Archives for October, 2012

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Friday, October 05, 2012

Where can I buy wholesale quantities of Procion MX dyes?

Hello - I've spent countless hours on your web page - *very*

informative - thank you!

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I've also spent countless hours trying to track down where to buy Procion dyes in 100kg quantities. We have a factory in Ecuador where we make hand-painted women's clothing. We're getting *really* tired of hand-carrying 50Kg down at a time, and more so, paying retail prices, as great as our retailers are to work with.

Do you know who it is who supplies all these retailers? I've found Indian and Chinese suppliers who sell by the ton, but not the tier I'm looking for.

Thank you *so* much if you can help me!

I know that several of the good dye retailers in the US have sold dyes that were supplied to them by Standard Dyes in North Carolina; they are listed on my page of Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World. I have no idea what other sources the retailers have purchased their dyes from. Standard is willing to sell quantities as small as one pound per color. I've paid them as little as $9 per pound of Procion MX type dyes, with no quantity discount since I didn't order very much, or as much as $48 per pound, depending on the specific dye color. Presumably the price per pound would be considerably lower for 100-kilogram quantities. They often substitute a similarly-colored dye mixture for the dye that was ordered; be careful to specify your dyes by Colour Index number if you don't want them to do this. In fact, whoever you end up buying your dyes from, you will want to ask about whether they do this.

Dystar's minimum order size is 5 kilograms per dye color. They may be the best choice if you want to be able to label your clothing with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 label, or other environmental or non-toxicity claims. However, although they are the owners of the Procion name, they no longer manufacture Procion MX dyes; their Remazol fiber reactive dyes require somewhat warmer reaction temperatures, and their Procion HE and other Procion dyes require hotter temperatures still. Dystar lists their contact for sales to Ecuador and nearby countries as being in Mexico, as follows:

DyStar de México S. de R.L. de C.V.
Av. Insurgentes Sur 1685 Int. 501-504 Col. Guadalupe Inn Del Alvaro Obregón CP 01020, México D.F.
Phone +52-55-53 22 51 00
Fax +52-55-56 62 56 18

Huntsman Textile Effects sells fiber reactive dyes that used to be known as Cibacron F dyes; they have been renamed as Novacron F dyes since Huntsman purchased the division from Ciba. These fiber reactive dyes can be used exactly like Procion MX dyes; they like slightly more warmth, but can be used interchangeably with them, or even mixed with them. They are superior in some respects, such as more consistent tinctorial strength. It would be worth contacting Huntsman to find out what terms they offer. Start at the Huntsman Textile Effects site to determine who to contact.

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Thursday, October 04, 2012

How can I dye a t-shirt to look like candy corn?

Got a dyeing question for you:

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I want to try to dye a t-shirt to look like candy corn. I've only done tie dye. I can't quite figure out how to get the dye to just be in big horizontal bands without bleeding into the rest of the shirt. Any ideas on how I can do this? (I figured I'd start with a white shirt and split the colored areas into 1/3s...)

Candy corn is a really easy color scheme. Orange in the middle, white on the narrow end, yellow on the wide end.

What I would do is presoak the shirt/onesie/whatever in soda ash, wring it out pretty well, lay it out flat, without tying it, and squirt Procion MX fiber reactive dye in yellow (yellow MX-8G, the one both Dharma and Jacquard call Lemon Yellow) on one end, then squirt orange dye (orange MX-2R, which Dharma calls Deep Orange and Jacquard call Brilliant Orange) across the middle. The dye will spread out some, but it doesn't keep spreading indefinitely. If you watch to see how far the orange dye creeps, you can control the amount of dye you put on so that there is not enough to overwhelm the white end. This will also work if you tie the shirt, but watching the dye go on flat gives you a little more control. It's okay if there's a little overlap between the yellow and the orange, but again be careful not to apply so much orange dye that it runs all across the white section.

I think you want the orange section to be more than one-third of the total, and the white and yellow each to be less, but start with equal thirds and just see how far the orange dye runs when you drip it onto the shirt. Other colors often end up covering more of the yellow section than people plan on them doing.

The reason why I recommend using orange MX-2R instead of mixing an orange from yellow+fuchsia is that yellow and fuchsia tend to separate out at the edges, giving a bit of a yellow halo. It's not terrible, so it's worth trying if you already have a tie-dye kit with yellow and fuchsia dye and don't want to order more dye, but it's not as ideal as using a true orange dye.

Another way to get the orange to stay where you want it is to thicken it with some sodium alginate. A lot of tie-dyers use sodium alginate to thicken their dyes. Buy it from a dye supplier such as Dharma Trading Company Jacquard Products, or PRO Chemical & Dye. I rarely use thickener, myself, though; it's a matter of personal preference.

So I'm looking at the Dharma catalog, and I need to get soda ash, and the dyes. (I figure I'll forego the sodium alginate.) I'm a little confused as to which type of dye I should be getting. Should I be looking at the Fiber Reactive dyes? It's been a while since I've tie-dyed anything; once I apply the dye and it dries on the shirt, do I need to soak it in anything again or just rinse it out?

Yes, you want the Procion MX dyes, which Dharma labels as 'Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes'.

You also MUST have soda ash, or washing soda, which raises the pH of the fabric enough for it to react with the dye. Soda ash is the dye fixative, usually applied by presoaking the shirt in a mix of one cup of soda ash in a gallon of water. You can usually buy it at the hardware store as "pH Up", but if you're ordering dyes it's easier to order some soda ash at the same time.

If your water is hard you should also order their water softener, which is sodium hexametaphosphate, since hard water otherwise gives duller colors. It's far better than the Calgon water softener you can buy at the grocery store now.

If you don't still have them from when you tie-dyed before, also order some plastic squeeze bottles with yorker tips. Don't forget to get some disposable gloves, too.

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Monday, October 01, 2012

Is there a way to do a light "over dye" to tone down blue and white striped cotton/lycra?

What a lovely resource you are! Thank you!

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I scanned through at least 30 pages of the dye group but didn't see anything that really answered my question so I will come to you.

I have some yarn dyed cotton lycra--blue and white stripe--and the contrast is a bit much for my coloring. Is there a way to do a light "over dye" (sorry, I don't know the vocabulary for dyeing) to tone it down? If so, what would I use? I think I remember Procion for cotton lycras in general. If I could get to a greyed blue and a light gray stripe, I'd be happy.

I know I would test on a sample but otherwise, I'm a complete novice so any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Overdyeing is indeed what you would call that, and it's easy to do. You are correct that Procion MX dye is the best choice for cotton/lycra, because it can be used at room temperature. It's fixed to the cotton with soda ash or washing soda (essentially the same thing). Since Procion dye is a fiber reactive dye, it's very easy to use and doesn't fade the way all-purpose dyes do.

In choosing a color for overdyeing, you always have to keep in mind that the existing color will combine with whatever color you choose. If you dye with blue dye, you will end up with stripes of lighter and darker blue, since the original blue will show through. If you dye with red or pink dye, that's the color the white will be, but the blue will turn purple. If you dye with yellow, you'll end up with green and yellow stripes. Your choice of a gray dye should give just the results you're looking for, a grayed blue with a gray stripe.

If you want the fabric to be pain solid gray/solid blue stripes, then you will need to do high water ratio immersion dyeing, also known as tub dyeing, bucket dyeing, or washing machine dyeing. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". If you use a bucket for dyeing a solid color, you will need to do a lot of stirring, for about an hour.

If you would like a more mottled effect, then you can use an even easier method, known as low water immersion dyeing. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". One caveat: gray Procion dyes are mixed from several different colors of dye, which tend to separate out in LWI, so you might end up with a variety of colors. It can be a great effect, but it's not the same as a solid gray.

Next question will be where to buy the dye. You can usually find a tie-dyeing kit with Procion MX dyes at a local crafts store, but these contain only three bright colors, never a subtle pre-mixed color like gray. You'll probably want to order your Procion dyes by mail. Depending on your location, look at the dye suppliers PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or Dharma Trading Company in California. See my list of "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

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