold in quantities small enough for an individual user. The European dye company Dystar sells Remazol Fluorescent Yellow FL in packages of 5 kilograms each, or larger, which is certainly prohibitive for the vast majority of hand dyers. Until a company like Dharma or Jacquard Products repackages this dye into more affordably-sized packages, it's out of reach for us as hand dyers.
Dharma Trading Company sells a true fluorescent yellow dye, but it is not intended for use on cotton. It's an acid dye. They recommend using it on silk, wool, hair, or nylon. PRO Chemical & Dye sells the fluorescent acid dyes Rhodamine B and Flavine Yellow among their WashFast Acid Dye series, which, again, are not suitable for cotton t-shirts. They'd work on nylon, silk, or wool. None of these true fluorescent dyes would be very satisfactory on cotton. They are also extremely sensitive to permanent fading in sunlight. Fluorescent fabric paint is much more suitable for making true fluorescent t-shirts.
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Country: usa
Message: There is a web page FLUORESCENTWORKS.COM that advertises "the one the only fluoroscent tie dye t-shirt". Any ideas on how they are making these, as I've not ever seen any fluorescent dyes?
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They are almost certainly not using fluorescent dyes, but, instead, are using fluorescent fabric paints, also known as pigment dyes. Instead of bonding directly to the fiber as dyes do, these pigments are essentially glued onto the fibers with an acrylic binder. Note that, among the tie-dyed t-shirts at that site, only one is colored with true fluorescent colors; the rest of their tie-dyed t-shirt page is devoted to non-fluorescent fiber reactive dyes, in the usual brilliant though non-fluorescent neon-like colors. They also sell Anvil's pigment dyed solid-color shirts in true fluorescents. Pigment dye will invariably fade more quickly than fiber reactive dyes, because the particles of pigment are on the outside of each fiber, where they tend to wear off.
You can do this yourself with the fluorescent colors of Dharma Pigment Dye, which is a type of fabric paint, or with other fluorescent fabric paints, such as Jacquard's Dye-Na-Flow. These lines of fabric paints contain mostly non-fluorescent fabric paints, but also five or so colors of true fluorescents. When working with fabric paint, you're not likely to be able to get such smooth solid colors as they get, but you should get good results for tie-dyeing.
Your best results would probably come from using Procion dyes to do a background in turquoise, fuchsia, and lemon yellow, then, after washing out as usual and drying, applying the fluorescent pigment dye to make the colors "pop". You can dilute the pigment dye and use it like tie-dye dye, or you can paint it directly on the regions of similar colors of non-fluorescent dyes.
There is one good fluorescent fiber reactive dye, Remazol Fluorescent Yellow FL. It is a brilliant fluorescent yellow, and it forms a good permanent covalent bond to the cellulose fiber, like other fiber reactive dyes. Unfortunately, it is not sold in quantities small enough for an individual user. The European dye company Dystar sells Remazol Fluorescent Yellow FL in packages of 5 kilograms each, or larger, which is certainly prohibitive for the vast majority of hand dyers. Until a company like Dharma or Jacquard Products repackages this dye into more affordably-sized packages, it's out of reach for us as hand dyers.
Dharma Trading Company sells a true fluorescent yellow dye, but it is not intended for use on cotton. It's an acid dye. They recommend using it on silk, wool, hair, or nylon. PRO Chemical & Dye sells the fluorescent acid dyes Rhodamine B and Flavine Yellow among their WashFast Acid Dye series, which, again, are not suitable for cotton t-shirts. They'd work on nylon, silk, or wool. None of these true fluorescent dyes would be very satisfactory on cotton. They are also extremely sensitive to permanent fading in sunlight. Fluorescent fabric paint is much more suitable for making true fluorescent t-shirts.
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Tuesday, November 03, 2009
How much dye to tie-dye 120 plain white cotton t-shirts?
Name: Jess
Region: Minnesota
Message: I am going to be tie dying 120 plain white cotton t-shirts, I was just wondering how much dye I would need to do so?
Will you be using fiber reactive dye, such as Procion dye, or all-purpose dye, such as Rit dye?
I can't recommend the use of all-purpose dyes, because the results are poor; the colors bleed together when you wash them, and they fade quickly. They also cost more. 120 shirts requires about 120 boxes of all-purpose dye, for a total cost of about $300.
For Procion MX dye, which gives much better results with no need for hot water, the usual amount to buy for a hundred shirts is 6 two-ounce jars, so you should do fine with a hundred and twenty shirts by getting 7 two-ounce jars, plus 5 pounds of urea, 10 pounds of soda ash, plastic bottles, disposable gloves, and a dust mask to wear while measuring out dyes.
Alternatively, you can buy one 100-person tie-dye party pack plus one 25-person tie-dye party pack, from a good mail-order dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company.
Or, you could buy eight boxes of the Jacquard tie-dye kit, the one that's big enough for fifteen shirts, though this would be less economical than the larger kits. These are often available at your local arts and crafts store. (Avoid the famous-brand tie-dye kits that contain all-purpose dye.)
Be sure to buy 100% cotton shirts, not cotton/poly blends, and don't buy any shirts that are labeled as being stain-resistant, because stain-resistant shirts will also resist dye.
The amount of dye you actually end up using will vary according to how intensely colored you like your shirts. Pastel colors require much less dye than bright, dark, or intense colors do. To get pastel colors, just use less dye powder when you dissolve it in water.
For instructions and more information, see "How to Dye" and "How to Tie Dye".
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Region: Minnesota
Message: I am going to be tie dying 120 plain white cotton t-shirts, I was just wondering how much dye I would need to do so?
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Will you be using fiber reactive dye, such as Procion dye, or all-purpose dye, such as Rit dye?
I can't recommend the use of all-purpose dyes, because the results are poor; the colors bleed together when you wash them, and they fade quickly. They also cost more. 120 shirts requires about 120 boxes of all-purpose dye, for a total cost of about $300.
For Procion MX dye, which gives much better results with no need for hot water, the usual amount to buy for a hundred shirts is 6 two-ounce jars, so you should do fine with a hundred and twenty shirts by getting 7 two-ounce jars, plus 5 pounds of urea, 10 pounds of soda ash, plastic bottles, disposable gloves, and a dust mask to wear while measuring out dyes.
Alternatively, you can buy one 100-person tie-dye party pack plus one 25-person tie-dye party pack, from a good mail-order dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company.
Or, you could buy eight boxes of the Jacquard tie-dye kit, the one that's big enough for fifteen shirts, though this would be less economical than the larger kits. These are often available at your local arts and crafts store. (Avoid the famous-brand tie-dye kits that contain all-purpose dye.)
Be sure to buy 100% cotton shirts, not cotton/poly blends, and don't buy any shirts that are labeled as being stain-resistant, because stain-resistant shirts will also resist dye.
The amount of dye you actually end up using will vary according to how intensely colored you like your shirts. Pastel colors require much less dye than bright, dark, or intense colors do. To get pastel colors, just use less dye powder when you dissolve it in water.
For instructions and more information, see "How to Dye" and "How to Tie Dye".
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Monday, November 02, 2009
Can you dye a sweater that's 60% cotton, 40% polyester?
Name: Zach
Country: USA
Message: I looked through your site, and tried the search boxes and still couldn't find an answer. I want to dye a red sweater I have purple, because it got some stains on it, but it's 60% cotton, 40% polyester, and I'm pretty sure you can't dye polyester. I was planning on using standard RIT powder dye, but wanted to try and find some information on the subject first, I was hoping you could help me out. Thanks!
Country: USA
Message: I looked through your site, and tried the search boxes and still couldn't find an answer. I want to dye a red sweater I have purple, because it got some stains on it, but it's 60% cotton, 40% polyester, and I'm pretty sure you can't dye polyester. I was planning on using standard RIT powder dye, but wanted to try and find some information on the subject first, I was hoping you could help me out. Thanks!
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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends
It is possible to dye polyester, but not by using Rit or any other dye that works on cotton. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".
An especially convenient way to dye a cotton/polyester blend is to buy some Jacquard iDye, which is a direct dye that will color cotton, with
Jacquard iDye Poly
, which is a disperse dye that works on polyester. They can be applied at the same time, if you have a sufficiently large dyeing pot to boil the sweater on the stovetop with the dyes. Obviously, this assumes that your cotton sweater has been fully preshrunk already, as otherwise shrinkage will make this impractical.
Rit All Purpose Dye is a particularly poorly washfast dye—that is, it fades quickly when washed, and tends to ruin anything else in the laundry you wash it with—but so is iDye. This is because both contain direct dye, which is inherently poor at resisting washing. If you choose to use either of these dyes, I strongly recommend that you mail-order a commercial dye fixative, such as Retayne or iDye Fixative. This set the dye, although both of the remedies suggested by tradition, salt and vinegar in the wash, will fail. The commercial fixatives really do work, when applied as directed. I consider both all-purpose dye and direct dye to be unacceptable for most uses unless they are set afterwards with one of these cationic dye fixatives.
Alternatively, you can apply the polyester dye and the cotton dye in separate steps, and substitute a really good cotton dye, such as Procion MX dye, for the direct dye. You can't apply fiber reactive dyes such as Procion at the same time as the polyester dye, but they are far more permanent and satisfactory than all-purpose or direct dyes, and they do not require a cationic dye fixative, only soda ash or washing soda. Unfortunately, going through two separate dyeing steps is more trouble.
However, I must warn you that dyeing will often fail to cover up a stain. All dyes are transparent, so the stained portion of the sweater will continue to be darker even after you dye it. In addition, some stains will themselves resist dye. Oily stains are the worst, in this respect. Do everything you can to clean the sweater before you ever try dyeing. Wash in hot water with Pinesol to remove oily stains; use Rit Color Remover to remove dye stains; use a good stain remover and/or soak in color-safe oxygen bleach, one such as OxyBoost that contains perborate or percarbonate. Whenever you redye clothing, it is important to get it as clean as possible before you dye it. Avoid using household bleach, however, because the hypochlorite it contains will permanently damage synthetic fibers.
If you want to buy Jacquard iDye and mix it with Jacquard iDye Poly, you will almost certainly have to buy the dyes by mail-order. You can buy both of these dyes from an art supplier such as Blick Art Materials or a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company. For the two-stage method, using disperse dyes as well as fiber reactive dyes, you can buy both superior disperse dyes and fiber reactive dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye, in Massachusetts, or from Aljo Mfg. in New York. See "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".
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Sunday, November 01, 2009
Has the designer considerd the environmental impact of their work?
Name: Kane
Country: Australia
Message: Hi, sorry to bother you again about my school work, but, I have another question to ask. On my assighnment sheet, it asks the question, has the desighner considerd the environmental impact of their work? I was wondering if you could give me an answer to this question. Thank you.
This happens to be a frequently asked question. As it happens, the small quantities of dyes I use are safe to dispose of down the drain. Microorganisms in the sewage treatment plant, or, for some people, septic tank, break them down. There is no harm done to the microbial life essential to the function of the septic tank. However, large textile mills must consider the effect of that vast amounts of untreated effluent they discharge. They often do not use any sort of sewage treatment systems, and the sheer vast quantities of dye waste they produce can be very serious. In contrast, dyeing by hand on a very small scale is not a problem.
Hand dyeing with fiber reactive dyes, which are by far the best dyes for cotton, is mainly a problem for the amount of water used. The Procion MX dyes I used must be washed out repeatedly after use, to remove excess unattached unbonded dye which has somehow become associated with the fiber. This is no problem at all in the high-rainfall part of the world in which I live, but it could be very expensive and environmentally incorrect for someone who does a lot of hand dyeing and lives in a drought area. In those areas, fabric paints, though less durable, may be a better choice.
Dyeing in the textile industry requires immense ammounts of salt which is another serious problem for disposl. In contrast, tie-dyeing does not use salt at all. It is only the high-water-volume sort of dyeing, the type used for solid colors, that requires large amounts of salt.
There is also a question of ecological impact of the manufacture of the dyes we use. The German dye company Dystar has Oeko-Tex certification for their Remazol and Procion H-E dyes, signifying that they are ecologically non-damaging to produce and harmless to the wearer of the clothing dyed with it. Many dyes are now manufactured at various factories throughout China and India, however, and it seems likely that some of them fail to use environmentally sound practices. This is also a problem for all people who use any of the manufactured items common in our culture, such as plastic bottles, synthetic clothing whether dyed or undyed, public or private transportation, and so on.
Also see the following All About Hand Dyeing Q&A questions in this blog.
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)
Country: Australia
Message: Hi, sorry to bother you again about my school work, but, I have another question to ask. On my assighnment sheet, it asks the question, has the desighner considerd the environmental impact of their work? I was wondering if you could give me an answer to this question. Thank you.
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
This happens to be a frequently asked question. As it happens, the small quantities of dyes I use are safe to dispose of down the drain. Microorganisms in the sewage treatment plant, or, for some people, septic tank, break them down. There is no harm done to the microbial life essential to the function of the septic tank. However, large textile mills must consider the effect of that vast amounts of untreated effluent they discharge. They often do not use any sort of sewage treatment systems, and the sheer vast quantities of dye waste they produce can be very serious. In contrast, dyeing by hand on a very small scale is not a problem.
—ADVERTISEMENTS—
Hand dyeing with fiber reactive dyes, which are by far the best dyes for cotton, is mainly a problem for the amount of water used. The Procion MX dyes I used must be washed out repeatedly after use, to remove excess unattached unbonded dye which has somehow become associated with the fiber. This is no problem at all in the high-rainfall part of the world in which I live, but it could be very expensive and environmentally incorrect for someone who does a lot of hand dyeing and lives in a drought area. In those areas, fabric paints, though less durable, may be a better choice.
Dyeing in the textile industry requires immense ammounts of salt which is another serious problem for disposl. In contrast, tie-dyeing does not use salt at all. It is only the high-water-volume sort of dyeing, the type used for solid colors, that requires large amounts of salt.
There is also a question of ecological impact of the manufacture of the dyes we use. The German dye company Dystar has Oeko-Tex certification for their Remazol and Procion H-E dyes, signifying that they are ecologically non-damaging to produce and harmless to the wearer of the clothing dyed with it. Many dyes are now manufactured at various factories throughout China and India, however, and it seems likely that some of them fail to use environmentally sound practices. This is also a problem for all people who use any of the manufactured items common in our culture, such as plastic bottles, synthetic clothing whether dyed or undyed, public or private transportation, and so on.
Also see the following All About Hand Dyeing Q&A questions in this blog.
- "Are Reactive Dyes eco-friendly?"
- "Dye Safety"
- "What are low-impact dyes, and why are they considered low-impact on the environment?"
(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)