Archives for March, 2009

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

If I dye it once, rinse it, wash it, then put it in soda ash, will the soda ash pull the dye from the shirt?

Name: Sean

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Message: I am using Procion MX dyes for tie dye. I have thought up a design that required dying it twice (the second dying will be in black). If I dye it once, rinse it, wash it, then put it in soda ash, will the soda ash pull the dye from the shirt? If it will do you know what percentage of the dye will be pulled related to the concentration of the soda ash? Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated. Love the site and thanks. :D

Procion MX dye will not be stripped by soda ash. There is no problem in redyeing the same piece by repeating the soda ash soak and another dye application. I've done this many times with no problem at all.

In fact, multiple applications of soda ash and dye can result in deeper, richer colors than you are likely to achieve in single dyeing. I like to dye the same piece multiple times. When you dye the fabric the first time, some of the dye sites in the fabric are unavailable to the dye, thanks to chance in how the water penetrates the fabric and so on. When you wash out the fabric, dry it, and then soak again in soda ash, it seems that more dye sites are opened up.

There is another good fiber reactive dye, the Remazol or vinyl sulfone dye class, which should not be re-soaked in hot soda ash, because Remazol dyes work a little differently and can be stripped by hot alkaline conditions. It is okay to soak even Remazol-dyed fabric in room temperature soda ash, though.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Best dye to dye a silk/6% spandex dress dark black?

Name: Chris

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Message: Best dye to dye a silk/6% spandex dress dark black?

The only dyes I like to use with spandex blends are cool water dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, along with soda ash as a dye fixative. These dyes work very well at a room temperature of 70°F, which will not damage the spandex. Spandex is a heat-sensitive fiber that is likely to lose its shape if subjected to high heat. Check the care instructions in your dress to see how warm it is okay to get the water.

Most black Procion MX dyes will produce a color other than black when you use them on silk. This is because silk, as a protein fiber, reacts differently with the individual dye colors than cotton does, and the predicted colors are standardized for cotton. You can order an MX black dye mixture from PRO Chemical & Dye, in Massachusetts, that is called "Silk Black" and is just what you are looking for.

Alternatively, you can use another fiber reactive dye, Dylon Permanent 12 Black, or, if you are in Europe or Australia, with black Dylon Machine Dye. This particular black dye is an unusual single-hue fiber reactive dye that is not a mixture of several different colors, as most black dyes are, so it will produce the same color on any natural fiber, including silk. The label on the package will tell you to use a higher temperature than the care label in your dress will permit, but the dye will work in warm water if you give it more time to react. Unlike all-purpose dyes such as Rit dye, it will work well at 120°F. The advantage of using Dylon Permanent Black 12 is that you can often find it locally in a crafts store or a sewing store; Joann's fabric stores in the US usually carry this dye.

For more information, please see my page "How to Dye Spandex", and possibly also my page "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?".

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

what to do with unidentified dyes from Syria

Name: Suzanne

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Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers

by Linda Knutson

Message: Hello,
I need some help in finding a tutorial for dyeing fabrics with dyes coming from Syria. A friend of mine offered me dyes bought in a market place in Syria. They just come in small plastic bags labelled yellow, blue, green etc.. I am used to dye fabrics with procion mx colors but have no idea how to handle these one. Do you have an idea or know an address where I can turn to to find help.
Thank you very much in advance.
Best greetings from Luxembourg

These dyes from Syria could be anything, including a number of possibilities that would give you bad results, wasting all of your effort and your other materials. I would not use unidentified dyes for any project whose outcome is important to me. If a project is worth spending time on, it's worth using known materials of demonstrated quality.

The fact that your dye was purchased in Syria gives you no information as to what kind of dye it is. There are dye manufacturing plants in Damascus that synthesize many different types of dye. It's the same as dye sold anywhere in the world; often people expect dyes found in a more out-of-the-way place to be natural dyes, but in fact synthetic dyes have been popular items of trade throughout the world since the beginning of the industry.

Synthetic dyes have a bad reputation in the middle east, or at any rate among western connoisseurs of middle eastern textiles, because in many cases they have been applied improperly and will lose their color quickly. Natural dyes have a better reputation, though in most cases they are distinctly inferior to a good synthetic dye that is used properly. This is because the people who dye fibers for carpets use the wrong synthetic dyes, or apply them incorrectly. You will never get a good result if you apply a vat dye using the correct recipe for an acid dye, or vice versa, or if you use a cotton dye for wool, or a wool dye for cotton. It is far better to use natural dyes, and apply them with the correct recipe, than to use synthetic dyes and apply them incorrectly.

You can run a series of tests in order to try to identify the class of each of the different dye colors that you have, if it's worth it to you to spend a lot of time and effort, and invest some possibly wasted money in the cost of additional materials.

First, test to see if the dye is readily soluble in water. If it is very difficult to dissolve, it is probably either vat dye or disperse dye. Vat dye is used for dyeing natural fibers, but it must be dissolved in a reducing solution, usually a mixture of sodium hydroxide (caustic lye) and sodium dithionite (found in Rit Color Remover and similar products). Although vat dyes are excellent when used correctly, they are very unsuitable for novice dyers, and, if you want to use vat dyes, you certainly should begin with known materials and a trustworthy recipe. In contrast, disperse dye is used only for dyeing synthetic fibers, such as nylon, polyester, acetate, and acrylic. It requires high heat to transfer into the fiber. If you use disperse dye on a natural fiber, it might leave a stain at first, but it will not dye satisfactorily.

If the dye is soluble in water, then it might be fiber reactive dye, but that is probably the least likely alternative. It is more likely that an unidentified water-soluble dye is either basic dye (cationic dye), acid dye, or direct dye. Basic dyes will work on many different fibers, though they will wash out quickly and fade very quickly in sunlight, but they are the only dyes that work very easily to dye acrylic yarn to a bright shade in very hot water.

Acid dyes are used only for protein fibers, such as wool and silk, and also, oddly, for the synthetic fiber nylon, but not for any other synthetic fiber. To use acid dyes, you will need to mix a suitable quantity of vinegar or another acid with water, dissolve the dye and add it, then heat this dyebath with your fabric to the highest temperature suitable for the fabric, just under a boil for wool, or 85°C (185°F) for silk or nylon, and hold it at that temperature for half an hour or longer, while stirring, before letting the fabric cool in the dyebath. Direct dyes are used only for cellulose fibers such as cotton and linen, but they will also add some color to protein fibers; instead of acid, you use salt to help in the dyeing process, though the amount of salt needed varies dramatically according to exactly which type of direct dye you are using, which you cannot know without some very complex experimentation. To complicate matters, some but not all acid dyes can function as direct dyes, or vice versa, though neither will be as satisfactory as a very good type of acid dye on wool, nor as good as any fiber reactive dye on cotton.

There are still more possibilities. The colored powder might be pigments, rather than dyes, which will not stick to any fiber without a binder; see "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers". Or, they might even be naphthol dyes, which I don't recommend using in the home or art studio.

All in all, I think that the best procedure would be to discard the unlabeled dyes, since you do not know what type they are, and look for a better source of known dyes. Fiber reactive dyes are by far the most satisfactory type of dye, if you are dyeing cotton or other plant fibers, and they also work very well on silk. If you are looking for a cheaper source of dye, it is possible to find one without compromising on dye quality. Fiber reactive dyes tend to be very expensive when purchased in small craft stores in Europe. Some European dye artists prefer to order dyes from one of the less expensive dye suppliers in the US; of course, the standard shipping listed on the web sites is expensive enough to wipe out any savings, but if you call on the telephone to order, you can request the slowest and cheapest form of shipping. While many suppliers of Procion MX dyes in Europe charge about $1.50 or even $3 for enough Procion MX dye to color one pound of fiber, several excellent suppliers in the US sell the same quantity of dye for only about 50¢, if you buy your dye in jars of at least two ounces (57 grams). See "comparison of dye costs", as well as my page listing Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

Instead of discarding the dye, you could dissolve some in water and see how well it works for painting on paper. In this case, it will not matter how washfast the dyes are. Before using them for painting anything big, test the colors for lightfastness by placing the paper you've colored with them in a bright sunny window, saving half of each sample in a dark place. If the colors do not fade much after a month or two, they are probably safe enough to use as paints. However, please keep in mind that you do not know whether these are safe dyes or highly toxic dyes, and take appropriate safety precautions.

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Friday, March 27, 2009

how to tone down excessively bright dye colors

Name: Janet

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Vinroot and Crowder's
The New Dyer

New Dyer With Colorcue Hue Analysis Aide

Washfast Acid dyes
at Paradise Fibers

Washfast Acid dyes

WashFast acid dyes are excellent for use on wool, silk, and nylon.

Message: My friends use bright, raw colors for dye projects. I want to change the prepared dyes with a dye that would warm, mute these mixed raw colors. I read your FAQ and didn't see any answers that deal with this issue. Thank You!

Any bright pure color can be muted by adding a little bit of its opposite on the color wheel: for a pure magenta, use green; for a pure orangish red, use turquoise; for a pure blue, use orange; for a bright lemon yellow, add purple. (An easy way to find the exact opposite of a color is to stare at the color for one minute, then switch your gaze to a white page; the after-image you see will be the exact complement of the color you were looking at.)

To save time and effort, you can prepare a neutral toning color by mixing dyes together. This can be a neutral grey, or some sort of brown. To prepare any of these neutral colors yourself, you will need to mix each of the three primary colors, which are magenta, cyan, and yellow. It's easier to get a neutral color, using less dye, if you start with the duller primaries, such as navy blue or terracotta orange. Some people like to use black, but be careful with this, as most black dyes are not quite neutral, tending toward green or navy or purple or brown; do a small test, or many small tests, to make sure that you like the results of whatever you try.

If you want to tone down several different colors to use together in a project, it works very well to use the same neutral toning gray or brown on each of them. Using the same toning color with each of them, ideally in the same strength, will cause them all to harmonize together well. You can do this by mixing your neutral toning dye mixture with the dyes before you apply them, or you can pre-dye or after-dye each item with the neutral color as a separate step.

All of the above applies equally well to any class of dye, including acid dyes for wool and fiber reactive dyes for cotton.

The 1981 book, The New Dyer, With Colorcue Hue Analysis Aide, by Sally Vinroot and Jennie Crowder, goes into the question of toning colors in some depth, addressing the use of many different types of dye. It is currently out of print but available from used bookstores online for a reasonable $15 per copy. If you get a copy that is complete with the original inserts, it includes clear transparencies with sections of different colors that you can hold over other colors to see how you like the combinations you get, in cyan, magenta, yellow, and neutral gray. There are also brown tones described as 'warm toner' and gray tones described as 'cool toner' printed on the paper.

Another way to visualize the effects of mixing different colors, in advance of actually mixing the dyes, is the use Olli Niemitalo's online Dye Mixer Applet. It is a little complicated, but not impossible, to adjust the given colors to make the colors that you have to work with. See my page, "How to translate numbers from the Dye Mixer Applet to grams of dye".

Vinroot and Crowder recommend mixing a combination of 35% yellow plus 25% red plus 40% black to get a gray toner; 70% yellow plus 20% red plus 10 percent blue to get a brown toner; 60% yellow plus 30 percent red plus 10 percent blue to get a coppery brown toner; and 25% yellow plus 25% red plus 50% black to get a dark brown toner. Unfortunately, these figures do not translate directly to grams or teaspoons of dye, since different dyes are of different strengths. It will take some trial and error to mix exactly the colors that you want.

Some types of dyes are available in many different premixed colors, some of which are ideal for toning purposes. For example, Procion MX dyes can be purchased in a huge number of premixed dye colors; they work well on cotton and other cellulose fibers, but will produce different colors when used on protein fibers such as silk and wool. PRO Chemical & Dye's Procion MX dye color, PRO MX Chino, used to be very popular as a warm toner among hand dyers, though it seems to be less popular since changes in the availability of manufactured colors forced a change in the formula. Other browns may be useful as warm toners, and the various grays may be useful as cool toners. 609 Deep Black produces a neutral gray on cotton at any dilution, making it useful when dyeing solid colors. However, it will produce a non-neutral color when used on silk or wool. If you are dyeing wool or silk, consider the wide selection of different pre-mixed colors among the Washfast Acid Dyes sold by PRO Chemical & Dye. Other suppliers that sell the WashFast Acid Dyes provide considerably fewer premixed colors.

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Does indigo form hydrogen bonds?

Do you know how indigo becomes attached to cotton? Does it form hydrogen bonds? If so, is it known which locations it prefers. Is there information regarding the chemistry of this process anywhere?

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Indigo is an interesting dye. It does not attach to the fiber by means of hydrogen bonds. Unlike most dyes, indigo has a neutral charge.

Indigo in its blue form is not soluble in water. In order to solubilize it for a dyebath, you must reduce the indigo. This is easily done by using sodium hydroxide and sodium dithionite, which are commonly purchased as lye and Rit Color Remover. The reduced leuco form of indigo is yellow in color.

When cotton or another natural fiber is dipped into a solution of reduced indigo, some of the dissolved indigo penetrates inside the fibers, between the cellulose or protein molecules (depending on the fiber). When the dyed fiber is then exposed to oxygen, the solubilized yellow leuco form of the indigo is oxidized once more to the insoluble blue form. While any dye on the outside of the fibers may be easily rubbed off, the dye that is trapped within the fibers is quite colorfast.

It's important when dyeing with indigo not to use an overly strong solution of indigo, because this results in too much dye being deposited on the outside of the fibers. Instead, multiple dips in a somewhat weaker dye solution work much better at building up a sufficiently deep color without resulting in a large amount of unfixed dye remaining on the outside of the fibers. Poorly applied indigo dye is not uncommon and results in complaints of dye rubbing off of indigo-dyed clothing onto other items, even when dry, a problem which is called crocking.

Since the indigo dye is held in place by its physical location rather than by chemistry, the physical structure of the fiber is important. Synthetic fibers such as nylon, which can be dyed very well with most dyes that work on wool, are too smooth to hold the indigo dye. Indigo works well for dyeing fibers as chemically different as cotton and wool, but it does not work well on smooth synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester.

Indigo is a vat dye, Colour Index Vat Blue 1. It is available from both plant-derived and synthetic sources. For more information about vat dyes, start with these pages: "About Vat Dyes", "How to fix indigo dye", and "What kinds of chemical bonds attach dyes to fibers?".

John Shore's 1995 book, Cellulosics Dyeing, includes good information on both vat dyes and on the structure of cotton fibers as they relate to dyeiung. It is very expensive if you buy it from a used book supplier in the US or Canada, but it costs only £9, plus shipping, if you order a new copy directly from the Society of Dyers and Colourists, in the UK.

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

dyeing nylon twine—it came out perfectly white!

Name: Kim

Message: Thank you for your great web site which has been so helpful! I have nylon twine that I am trying to dye turqouise to match a wedding color. I ordered Jaquard acid dye and followed the instructions, using vinegar and keeping the water simmering for 30 min, then allowing it to cool to room temp before rinsing. The twine came out of the dye a beautiful turquoise, but after rinsing all the dye washed out leaving it perfectly white again at the end. Am I missing a step? Thank you!

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I believe that the twine you tried to dye is really not nylon at all, but instead another synthetic fiber, such as polypropylene or polyester. Can you buy twine from a different source? Sometimes the fiber content of an item is described incorrectly on the label. If you are curious, you might be able to figure out what the fiber is by doing a burn test, but that wouldn't help you with what you need right now, which is turquoise-dyed twine. Using an entirely different twine is probably your best course of action at this point.

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Dyeable 100% Cotton Twine

It is easy to dye cotton twine with fiber-reactive or all-purpose dye.

If the twine were nylon, it should have picked up at least some of the color. It certainly sounds like you did everything correctly enough that the nylon would have taken some color. Some nylons are treated with finishes that repel dye, but even in most of those cases at least a little dye will be retained, even if the results are not as even as desired.

Polypropylene twine is impossible to dye, as it is completely water resistant, due the the chemical nature of the fiber. Polyester twine can be dyed by extensive boiling with disperse dye, such as "iDye Poly" by Jacquard Products. (Disperse dye can also dye nylon and acrylic to pale to medium shades.) Neither polypropylene nor polyester will take acid dyes at all.

One other possibility is that you might have cotton twine, which cannot be dyed with acid dyes. Cotton twine, if not treated with waxes or other surface finishes, can be very easily dyed with fiber reactive dyes (such as Procion MX dye or Dylon Permanent Dye) in room-temperature water, or even with all-purpose dyes (such as Rit or Tintex) in simmering hot water. The latter will be less resistant to fading due to washing, but this may not be a problem for a one-time use. Just be sure you wash the excess dye out thoroughly enough after dyeing that no dye comes off on other things.

If your twine is not in any way water-resistant, then you can try a thin fabric paint, such as Jacquard Products' Dye-Na-Flow or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dyes. These will work on both natural and synthetic fibers, but only if the fiber has not been treated in any way that provides resistance to water. Fabric paints will work on untreated cotton, nylon, and polyester, but not on polypropylene.

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Monday, March 23, 2009

My bras have all turned dingy gray. Is there a dye I could use to cheer them (and me) up?

Name: Martha
Message: My bras have all turned dingy gray. Is there a dye I could use to cheer them (and me) up? I've looked all over your website and google and no one mentions such problems.

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Lanaset/Sabraset Dye for protein fibers such as silk, wool, angora, mohair, as well as nylon. All colors of Lanaset-Sabraset are permanent and inter-mixable. Excellent wash fastness and light fastness. 1 ounce of dye will dye 6 lbs. of fiber to a medium shade.

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Washfast Acid dyes
at Paradise Fibers

Washfast Acid dyes
Also known as Nylomine dyes, excellent for use on nylon. One ounce of dye will dye six pounds of fiber!

Most of the parts of a bra are made of nylon, which can be dyed with acid dyes. Some of the parts might not be dyeable, and if there are any cotton parts, they should be dyed with different dyes.

Some dyes for nylon are a lot better than others. The worst dyes will tend to come out when you wash them, but as long as you rinse thoroughly after dyeing, they should not come out when the bra is dry. (This is important: you don't want the dye from your bra rubbing off onto your skin or other clothing.) As long as you are willing to hand-wash each bra separately, you are free to use one of these poorer dyes. All acid dyes work best in very hot water, 185°F, but such hot water is likely be bad for the spandex in most bras. You can compromise with hot water that is not as hot as would be ideal.

If you just want a cheerful color, and don't care particularly which shade you will get, you can try dying nylon with food coloring. One popular source for food coloring is unsweetened powdered drink mix, such as Koolaid. Some food coloring colors will wash out rather quickly, but are cheerful while they last; others will last a bit longer. Even a very pale color, if most of a dye color washes out, will be more cheerful than the current gray.

Rit all-purpose dye is good for this purpose also, though relatively expensive for the small amount of dye in a packet. It works significantly better than food coloring on nylon, though not as well as other kinds of acid dyes. All-purpose dye includes a mixture of two kinds of dyes, leveling acid dyes for nylon and wool, with direct dyes for cotton. It has the advantage of also coloring cotton and rayon, if you have a bra made of mixed fibers; acid dyes do not work on cotton, though they might stain it a bit. Rit all-purpose dye is known for fading quickly and for bleeding in the laundry, but that won't be such a big problem if you always hand-wash each bra separately in cool water. It often fails to yield a good black, but will produce cheerful pinks, lavenders, greens, and blues.

The highest quality dyes for nylon include the Washfast Acid dyes that you can buy by mail-order from PRO Chemical & Dye or Paradise Fibers, and the Lanaset dyes also sold by both PRO Chemical & Dye or Paradise Fibers. Jacquard Acid Dyes also work well on nylon. These various high-quality dyes are what you need for the most permanent colors, the greatest degree of wash-resistance, and the deepest, darkest colors. If you want to dye your bras black, I strongly recommend that you buy either Washfast Acid Dyes or Lanaset Dyes, because you're apt to get no more than gray or a dark purple if you try to use Rit or Kool-aid to dye something black. For just coloring your bras an assortment of cheerful colors, though, it's not really necessary to buy the highest quality dye, if you're willing to always separately hand-wash the bras in cool water, and to redye if too much of the color washes out.

I'm sorry to note that none of the above will be true if your bras have any polyester components. Those parts will just stay their original color. The only dye that will work on polyester is Disperse dye, which you cannot purchase locally. Disperse dye requires a lengthy immersion in the dye at a strong rolling boil for half an hour or longer, a harsh treatment which will destroy many bras. It is preferable in this case to avoid all dyes altogether, and instead use a fabric paint that works on both natural and synthetic fibers, such as Jacquard Products' Dye-Na-Flow or Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dyes.

Fortunately, most bras, and the lace or ribbon trim on them, are usually made of nylon. It's definitely worth a test, dyeing one to see if you like the results; if you do, you can then try dyeing the others.

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Sunday, March 22, 2009

costs of different brands of Procion MX out there

Name: Tim

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Message: Hello,

I am interested in dyeing my own fabric to make quilts and was wondering if you could tell me if you have a review of the various brands of Procion MX out there. I.e., is Jacquard just as good as Dharma Trading? If yes, why is the former so much more expensive?

I would appreciate any help you can give me.

The price of Procion MX type dyes in the US depends on the size of the container you buy it in. If you mail-order 8-ounce jars of Procion MX dyes from Jacquard or another store that carries their products (you can call Jacquard Products directly), the prices per ounce are similar to those at Dharma Trading Company. Some colors will cost more from Jacquard Products, while others will cost more from Dharma Trading Company. Other similarly inexpensive sources include PRO Chemical & Dye, Aljo Manufacturing, and Colorado Wholesale Dye (aka Grateful Dyes). All of these companies are good sources for dye.

Dyes in general cost much more when purchased in small containers. The most expensive dyes for home use are the Rit all-purpose dyes; although they are much less satisfactory in their properties than fiber reactive dyes are, they are more expensive because they are sold in little packets that will dye only a single garment. The 2/3 ounce (20 gram) jars of Procion MX dyes from Jacquard Products are considerably more economical than Rit dyes, because they will dye a much larger amount of fabric. However, whenever you buy dye powder in larger jars, the cost will be more economical still. A two-ounce jar of Procion MX type dye powder is a better buy than a 2/3 ounce jar of dye. The difference between the price-per ounce of two-ounce and eight-ounce jars is less dramatic. Jacquard Products does not sell Procion MX type dye in two-ounce jars, but they do sell the same days in eight-ounce, sixteen-ounce, and larger packages.

You may wish to buy from the dealer that is located closest to you, to save on shipping costs; Dharma Trading Company and Jacquard Products are located in California, Grateful Dyes in Colorado, PRO Chemical & Dyes in Massachusetts, and Aljo Manufacturing in New York. Or, you may chose based on what other items you wish to buy. Dharma Trading Company has the best selection of dyeable clothing blanks, while PRO Chemical & Dye and Aljo Manufacturing have the best selection of other types of dye for dyeing different kinds of fibers. There are also different pure unmixed dyes available at the different retailers. Grateful Dyes sells a hard-to-find Cherry dye, Rubine MX-B, while Aljo Manufacturing carries a difficult-to-find Blue-violet, Blue MX-7RX. All of these different dye companies sell basic dye chemicals such as soda ash, urea, and sodium alginate.

Procion MX dyes, when sold by crafts suppliers, tend to cost considerably more in countries other than the US. Some dyers in Australia or Europe prefer to mail-order their dyes from the US instead of purchasing from local crafts retailers. Of course, any sort of rapid shipping will cost far more than the savings on the dyes, but if you call a dye supplier in the US by telephone, you can usually request a slower form of shipping that makes this option economical. Slow shipping is not generally available as an option when you purchase through the websites.

If you are willing to work with 5-kilogram units of dye, per color, then you can buy directly from the dye manufacturer for a cost that is much lower per ounce, but this is not at all practical for most fiber artists or for home use. We are fortunate to have dye retailers who will package the dyes for us in units of one pound or less per jar.

See also my chart on 'Comparison of Dye Costs', and my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World.

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Can I save money by dyeing 50% cotton/50% poly linens black?

Name: Amanda
Message: Hi There-
I am trying to save my company money. We have a large amount of linens (50% cotton 50% poly) that are peach colored. The color is outdated and I would like to dye them black rather than buying new ones. Do you have any recomendations as to what dye to use and how? Or are there such things as companies that dye things for you?

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton or poly/rayon blends

I'm afraid this is not a very good idea. If you try to use black cotton dye on something that is only 50% cotton, the result will be a medium gray.

It's easy to dye 100% cotton to black and other dark colors, but there is no dye that can color both cotton and polyester. Any dye that works on polyester will wash right out of cotton, while any dye that works on cotton will wash out of polyester.

It is possible to dye both the cotton and the polyester by using two different dyes, but at this point you're talking about going to a lot more trouble. All polyester dyes require extensive boiling of the fabric with the dye in order to take the color; you will have to invest in a very large cooking pot, for about a hundred dollars, to be used only for dyeing, since pots used for dyeing fabric should not be reused for food preparation.

There are several companies that will be happy to redye any natural fiber for you, but the only one I can think of that will dye polyester is Manhattan Dyeing Service. See my page on "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?".

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Can I dye a dark green jacket dark purple?

I saw a dark green jacket and I need to dye it dark purple. Will it become dark perple or will it be slightly purple with the green still noticable?

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Dye is transparent, so it cannot cover up the original color of the garment. If you try to overdye dark green with dark purple, the best you can get is a dark brown.

If you want to dye your dark green jacket, try dyeing it a dark brown or black. Nothing else is going to work.

If you want a dark purple jacket, start with a jacket that is white, off-white, blue, pink, or light purple.

Also note that you cannot dye anything that is not washable. Prewash your jacket first; if it does not survive washing, then it was not dyeable. Lined jackets are almost never washable; the outside will shrink more or less than the lining does, ruining the shape of the jacket.

The fiber content of your jacket is crucial. You will not be able to dye synthetic fibers such as polyester, acetate, or acrylic, unless you mail-order a special polyester dye called disperse dye and then boil your jacket in the dye for an hour, a process that will destroy most ready-made garments. You can dye washable cotton, linen, rayon, silk, or hemp; best results will come from using a fiber reactive dye, such as Procion dye. All-purpose dyes such as Rit fade quickly and bleed badly in the laundry when washed.

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[Portions of this answer were first posted, by me, on Yahoo answers, on September 30, 2008.]

Friday, March 13, 2009

Can I use rayon sarongs for batik, or is silk the preferred fiber?

Name: Carla

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Message: Hi Paula,
I have the following question for you. I have recently purchased sarongs that are 100% rayon. I am getting ready to take a Batik class and was wondering if I could use these rayon sarongs or if silk is the preferred fiber.
Thanks so much.

Rayon and cotton are very commonly used for batik, more commonly than silk is, in fact.

As far as the batik class is concerned, what matters is what your teachers are using. If they are using silk dyes on silk, you may need to set the rayon sarongs aside until afterwards, because there are many silk dyes that do not work on cotton or rayon. Any dye that works on cotton will work on rayon, too.

The best dyes to use for batik on rayon or cotton are the cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye. You can get great results using an ordinary tie-dye kit, in fact. Don't use a hot water dye such as Rit, as the hot water required to properly set the dye will melt your wax before you are ready.

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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Can I dye a Goth wedding gown red or purple?

Name: Randi

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Message: Is there a possibility of being able to dye a wedding dress? I am going for a traditional Goth wedding and the dress I love comes in only Ivory or white. I want it to be purple or Red. They don't have a lot of goth dresses that I like. So is it a possibility? Are there places that can dye professionally, so I don't ruin the dress? Which most likely will happen.

Dyeing a ready-made wedding dress is almost always impossible. For one thing, you can't dye anything that is not washable. You're likely to get uneven shrinkage, or perhaps the seams or trim may shred. The other problem is that most off-the-rack wedding dresses are made of polyester, which cannot be dyed except by boiling it for a long time in an enormous expensive cooking pot while stirring constantly. You can't always expect a ready-made dress to survive that kind of abuse.

You can get married in the dress of your dreams, however. There's no reason to wear a dress you don't like. Go to a fabric store and look at the patterns to try to find one you like. If your fabric store does not carry interesting patterns, look at Folkwear Patterns. House of Anoria carries Goth-inspired patterns from major pattern houses such as Butterick and Simplicity. Once you've found a pattern you like, find someone who sews well to make it for you, allowing plenty of extra time in case anything goes wrong. There are many tailors who do custom sewing, or you should be easily be able to find someone who sews at home. Ask at your local fabric store for a list of names of people who do sewing professionally, or try the local yellow pages or craigslist. In choosing your seamstress, ask to see pictures of earlier work, and consider asking for contact information for satisfied customers.

If you cannot find a local seamstress, there are some who show their work online. Try BCoole Designs for custom-sewn clothing, or try a web search for "gothic wedding gown"; for example, Plus Size and Pretty's Gothic Wedding Gowns page allows you to choose back, purple, red, or any other color. I don't know whether or not the latter is a good company to deal with; I'd rather use the work of a local seamstress. Even with mail-order, you may need to get a local professional seamstress to do some alterations. Try to allow extra time in case of difficulties.

There are a few companies that will re-dye commercial clothing for you, but the results may not be as good as getting the dress you want sewn for you in the color you really want. See my page, "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?", which lists several companies that will redye appropriate clothing.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

changing the color of cotton sofa covers without shrinkage

Name: Debi

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Rit Color Remover
Rit Color Remover Removes Dyes

Rit Color Remover can be used to remove most but not all dyes from fabric

Message: Hi. Fabulous website! I have cotton sofa covers that are a faded yellowy colour. I am happy to have them a pale colour, like cream, or a deep crimsom. I bought some Dylon pre dye, but it needs to be used at 90 degrees C. I tried a wash at this temp on a spare cover and it shrunk! (If all else fails, I will put up with the shrinkage, but then I'm struggling to find a deep red dye). I am in the process of trying household bleach in my machine at 40 degrees C, but, so far, doesn't seem to be working. Any clues please? Many thanks for your time.

Hi Debi,

Not all dyes can be removed with bleach, and not all dyes can be removed with reductive discharges such as Dylon Pre Dye, but, in your case, since you like the idea of deep red, dyeing with the right type of dyes provides an easy solution.

You can dye your cotton covers at temperatures as low as 21°C if you use Procion MX dye (though 30°C to 40°C is even better). Afterwards, we usually like to wash out the excess unattached dye in hot water, but you can use cool water for this if you wash several times and be sure when laundering later to wash separately, in case there is still any unbound dye present. Washing thoroughly in cool water is sufficient to remove the loose dye particles that otherwise might rub off of dry fabric.

The best way to dye fabric a single solid color is in a washing machine, though you can also use a bucket, and stir a lot. (It works just as well, but is a lot more work.) See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine? ".

In the UK, you can mail-order Procion MX dye from several different dye suppliers, including Fibrecrafts. See my page on "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World", in the section of European sources. Links and contact info are listed there. To go with your Procion MX dyes, you will also need soda ash to fix the dye, and a large quantity of ordinary table salt because of the large volume of water required for machine dyeing.

Alternatively, you can use Dylon Machine Dye in place of Procion MX dye. Dylon Machine Dyes, which are designed for front-loading washing machines, are labeled with instructions saying to use them in hot water, but they will work in lower temperatures if you allow more time. They contain fiber reactive dyes that are similar to Procion MX dyes, but slightly less reactive, so they like warmer temperatures for dyeing. If 40° is okay for your cotton sofa covers, then use that temperature. Dylon Machine Dyes are available in Europe and Australia, but not in North America. If their red is too bright for you, you can try adding a small quantity of the black.

There will be a problem if your sofa covers were ever treated with a stain-resistant finish such as Scotch Guard, or any water-repellent finish. Otherwise, they should be pretty easy to dye.

Hi Paula

Many thanks for your reply. It really is very kind of you to help.

I was going to use the Dylon machine dye, but Dylon informed me that I'd have to strip the colour out of the covers first (yellow), or they will turn orange. They also said that they don't have any red with any depth - like a crimson.

Having read lots of info on your website, it seems that colour stripping is a hit and miss affair!! Certainly, bleach hasn't worked....and I am reluctant to use the Dylon Pre-Dye, because it needs a v hot wash, so back to the shrinkage problems! I am ok up to 40 degrees C.

Do you think if I used a Procion MX dye, the existing yellow colour wouldn't be a problem? I really am happy to end up with either cream/white covers or red ones. Just whichever is the most likely to work.

Many thanks again.
Debi

If your sofa covers were a brilliant, deep yellow, then yes, overdyeing them with red might produce an orangish color. However, it sounds like what you have there is a pale, faded, washed-out yellow. A pale yellow will not interfere significantly with dyeing a deep red. Furthermore, the color red, on clothing, is obtained by mixing a magenta dye with a yellow dye. (There are very few true red dyes, except for colors premixed with magenta and yellow, and the magenta dyes yield a wider range of possible colors for mixing, anyway.) If you dye your covers with a deep red that is on the opposite side from yellow in color, a somewhat magenta-colored red, then you should be able to reach the color you want. If the yellow is pale and you use a lot of dye, the original color will almost not show at all, overwhelmed by the amount of dye in the new color.

Note that you could not do this so easily if you were trying to produce a pale color that contains no yellow at all, such as a light blue or lavender. Colors that contain yellow in their mixture are orange, red, brown, green, and, of course, black.

From the other approach, while sulfur-containing color removers certainly do their work best with heat, they have some activity at lower temperatures. You could go ahead and try one at the 40°C you've already used on the covers. It might work, it might not, depending on what dye was used to color the sofa covers before; it is always impossible to tell whether a particular dye can be removed until you try it. Avoid the fumes from any of the sulfur-containing color removers, since they can provoke an asthma attack in susceptible people; otherwise, they are less toxic than household bleach, but you should use good ventilation anyway. If you have not already done so, check out my page "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?" (scroll down to the section on reductive discharges).

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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Can you dye a silver metallic purse to a plain white purse?

Name: Renie

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Neopaque is an opaque fabric paint, so white will cover a dark or colored background.

Message: Can you dye a silver metallic purse to a plain white purse?

No. You cannot dye anything of another color to white, because dye is transparent, so any original color will show through.

You could apply an opaque white fabric paint to cover up both the silver-gray and the metallic effect, but I'm afraid that the results would be completely unattractive.

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Monday, March 09, 2009

I am looking for a dye that I can use on my fading black work clothes

Name: Chris

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Message: I am looking for a dye that I can use on my fading black work clothes. They are still in great condition but the fading makes them look old. Is the Fibre reactive dye that I am reading about on this web site the correct kind of dye to color all of my garments?

If all of your faded work clothes are made of easily-dyeable fibers, then yes, fiber reactive dye is the answer to your problem. That's the key. What fibers are they made of? Fiber reactive dyes are your best choice for most natural fibers, including cotton, linen, rayon, hemp, Tencel, and bamboo.

However, if your clothing is made of polyester, you must use disperse dyes, as no other class of dye will work on polyester; these are much more of a pain to use than fiber reactive dyes, because disperse dyes must be boiled at length with the fabric, with constant stirring, in order to attach to it. This requires an investment in a huge enamel or stainless steel cooking pot, because temperatures below boiling will not work.

If your clothing is made of acetate or acrylic, disperse dye is again your best choice.

Nylon, silk, or wool should be dyed with acid dyes. If you are not particularly concerned about the dye's resistance to washing, then you can use all-purpose dye, such as Rit, on nylon.

All-purpose dye is generally disappointing on cotton, because it bleeds in the laundry and fades very quickly. However, if you mail-order a cationic dye fixative, such as Retayne, it will fix all-purpose dye in place on cotton, as well as on nylon; unfortunately, it will not help all-purpose dye stick to polyester.

One last detail: clothing that has been treated with a stain-resistant or water-repellent finish cannot be dyed successfully, even if it was originally made of a dyeable fiber.

Regardless of which type of dye you use, the general rule for black is to use much more dye, two to four times as much as you would use for another color. Weigh your clothes (one at a time on a kitchen scale, or step on a bathroom scale with and without them). Use one-tenth the weight of the fabric in dry dye powder (this rule does not work for prepackaged dyes such as Rit or Tintex, because they contain salt and other chemicals); for example, for a one pound pair of jeans, which weighs 454 grams, use 30 to 45 grams of black dye powder, but if you are using Rit, Tintex, or Dylon dye, use four packets of dye per pound of clothing.

Closely follow the recipe for the dye you choose. Fiber reactive dye, including Dylon Permanent Dye, Dylon Machine Dye, Tulip One Step Fashion Dye, and Procion MX Dye, will be very permanent on cotton and other natural fibers, as well as on rayon, if you follow the package instruction closely. For all-purpose dye such as Tintex Easy Fabric Dye or Rit All Purpose Tint and Dye, it's best to cook the clothes in the dye in a pot on the stove at a simmer for an hour, then wash as directed and finally apply Retayne or Rit Dye Fixative.

The most economical source of fiber reactive dye is to mail-order Procion MX dye in jars of eight ounces or larger from PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, Dharma Trading Company or Jacquard Products in California, or Grateful Dyes in Colorado. Dyers in other countries often find US prices are cheaper than local prices even after paying for overseas shipping, but only if a very slow, cheap form of shipping is used; order by telephone (while looking at the web site) in order to request this. To compare the price per use of Procion MX dye to Rit and other dyes, see "comparison of dye costs". Rit dye powder costs a surprisingly large amount, $2.29, to dye the same amount of fabric as 40¢ worth of Jacquard Procion MX dye, if you buy the latter in an eight-ounce jar.

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Sunday, March 08, 2009

Are powdered food colors more or less successful for dyeing wool than liquid food colors?

Name: Lisa
Message: I didn't see this addressed. I apologize if it is. For dyeing protein fibers (wool, specifically), can powdered food colors, such as Crystal Colors, be used? Is it likely to be more or less successful than paste?

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Food coloring works well as dye for wool

Powdered food colors, liquid food colors, and paste food colors all use the same dye chemicals. The only real difference lies in how much dye is included in a particular amount of each dye. You will have to use larger quantities of a more dilute dye to get a similar effect. Because most food colorings are acid dyes, they work pretty well as a textile dye on wool, though the results are not as satisfactory or colorfast as what you will get if you use excellent wool dye s, such as Lanaset dyes or Washfast Acid dyes.

Different brands of food colorings contain different proportions of dyes from a very limited list. For example, one red food coloring might be nothing but red dye, while another one contains a red dye plus a yellow dye, while another might contain two different red dyes. Since some of the food colorings perform more satisfactorily than others, some color mixtures will be better than others. However, since there are so few choices for each color, there will not be a great deal of variation from one brand to another.

Overall, aside from those factors, one form of food coloring dye will be similarly successful to either of the other forms, in dyeing a textile fiber such as wool. In any case you will probably be using a much larger quantity of water than food coloring.

The ninety different colors sold under the brand name "Crystal Colors" are mixed from no more than seven different synthetic food dyes, plus, perhaps, an even smaller number of natural food colors. If you could obtain each of the FD&C food colorings in pure form, you could mix every one of those colors yourself, given enough trial and error. They appear to be much more concentrated than the colorings that you can buy in the grocery store, so they are probably significantly cheaper per gram of dye, even though they cost more per container. The pearl luster colors are made of either food-grade mica or fish scales, either of which can be mixed with an acrylic fabric paint binder and used as a fabric paint, but neither of which will work as a true dye.

Also see:
"Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers".

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Saturday, March 07, 2009

color from varigated DMC embroidery floss is crocking onto the background fabric

Name: Myrna

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Retayne

Retayne sets dyes that run when wet.

Synthrapol
Synthrapol is an excellent detergent for washing out dye, but other detergents can be used, as well.

Message: I bought varigated DMC embroidery floss to use on white or cream cotton. As I embroidered I noticed the white fabric becoming pink and my hand became quite pink as well. If I rub the floss between two pieces of white cotton, the red rubs off. Should I use Synthrapol? Should I use Retayne? Do you have any suggestions? Thanks in advance. Myrna

I hope that you have not made very much progress on your embroidery! I think it would be best to pick out what you've done, if you can bear to, then make sure the color of the floss is set before you begin again. Otherwise, you will not be able to keep your background fabric white.

DMC variegated embroidery floss is claimed by the manufacturer to be 100% colorfast and fade resistant, but, obviously, the stuff you bought was not. The best approach would be to return the floss you have in exchange for a non-defective batch.

Before you begin on a big project, test your floss for colorfastness. Rubbing it between two pieces of fabric is an important first test. Another good test for dyes, if you will be washing your finished piece, is to dampen the floss with water, place it between two white cloths (preferably the same material as you will be using), and iron it dry. If any color transfers, you will need to wash out the excess dye, and possibly also set the remaining dye after washing.

Synthrapol is a good detergent, but another detergent will do as well. What's important is to use hot water (use rubber gloves to protect your hands). Hot water is far more efficient at washing out excess dye than cold water is. You do not need to use a large amount of Synthrapol or other detergent; a small amount will do. Soaking in hot water, and then washing, is more efficient still. As you already know, neither salt nor vinegar will help to set the dye on your cotton floss.

After your floss is dry, test it for colorfastness again. If it still does not pass the test, you can use Retayne to set the dye. Add Retayne to a bucket of hot water and soak the floss in it, as the label directs. Retayne will not set loose dye that is crocking off when dry, only dye that runs when wet, so it is essential to wash out as much excess dye as you can before trying Retayne.

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Friday, March 06, 2009

I was given a gorgeous rug that was unfortunately dyed with aniline dyes. Is there a way to set these dyes?

Name: Joan
Message: Hi Paula,
I was given a gorgeous rug that was unfortunately dyed with aniline dyes. Is there a way to set these dyes because the color rubs off? It was probably made in Persia. Any info is greatly appreciated! By the way, your website is awesome!

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Retayne

Retayne sets all-purpose dyes, such as Rit, as well as acid dyes, direct dyes, and inadequately fixed fiber reactive dyes. It will not work on vat dyes, such as indigo denim.

Hi Joan,

Unfortunately, the word aniline, when applied to dyes, tells you nothing about what kind of dye it is, except that it's not a natural dye; it really only tells you that the dyes are synthetic, which can be a problem if the dyer did not understand the correct application procedure for the particular sort of dye that was used. Synthetic dyes can be excellent if they are applied correctly, or horrible if they are not.

Color rubbing off when the fabric is dry is called crocking. It's a far more dire situation than color that rubs off when wet. Crocking is caused by loose dye on the outside of the fibers, dye which has not been set, so that it is not bound to the fiber in any way. For best results, dye must be set during the dyeing process, not afterwards.

If you use a rug whose dye crocks, the dye will likely permanently stain the floor underneath the rug. This can happen with carpeting, with a wood floor, or even, especially, with vinyl flooring. There is no good solution when that has happened. It's very important not to put the rug on the floor if its dye is crocking.

The first thing to try is to wash it repeatedly in hot water, or soak it in hot water and then wash it. This often helps with loose indigo dye, the dye that is used to color jeans, if the manufacturers fail to use correct dyeing procedures. Obviously, this could ruin the pattern of the rug if the color runs. On the other hand, even if the lighter regions become stained pink with red dye that runs, some of the pattern will still show through, and it will probably still be beautiful. This is the best solution, in my opinion, though it does not always work.

A dye fixative such as Retayne will not work if the dyes are vat dyes, which are the type of dye most often responsible for crocking dye. It will also not work for basic dyes. It will work well for acid dyes and direct dyes, but vat dyes lack the negative charge of the other types of dyes, so it does not cling to them; basic dyes have a positive charge, so it doesn't work for them, either. Vat dyes are synthetic dyes (aside from natural indigo and the ancient Tyrian purple); they can be quite permanent if applied correctly, but sometimes manufacturers take short cuts that prevent the proper fixation of the dye. Dye fixatives like Retayne are applied in hot water, so they are no use if the dyes will run unacceptably and ruin the design during even the first immersion. Raycafix is a product similar to Retayne, but its sellers, G&S Dye in Toronto, say that it sometimes works on vat dyes, as well. You could call or email them and ask them how well they think it will work on your rug. (See "Commercial Dye Fixatives".)

A good solution might be to hang the rug on the wall, with a sheet behind it to protect the paint (or just plan on repainting). Rugs can make beautiful wall coverings. While a rug protector on the floor under the rug cannot be relied upon, as the rug shifts when it is stepped on, it's easier to tack a rug in place on the wall.

Finally, you can consider painting the rug with a colorless fabric paint binder, such as Neopaque Colorless Extender, which is sold for diluting Neopaque and Lumiere fabric paints. This product, if painted on, will fix the loose dye into place. It should work equally well for vat dyes and basic dyes, because it does not work chemically, but rather physically, by placing a clear acrylic layer on top of them. However, like pigmented fabric paint, it will make the surface of the fabric a very little bit more scratchy, a little less soft, and it will eventually wear off, possibly very quickly if subjected to a lot of foot traffic. It can also be expensive, since it will probably take quite a bit to cover both surfaces of your rug, depending on how big it is.

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Thursday, March 05, 2009

What can I use as a substitute for sodium alginate to thicken fiber reactive dye?

Name: Ruth

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Sodium Alginate

Message: Hi, I would like to start dye-painting and while waiting for my Dharma order (I live in Haiti and it will take a month or so) and was wondering what can I use as a substitute for Sodium Alginate (what did dyers use before the invention of sodium alginate?) which I have not been able to find locally. I will be using Dylon cold water dye which is "the" Dye sold here in Haiti. And, BTW, thank you for your website, I have learned so much from it.

Dylon Cold Water dye contains good fiber reactive dyes, mostly Procion MX dyes. The only problems are the high cost per five-gram tin, compared to larger jars of Procion MX dye from suppliers such as Dharma, and the fact that all of the colors are premixed, so dyers complain about not having good primary colors for mixing their own choices.

Alginate is not an absolute essential for dyeing, though it is wonderful for making a thick dye paint. I almost never use it myself, because I tend to prefer the watercolor effect of having dyes blend into one another. However, thickening is very important for preventing contrasting colors from running together and producing a boring muddy brown color. If you do not use a thickener for your dye, you will need to be careful about color placement, generally avoiding putting red next to green, or purple next to yellow, or blue next to orange.

There is an alternative for dye painting, which is treating the fabric with an antidiffusant before you apply your dye. Fabric that has been treated in this way can be painted on with unthickened dyes, but they will not spread as usual. Unfortunately, most antidiffusants contain starch, which will react with fiber reactive dye and then gradually wash out; they are intended for use with acid dyes or basic dyes in silk painting, not with fiber reactive dyes. A traditional antidiffusant is gutta (natural rubber) dissolved in a solvent such as hexane; the only problem with this is that the solvents used are dangerous to breathe. The gutta can be removed by dry cleaning, or left in place.

The problem with other thickeners is that they all tend to react with the dye itself, which is very wasteful of dye. It appears that sodium alginate is the only natural gum that doesn't react significantly with fiber reactive dyes. The only other thickener I have seen recommended for use with reactive dyes is a product called Superclear, which is sold by some dye suppliers. Other thickeners, such as guar gum or xanthan gum, or solutions of starch, can work well for thickening acid dyes (which are used on silk, wool, and nylon, but not on cotton), but they are not recommended for use with reactive dyes on cotton or other cellulose fibers.

In their excellent tie dyeing videos, Tie Dye 101: The Basics of Making Exceptional Tie Dye, and Advanced Tie Dye Techniques: Making Shapes and Mandalas, Tom Rolofson and Martine Purdy recommend the use of powdered kelp sold at natural foods stores. This is logical, given that sodium alginate is purified from brown kelp seaweed. Their recipe calls for only one teaspoon (5 ml) of kelp powder per gallon of water, which is a much smaller amount than the two teaspoons of purified sodium alginate used in some other popular tie-dyeing recipes; you will need to use far more for dye painting.

The problem with kelp powder is that different sources may sell kelp that is unexpectedly strong or weaker. Some is very clean and white, while others are contaminated with pigmented material from the kelp plant which may be suitable for use in food, but is not ideal for dyeing. One user complained to me that her kelp powder turned her water an ugly green-brown color. This color will probably not affect the ultimate color the dyes produce on cotton, but it makes it harder to judge how to mix your colors. Even purified sodium alginate can vary in strength from one package to another.

Purified sodium alginate is widely used in the food industry, but it is rarely available for home use. If you know any source for food chemicals, you might look there. Another form in which sodium alginate has been reported to be available, at least in the Czech Republic, is as a soil humectant for gardeners, labeled as an anti-transpirant, brand name Agricol, made by Zeneca Agrochemicals. I don't know whether it is sold in this form anywhere in the Americas. A third and very likely place to look is a craft store that sells supplies for casting, or a dental supply company, because purified alginate is used for making the molds in which plaster casts are formed.

Whether you use kelp or purified sodium alginate, it is important to use only soft water to mix your dyes. The calcium ions found in hard water will form a difficult-to-remove gel when combined with sodium alginate, and presumably also with unpurified kelp powder. You can use distilled or deionized water if that is convenient for you, or you can add about one teaspoon per liter of the water softener sodium hexametaphosphate. This is sold by Dharma as water softener, by ProChem as Metaphos, and by Jacquard Products as Calgon T. Only the powder form of Calgon will do, as the phosphate-free liquid form we see in the grocery stores where I live contains polycarboxylates which are said to interfere with dye uptake by the fiber. It is wise to use this phosphate-containing water softener for both dye mixtures and for washing out after dyeing, even when you are not using alginate, because calcium in the water can cause problems in washing out the excess unattached dye, a problem completely separate from the calcium/alginate gel problem. Calcium combined with alginate can be very annoying and difficult to get out of your dye bottles, because the gel that is formed will not melt even when heated.

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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Dyeing cotton/polyester ribbons for awards

Name: John

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Message: Paula, I have a project that has come into the studios, that requires the dyeing of several ribbons that are appox 12" wide x 18" long. These ribbons are striped in certain colors and like the ribbons awarded service persons (police or military). The material we have are looking to use is a Kravet Moire 52% cotton 48% poly. I have about 12 of these to do. We are designing the 12" bronze medals that hang under the ribbons. Can you do a projest like this or recommend someone.

Cotton and polyester is a difficult combination to dye, but not impossible. The cotton and the polyester require completely different dyes; both the cotton and the polyester must be dyed, if you want a dark or intense color. Polyester can be dyed by boiling it with disperse dye, such as the PRO Transperse Disperse Dyes sold by PRO Chemical & Dye, or the iDye Poly made by Jacquard Products. Will the cotton shrink and be distorted by the boiling? If so, you will not want to have these ribbons dyed.

An alternative is to use a fabric paint, such as Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dyes, or Jacquard Products' Dye-na-Flow. However, you will not be able to get a perfectly smooth solid color by using fabric paints. A commercial textile printing service would produce better results.

If you will be satisfied with pastel colors, then you can get away with dyeing only the 52% of the fiber blend that is cotton. This can be done using cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye.

I am not available to do this project for you. You may be able to find someone who will by contacting people listed on my page of "Where can I find someone to dye my clothing for me?".

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Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Dyeing a shirt with red-brown dirt produced a red-orange color—how can I get brown?

Name: Jessica

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at Paradise Fibers

Natural Dye Extracts

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Message: We are doing an experiment with natural dyes. I have choosen our reddish brown dirt. I have done the mordant of aluminum acetate. I have put the shirt in the red brown dye bath and then rinsed and put it in the washer. I was really dissapointed that it actually was more of a red orange and did not dye the brownish colors in there. Is there something I could have done to also bring out the brown color. I was hoping it would have rinsed out just like the color of the dyebath.

Dirt dyeing and careful choice of colors are pretty much incompatible. It's not like selecting a specific dye color and knowing in advance pretty much what color you're going to get. With dirt, you're lucky if more than a small fraction of the stain remains after a number of washings; the most likely ultimate color will be a pale buff. Mordanting with alum does not make a great deal of difference in how well dirt dyes cotton, though it's very helpful for a good natural dye. Mordanting your already alum-mordanted shirt with a strong tannin solution would help considerably in permanently attaching the iron from your dirt, but it will completely change the color of the iron in the dirt to black as it forms an iron tannate.

Dirt dyeing is very different from fabric painting with dirt. The main coloring material in dirt is the iron it comtains. The coloring material in bright red soil is oxidized, anhydrous, Fe₂O₃, a hematite mineral; that in bright yellow dirt is oxidized, hydrated, 2Fe₂O3•3H₂O, a limonite mineral; and the coloring materials in most dark soils are the result of rotted plant materials. Only the iron ingredients in the dirt can be regarded as a real dye. The rotted plant material is only a temporary color, and will not make a lasting dye on fabric.

If you are not concerned about washing your fabric, then you can color it by burying it in a compost pile and allowing the material to ferment in contact with your fabric, ideally for weeks or months. This compost dyeing is not a way to produce an intense or long-lasting color; it will tend to wash out, after which you'd have some dull stained fabric. I recommend this technique only if you plan to display the results as "art", without much washing.

If, instead, you want a shirt whose dirt color will last a long time through many wearings, you will do better to make your own fabric paint, instead of dye. A dye has to have a strong affinity for the fabric you use it on, as otherwise it will wash out. Most dirt colors lack this strong affinity. To color fabric with something that lacks a strong affinity for the fabric requires you to use a binder, turning your pigment into a fabric paint by essentially gluing it to the fabric. You can do this "naturally" by making homemade soy milk (store-bought does not work well) and painting your fabric with it, letting it dry, then paint on whichever iron oxides are of interest to you. It is best to leave the minerals to cure on the soy milk in the fabric for months before washing. Alternatively, you can make a long-lasting fabric paint by combining your choice of dirt with a colorless acrylic fabric paint binder, such as Jacquard Products' Neopaque Extender. After applying your home-made fabric paint to the fabric, allow it to dry, then heat-set as recommended by the manufacturers of the fabric paint extender. This will make the color permanent and washable.

For more information about mud or dirt dyeing, see my page, "About Natural Dyes".

If you just want a naturally-dyed brown shirt, I recommend that you use another substance as a dye. There are other natural dyes which are far more effective and long-lasting, as dyes, than dirt. An excellent example would be the hulls of walnuts or pecans. If you have access to a walnut tree or a pecan tree, gather the outer husks (not just the shells you see on nuts in the grocery store). You will need about a pound of nut husks for every pound of fabric. Simmer the shirt for at least an hour with the nut husks. The metal content of your dyeing pot will affect the color you end up with; an iron pot will result in a darker color. No mordant is needed when dyeing with walnut or pecan husks, though using one will certainly do no harm. Walnuts produce a darker color than pecans, but the green husks of pecans will produce a good brown color, too.

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Monday, March 02, 2009

How can we tie-dye a white, two-piece 70% cotton 30% polyester suit?

Name: Tom

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Message: Good evening!

I've come to your site for direction on various dying projects in the past, but now a friend has asked me to help him on something I've never encountered before. I tried searching all over, but simply could not generate any answers that would encompass all my confusion.

My nephew has a white, two-piece 70% cotton 30% polyester suit that he is determined to tie-dye. Appanrently the Dead are going on tour again (I thought Jerry died?) and he is 'dead-set' (forgive the pun) on turning this suit into a unique tie-dye garment.

I've dyed polyester before, and done tie-dyes on cotton a zillion times (yeah, I was in college once), but never a blend - and I don't have the theoretical knowledgebase to even know what the effect will be.

I know some dyes work great with natural fibers, others with synthetic... but I have yet to find a product (or a solution) on what to do with his 70/30 suit.

Is there anything I can do? Or will I have to send him out to find a new suit? (he is a collegiate deadhead - clearly funding isn't on his side, so I'd like to avoid this if at all possible)

ANY advice or direction you could provide would be a Godsend. I would GREATLY appreciate any time you take out of your day to help me be a 'cool uncle' once again.

If you try to dye a 70% cotton/30% polyester suit with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes, you will get only 70% of the usual color intensity, since the polyester won't pick up that dye. That's not bad! I think you can get pretty good results by just tie-dyeing this suit in the usual way, with your usual recipe for Procion MX dye, soda ash, and urea. You will want to make your dye solutions up extra strong, and avoid using a lot of red unless pink will be okay.

I've gotten some excellent pastel results by tie-dyeing even 50% cotton/50% polyester in the usual way. Of course the results were pastel, not bright, but they were pretty anyway. When I was dyeing for a little boy, I just had to be careful not to use too much red, since it turns out that pink clothing is very unacceptable to small boys. 70% strength colors would be better than 50% strength, though.

You have another alternative, too. You can tie-dye polyester blends by using fabric paint instead of dye. Not all fabric paints will stick to polyester, so be sure to choose one whose manufacturer specifically says that it will. All fabric paints made by Jacquard Products will work on both polyester and cotton; among their line, I would recommend Dye-Na-Flow, since it is designed to flow like a dye. More economically, you can buy Dharma Pigment Dyes, from Dharma Trading Company; pigment dyes are not dyes at all, but instead fabric paint. This brand is economical, compared to other suitable fabric paints, because you prepare it for use by diluting it with a lot of water. Heat-setting is required, after the paint is dry, using a hot iron or a commercial machine dryer. The look of the pigments will be different from that of your usual dye.

A third option, the most stunning, would be to tie-dye the suit as usual for cotton, wash as usual and dry, then retye it and touch it up with the true fluorescent colors, say, of the Dharma Pigment Dyes, for a more complex design that will really knock your eyes out under sunlight or a blacklight.

I would not bother with using disperse dyes to color the polyester in a 30% polyester blend. It's way too much trouble to do immersion dyeing with polyester, and since it's only 30% in your suit, it's not going to add enough to your final effect to be worth the trouble.

If you order the pigment dyes from Dharma, consider getting some dyeable socks and a paintable necktie to add to the outfit while you're at it. You won't be able to immerse the tie in dye, but you can paint it, and wouldn't that be an amazing combination with the suit?

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Sunday, March 01, 2009

I want to make my own soleil dyes

Name: Lesley

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Message: I want to make my own soleil dyes. I am a HND student working in monochrome colours and I want to do a gradation colour in fabric to work alongside of black and white prints.

Are you referring to sunprinting, as with Pebeo's Setacolor Soleil fabric paints? Any transparent fabric paint (not dye!) can be used for this purpose. There are also dyes which can be used for sunprinting, but they work quite differently from Setacolor Soleil fabric paint.

For a full discussion, see my page on "How to Dye and Paint Fabric with Light".

For information on various ways to use fiber reactive dyes to create an ombré or gradient effect, see the following pages:

"dip dyeing for an ombré gradient effect" [adding more dye while gradually lifting fabric from bucket]
"Questions about ombre / gradation dyeing long piece of fabric..." [adding more water while gradually lifting fabric from bucket]
"How hard would this be to do at home??" [painting adjacent stripes with increasing dilutions of dye]

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