Archives for December, 2012

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Saturday, December 29, 2012

I want to dye the plastic casing on my gas leaf blower. What kind of dye do I need, and what would be the dyeing process?

Name: Corey

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Vinyl "dye" is not dye at all, but instead a paint made by suspending insoluble pigments in a mixture of petroleum-based solvents such as toluene and butane.

Country or region: US

Message: I have an unusual project I’m sure you have never been hit with. I want to dye the plastic casing on my gas leaf blower: yes, a gas leaf blower. I have no clue what type of plastic it is manufactured of and I have been all over the internet trying to figure out how to determine what type it is made of. Currently it is black; I would like to dye it yellow. But if that will not work I would settle for dyeing it black. What kind of dye do I need and what would be the dying process? I have considered plastic paint, however, I am afraid when gasoline over spills it will cause the paint to bubble. And I am not sure it will even stick. Any info is much appreciated.

It's true that I've never heard of anyone's dyeing the casing of a leaf blower, but people have tried to dye many other plastic objects. Sometimes you really want a device to be a different color than you can buy. For some projects, the results have been excellent.

The primary problem in your case is that you cannot dye anything that is black to any color other than black. Every single kind of dye is transparent, and will not show up at all when applied to a black surface. Only pigments can be used to create a lighter color on a dark surface. There is no dye that can be used successfully to turn black to another color.

Your best bet would be to use a special plastic paint, Krylon brand Fusion spray paint. In my experience it lasts far longer on plastic than other paints, though areas most subject to wear will eventually get small chips in the paint, requiring repainting. It works on most types of plastic. A special benefit of this paint, as compared to dyes, is that it is truly opaque. You can apply a lighter color on top of a darker one, and yet get the color you want. Whenever you use dye on anything, previous colors will inevitably show through clearly. I don't know what effect spilled gasoline will have on this type of paint. I think occasional touch-ups with the same Fusion spray paint might take care of any damage, at least reasonably well. Perhaps by buying a good gasoline funnel you could avoid most spills.

Vinyl "dye" is a similar form of plastic spray paint available in automotive stores; like Krylon Fusion, it is a paint, not a dye, as it consists of pigments suspended in a combination of several different toxic organic solvents, but unlike most spray paints it does soak into the plastic (though only some types of plastic) for a little distance below the surface, reducing the apparent damage from later scratching or chipping. I don't know how the performance of vinyl dye compares to that of Krylon Fusion, and, of course, since we do not know what type of plastic your gas blower is made of, it is impossible to judge in advance how well it might work on it. Not all paints are opaque; any paint that is transparent will suffer the same problem as dye, being unable to cover a dark color. You can usually tell from the label whether a particular paint is supposed to be able to cover darker colors.

Dyeing plastic is best done by adding an insoluble pigment (rather than dye) to the liquid plastic before it is poured or extruded into its final form. Some dyers have experienced success with dyeing certain forms of light-colored plastic, long after manufacture, by immersing the plastic object in a large pot of water, along with the correct choice of dye for the particular plastic, plus any required chemicals. For example, nylon plastic can be dyed by boiling it with acid dye or all-purpose dye, along with a mild acid such as vinegar, which is important for the proper application of acid dyes. Polyester plastic, including anything marked with the recycle logo with a number "1", can be dyed by immersing it in a large pot with a special dye for synthetics that is called disperse dye, along with a horrible-smelling and somewhat toxic carrier chemical, then boiling at a full hard boil for half an hour or longer. However, even if it were a light and therefore dyeable color, I very much doubt that you would be able to fit the housing for your gas blower into an ordinary cooking pot, especially one that you would be willing to never again use for the preparation of food, after you complete the dyeing project, and buying a suitably enormous pot would cost more than a new gas blower. (Dyeing pots should not be used for cooking food.)

So, go ahead and try the Krylon Fusion spray paint. If you want to color only part of the blower, either temporarily remove the part you wish to recolor from the rest of the blower, if possible, or tape several layers of paper or card stock over any areas you want to protect, first testing a bit of your masking material with some of the paint to make sure that the paint does not tend to bleed through.

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Thursday, December 27, 2012

I'm looking for help on finding a dye that will dye a microfiber material

Name: Anni

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Mickey Lawler's SkyQuilts
12 Painting Techniques, Create Dynamic Landscape Quilts

Country or region: USA

Message: Hey, I'm looking for help on finding a dye that will dye a microfiber material. I have about four yards of this fabric, and I've dyed regular natural fabrics before with good results and I'm comfortable with that, but this fabric is for a quilt I'm trying to make. I would greatly appreciate any help or advice you have for me. Thank you very much for your time.

The most important question, whenever you are dyeing something, is always the same: what fiber is it made from? "Microfiber" tells you little about the fiber content, because it is no more than a description of the very small diameter of the fiber. Microfiber fabric is usually made from either polyester or nylon, but it can also be made from polypropylene or other fibers.

If your microfiber is made from polyester, then you can dye it only with disperse dye. Other types of dye, such as acid dye, fiber reactive dye, or all-purpose dye, cannot bond to polyester, no matter what chemicals or process you use with them, and so they end up just washing out. Disperse dye must be applied to polyester at very high heat, either by boiling it for some time with a dye carrier chemical, or by creating dye transfer designs on paper and then ironing them onto the fabric. (See my page, "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".) Alternatively, some fabric paints, in particular those manufactured by Jacquard Products, can be used on polyester; fabric paint techniques such as those described in Mickey Lawlor's book, Skydyes: A Visual Guide to Fabric Painting, are very popular for quilting.

If your microfiber is made from nylon, then it is best dyed with acid dye, the same category of dye that is used for wool. A good choice would be the dyes known as the Nylomine dyes, which you can purchase as Washfast Acid Dyes. (See my page, "Which Washfast Acid colors are pure, and not mixtures?", for more information.) In the US, order Washfast Acid Dyes dyes from PRO Chemical & Dye, in Massachusetts. Nylon can also be dyed with the same disperse dyes used on polyester, but acid dyes are easier to apply and are more washfast on nylon.

If your microfiber is made of another fiber, such as polypropylene, you might not be able to dye it at all. Polypropylene simply cannot be dyed after manufacture.

When you buy a fabric, always look at the end of the bolt. I believe it's a legal requirement to specify the fiber content of the fabric there. It should tell you whether your microfiber fabric is polyester or nylon or something else altogether. It may also tell you a brand name: if it says "Ultrasuede", for example, then you can find more information about it.

Please keep in mind that it is always important to test your materials on a small piece of the fabric, whether you decide to use dye or fabric paint, before investing a large amount of time or money into using them.

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Monday, December 24, 2012

Name: Ann

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Linda Knutson's
Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers

An ideal introduction to how to use synthetic dyes.

1000mL Plastic Graduated Cylinder

Country or region: USA

Message: I am wondering if I can gradate one color to get 10 different hues of that color. What would be the proportions to do that, saying that you wanted 1/2 yard of each color? I am in a challenge for a monochromatic quilt and would love the above information Thank you.

For each step in the gradation, I recommend using half as much dye. For example, start by mixing up twice as much dye as you need for your darkest piece, and pour half into the first container or bag. Dilute the remaining half of the mixed-up dye by adding an equal volume of water (or urea water, or whatever liquid you're using), mix it together, then put half of the resulting quantity into container two. Dilute the remaining dye mixture by adding an equal quantity of water, and so on, until you have as many steps as you want.

This is not the only way to do a gradation, but it works well, and it's very simple to keep straight. It's a much better method than the more obvious one of adding, say, ten parts of the dye mixture to the first contain, nine parts to the second, eight to the third, etc, because the differences between each of these steps will be too small and can be imperceptible in many cases, and the changes in color don't look as though they are evenly spaced. Halving the concentration of dye at each step gives results that look evenly spaced, visually.

For an overview of how much dye you want to use at the beginning and end of your gradations, take a look at my page, "How much Procion MX dye should I use?". For high-water-ratio immersion dyeing, you might use 2.5 grams of dye per pound of fiber to get a pale color, 7.5 grams of dye powder per pound of fabric to get a medium color, 15 grams per pound for a dark color, or 30 grams for black. 2.5 grams of dye per pound of fiber works out to be 0.55%, whereas 30 grams of dye powder per pound of fiber works out to be 6.6%.

A typical quilting cotton might weigh 4.5 ounces per square yard; for 42-inch-wide fabric, this works out to 5.25 ounces per yard, or 149 grams. Say 75 grams of fabric per half-yard piece, or one-sixth of a pound; that's what your cotton fabric would weigh. (Use your kitchen scale to weight ten half-yard swatches to find the true weight of your fabric, so you can adjust your dye quantities appropriately.) The very darkest color might take up to 10% or even 12% of the weight of the fabric in dye, if you're trying for an extremely dark color intensity, but 5% of the weight of the fabric (OWG, standing for "On Weight of Goods") is a more likely first step, for the darkest color, and quite dark enough for any color other than black. 5% of 75 grams is 3.75 grams. If the darkest color swatch gets 3.75 grams of dye powder, and you mix up a total of 7 grams of dye, then the second-darkest color would get 1.9 grams for 2.5% OWG; the third 0.9 grams for 1.25% OWG; the fourth 0.47 grams for 0.625% OWG; the fifth 0.23 grams for 0.31% OWG; the sixth 0.12 grams for 0.15% OWG; the seventh 0.059 grams for 0.078% OWG; the eighth 0.029 grams for 0.039% OWG; the ninth, 0.015 grams for 0.020% OWG; and the tenth, 0.0073 grams for 0.0098% OWG.

On further thought, those last three steps, less than 0.05% OWG, would work out to be awfully pale, probably too pale for you. A six-step gradation works very well with the dilute-half-each-time scheme, but perhaps you'd prefer to make your steps smaller for a ten-step gradation. For each step, you could put 2/3 of the dye into the next container, diluting it by adding only half as much water. If you started with dye quantity of 5% OWG, with steps of 2/3, then that would give you a gradation of 5.0% OWG, 3.3% OWG, 2.2% OWG, 1.48% OWG, 0.99% OWG, 0.66% OWG, 0.44% OWG, 0.30% OWG, 0.20% OWG, and 0.13% OWG.

If you put 3/4 of the dye into the next container each time, your gradation will proceed from 5.0% to 3.8%, 2.9%, 2.1%, 1.6%, 1.2%, 0.89%, 0.67%, 0.50%, and 0.38%. To do this, for ten pieces of fabric that each weigh 75 grams, you could start by dissolving 15 grams of dye in one liter of water, or of chemical water (water plus water softener plus urea), or whatever liquid your particular dyeing method calls for, in a jug or pitcher of some sort. You'll want to start with four times as much dye powder, total, as is needed for your first swatch of fabric. Pour 250 ml of the dissolved dye mixture into your first container or baggie. This first container has one-quarter of 15 grams of dye, which for a 75-gram piece of fabric works out to be 5.0% OWG. Now, for the next step, add 250 ml of water (or chemical water or whatever) to the original jug with the remaining dye mixture, mix again, then pour 250 ml of dye mixture into your second container or baggie. Add another 250 ml of water or chemical water to your jug, mix again, and pour 250 ml into your third container. Keep doing this for as many gradations as you want to include. At the end you will have 750 ml of the weakest concentration of dye in your jug to discard.

Each step should be multiplied by the same fraction as each previous step, in order to get a smooth progression of apparent color intensity. For a gradation with more steps, use a larger fraction of each color intensity in order to get the next one; for a gradation with fewer steps, use a smaller fraction. Since you are creating each color step simply by diluting the previous one the same way each time, it's much easier to actually do the color gradation than it is to calculate it.

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Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Can I use cold water to dye rayon with Procion MX dyes so it doesn't shrink?

Name: Shari

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Country or region: United States

Message: I couldn't find the answer to my question. I bought some Dharma Procion MX dyes to dye some of my rayon clothes (viscose rayon). I don't want to heat the water very high because the rayon garment will shrink. Can I use the Procion MX dyes in cold water, and, if so, how do I do that? Thank you for being such a wonderful mentor to all of us.

Yes, you can do this. Rayon will dye very nicely with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes in room temperature water, as long as it's 70°F or warmer; that is warm enough for the dye to react with rayon or cotton, in the presence of soda ash. Procion MX dyes are known as "cold water" dyes, but the word "cold" in the textile industry doesn't mean quite what it does in any other field. The water must be at least lukewarm, not actually cold. Recommendations vary on how cold the water must be to avoid heat-related shrinkage, but you should certainly be safe below 85°F. That gives you a reasonable temperature range to aim for.

Some of the same warnings apply as for yesterday's question ("How can I dye a washable bright yellow lined wool peacoat?"): not all garments are dyeable, and you can assume that some of them will not turn out well, due to uneven dyeing (though this is not as big a problem for tie-dyeing or LWI-dyeing as it is for solid-color dyeing). However, dyeing rayon in cool water is an easier project than dyeing wool, so you are likely to be successful with many of the garments you try to dye, as long as they are unlined. Keep in mind that the stitching that is holding your rayon garments together is almost certainly made of polyester, unless you bought the rayon clothing from Dharma or another supplier of blanks for dyeing, so it will remain the original color. A special warning for rayon is that it is fragile when wet, so be gentle with it whenever you wash or dye it.

Normally we use hot water for prewashing clothing before dyeing. Since you want to avoid hot water, just wash as thoroughly as you can in the water temperature you usually use for these clothes. The biggest pitfall is invisible stains on clothing that has been worn before, or even on some new clothing that is not labeled "PFD" or "RTD" ("Prepared For Dyeing" or "Ready To Dye"); they can cause odd undyed spots, since they prevent dye from reaching the fiber, but in most cases you will be okay.

We also usually use very hot water (140°F or hotter) to wash out the unattached excess dye, after dyeing, after first doing one wash cycle in cool water. Here again you can get by without the hot water, but you will have to be more careful about the possibility of unattached dye running. If you dye clothing with Procion MX dyes and then wash them in very hot water, they will later be safe in the laundry even when washed together with white clothing in hot water, because the hot water removes all of the unattached dye; however, if you do not wash out your dyed clothing with hot water, you should be careful to sort your laundry by color to avoid problems. Washing thoroughly in cool water is sufficient to prevent crocking later on, which is when dry fabric rubs dye onto other things, but not to prevent some unattached dye from running when wet. Wash your dyed clothes repeatedly in whatever temperature of water you are comfortable with, until you see no more dye in the water; afterwards, be careful not to leave the clothes in contact with other fabric when they are wet. For example, don't toss a damp shirt onto a light-colored couch, and don't leave slightly damp clothes in a pile together.

Another point is that we often wash out all of our different-colored tie-dyes together, knowing that very hot water will remove any unwanted dye transfer, if it occurs after all of the dye has fully reacted. I dump every color into the washing machine at once, without problems. Since you will not be using hot water, you must be very careful to avoid washing multiple colors together. If you do dye a cool-water-only piece with strong color contrasts, rinse it out extremely well by hand, separately, taking care to rinse darker areas so that the dye run-off does not run over the lighter parts of the fabric.

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Monday, December 17, 2012

How can I dye a washable bright yellow lined wool peacoat?

Name: Maiko

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Granite Ware 21-1/2-Quart Steel/Porcelain Canner

Country or region: United States

Message: Hi, I would like to know how I can dye a coat like the one I linked below. The description says it is wool blend. I don't know if it matters, but here are more details on the coat:

Fabric: 70% Wool, 30% Polyamide
Lining: 80% Polyester, 20% Cotton
Sleeve Lining: 100% Polyester

I would really appreciate your help.

Don't buy this coat in order to dye it, unless you see it being sold for something like $10. If you own it already, don't dye it unless you are prepared to risk destroying the coat in the process. Clothing like this is unpredictable; it may or may not be dyeable, so it is not worth paying even sale prices for it, in order to dye it. A big problem is that even dyeable fibers are often coated with treatments that prevent dye from reaching the fiber evenly. There may be blotches of fabric-finish chemicals that are invisible now, but which will become sadly visible upon dyeing. Different sections of the garment may have been cut from different bolts of fabric, so that although they match in color now, they will come out obviously different after dyeing.

Dyeing a lined garment is particularly problematic. Chances are that either the inner or the outer layer will shrink more than the other layer. When this happens, the shape of the garment is permanently ruined; it never lays right again. Your coat is labeled as being washable, which is encouraging; however, both the wool and the nylon ('polyamide') in the outer layer require heat in order to fix the dye that must be used on them. Wool and nylon are dyed with a type of dye called acid dye. I am sure that the washing instructions for that coat call for cold water, which will not work for dyeing it. Hot water is likely to cause at least a little shrinkage in one of the layers. You can't be at all sure that the coat will look right after dyeing.

If you do decide to go ahead and dye this coat, you must first acquire a very large non-reactive cooking pot for dyeing. The pot must be large enough for the coat to move in freely, in the dye water, as you stir it. You can't use an aluminum pot, although those are the cheapest sort, because aluminum will react with the acid (usually vinegar) that must be used along with the acid dye. This means that you must find either an enamel pot or a stainless steel pot; the size should be at least five gallons, I think, depending on the size of the coat. If the fabric fits too tightly in the dyeing pot, then the dye will take unevenly, lighter in some areas and darker in others. A five-gallon enamelware pot will cost you at least $40 or $50. On the other hand, if your goal is to obtain a multi-colored result, whether tie-dyed or not, you can do it with a somewhat smaller pot; I will give you more information about that if you wish. In my opinion, this project might be worth the risk if you want a multi-colored effect, but not if you are trying to produce an ordinary dark solid-colored version of the coat shown in the picture.

You will not be able to dye the polyester lining of the coat, so its current color is the one you will have to live with, if you dye the coat. The same is true of the polyester stitching which was used to sew the jacket together. Yellow stitches might look odd on a darker-colored coat. Polyester cannot be dyed except by extensive boiling with a special polyester dye; the amount of boiling required is sure to shrink the coat. Wool and nylon are much easier to dye than polyester is. I would recommend that you dye wool and nylon at a temperature around 185°F.

The two best approaches to garment dyeing are to purchase clothing labeled PFD (for "Prepared To Dye") or RTD (for "Ready To Dye"), or, if you can't find a suitable garment, to dye yardage and hire a tailor or seamstress to sew it together for you. Dyeing other clothing, whether used or new, is always a gamble; it's a fun gamble and often works, but certainly not always. You must be prepared for a real rate of failure. PFD clothing is much more reliable, but unfortunately I haven't seen any PFD coats for sale anywhere. I have seen a pattern for a similar coat for sale on Etsy, which you might be able to get someone to sew for you.

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Friday, December 14, 2012

How can I dye wool without spots and unevenness?

Name: Galina

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Linda Knutson's
Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers

An ideal introduction to how to use synthetic dyes.

Country or region: Russia

Message: Hi, Paula!
Paula, I read the methods of dyeing of cotton on Your web-site. Did you dye wool? I tried to dye different paints, salt, soda and gelatin. But all spreads ит is spread by spots. Here example as necessary, but for me does not turn out. There are lines even on a photo, and for me paints are mixed. What will you advise?
here my works - http://my.mail.ru/mail/priroda-sakon/photo?album_id=1795
Galina

Hi Galina,

There are some pages about dyeing wool on my site, starting with "How to Dye Wool."

To get a very smooth solid color when dyeing wool, you need to use a good dye, not a paint. I don't know whether the two concepts, dye versus paint, use the same word in Russian, but I do know that in some languages the same word is used for both. In English, the word "dye" does not mean the same thing as "paint", though both can be used to color fabric. The difference is that a fabric dye clings to the fiber by its own chemical attraction to it, while fabric paint is made by mixing insoluble pigments with a sort of fabric glue. Paint is usually better for making designs, rather than solid colors; dyes can be used both for painting designs and for coloring the fabric or yarn a single color.

Which dye you choose is the main factor in whether your dye acts the way you want it to. Some dyes are better for one property, while other dyes are better for a different one. There are two properties in wool dyeing that are opposites to each other: one is good washfastness, while the other is good leveling. Highly washfast dyes will cling tightly where they first make contact with the wool, so they don't wash out quickly, but they also don't smooth themselves out on the wool. Dyes that are good at leveling make a smooth solid color, but they tend to come out when washed, so clothing dyed with them is best cleaned only by dry cleaning (cleaning with toxic organic solvents instead of water).

A good dye choice for you would be Jacquard Acid Dye, which is available in at least one shop in Russia, Chernaya Rechka Art Material. There are many other brands of acid dye, too, most of which will be suitable for your question. Synthetic food coloring will work, too, but not with soda; see my page "Using Food Coloring as a Textile Dye for Protein Fibers" for more information. You can use artificially-colored unsweetened gelatin mixes, or artificially color unsweetened drink mix powder, as sources of synthetic food color.

Besides the choice of dye, it is important to choose the right auxiliary ingredients. Certain chemicals improve leveling dramatically; which you should use depends on what dye you have chosen. Chemicals such as Glauber's salt (sodium sulfate) are useful for improving leveling in some dyes, but not others. It is important to find a reliable recipe to follow for the exact dye you are using. Using a larger quantity of water is also important in getting a smooth solid color.

Wool should not be dyed with soda. Soda refers to several chemicals that increase the pH of the dyebath: soda ash is sodium carbonate, Na2CO3, which raises the pH to around 11; caustic soda is sodium hydroxide, NaOH, which raises it as high as 14, depending on how much you use; and baking soda is sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3, which raises the pH to around 8. You do not want to raise the pH of wool above 8 or 9, at the most, because a high pH will permanently change the texture of wool. It will often cause wool to turn to felt when you don't want it to. Baking soda can be used safely with wool, but it is not useful for most wool dyes.

Instead of using any kind of soda, it is usually best to dye wool using an acid. Acid is, chemically, the opposite of a base such as soda ash; it lowers the pH of the dyebath. The most popular wool-dyeing acid for use in hand dyeing is vinegar, because it is very easy to find for use in food. Whenever you see vinegar mentioned in a dye recipe, you want a product that contains 5% acetic acid, by weight. This is a common strength for food-use vinegar, used in making salad dressing and pickles. If your vinegar is 4% acetic acid, you will need to use more of it; if it's 10% acetic acid, you will use less of it. We prefer to use vinegar that has been distilled from grain, because the distillation process leaves it very clean and white; however, in most cases, any inexpensive food-use vinegar will work, such as vinegar made from apple cider.

You will get a smoother color if you allow the dye to thoroughly penetrate the wool before you add the acid, and only then add the vinegar. The recipe for dyeing wool with Jacquard Acid Dye is as follows:

"STOVE TOP METHOD:

Fill a stainless steel or enamel pot with just enough hot or warm water for the fabric to swim freely, turn on the heat.
Add the dye powder to the pot and stir. Normally, in this procedure you would add 2 to 4% of the dry weight of the fabric in dye powder. For example, if you are dyeing 1 pound of fabric, use 1/3 to 2/3 of an ounce of dye.
Add the fabric that has been thoroughly wetted to the dyepot.
Raise the temperature to 185° to 200°F [85°D to 93°C], just below boiling. Stir frequently.
Add 1⁄4 cup of vinegar per pound of fabric. Try not to pour directly onto the fabric.
Maintain temperature and stir frequently for 1⁄2 hour. Wash in Synthrapol or mild detergent and warm water.

"Note: If you are dyeing wool, a gradual heating and gradual cooling of the dyebath is important so as not to shock and felt the wool." [One pound is 454 grams; one ounce of dye is about 30 grams.] For this recipe and additional information, see Jacquard's Acid Dye Instructions. [PDF]

Please let me know if any if this is unclear.

You have beautiful work in your photo album. Let me encourage you to join the Dye Forum. Please send me an email about it if you do, to let me know to approve your registration.

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Thursday, December 13, 2012

What do I do if I have forgotten the soda ash dye fixer? Can I put it on after?

Name: Olivia

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Country or region: Victoria

Message: What do I do if I have forgotten to put the soda ash dye fixer on my clothes before I dyed my clothes? Can I put it on after? Thanks

Yes, if you forget to use soda ash before fiber reactive dyes, you can apply soda ash afterwards. The colors may run together, but that's probably better than having them wash out, which is sure to happen if you don't use either soda ash or one of its substitutes.

(Of course, this does nothing useful for other types of dye, such as all-purpose dye. Do not use soda ash with Rit dye.)

Alternatively, you can give up on this round of dyeing, skip the soda ash, wash out most of the dye now with hot water, leaving only a pastel dye stain, and then start over with the dyeing.

If you dip the dyed clothes into a bucket of soda ash solution (a popular recipe calls for one cup of soda ash per gallon of water, or 250 ml per four liters), then the colors will run together somewhat before they are all fixed. Whether this is a problem or not depends on your color choices and whether you made a multicolored design. This method works fine for solid colors, and usually for low water immersion dyeing as well.

For tie-dyed or dye-painted clothing whose designs you want to keep, you can spread them out flat, and spray them with the same soda ash solution. Watch out for running color between layers of fabric, as for example if you did the back of the fabric differently than the front (maybe place a plastic-wrapped piece of cardboard between the layers in that case). It's best to apply the soda ash before untying the fabric at all, if you were tie-dyeing.

To reduce the amount that the color runs when dipping unfixed dyed clothing in a bucket of soda ash mixture, dissolve a lot of ordinary table salt in the soda ash mixture, as much salt as you can dissolve in it, with even a little salt remain undissolved at the bottom, before applying it to the clothes. Salt reduces the solubility of dyes, so it reduces the amount of unwanted color transfer, though it will not eliminate it.

If you dyed only one or two pieces, and you are very concerned about having the colors run together, an alternative is to use sodium silicate instead of soda ash. Sodium silicate is a liquid that you paint on after you apply the fiber reactive dye, as a substitute for the soda ash; its most common use is for fixing hand painted dyes. See my page, "Sodium silicate as a fixative for dyeing".

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Where can I purchase dyeing supplies in Alberta or Saskatchewan, Canada?

Name: Betty

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Country or region: Saskatchewan

Message: Where can I purchase dyeing supplies in Alberta or Saskatchewan?

I am sorry to see that Harmony Hand Dyes, in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, has closed, as the owner has retired. However, the owner of Harmony Hand Dyes has sold her remaining stock to Skyswept Designs, which this week is moving to Maple Creek, Saskatchewan. Skyswept Designs is temporarily closed, but will be reopening in February. Skyswept Designs, like Harmony Hand Dyes, includes an online business, so you can order by mail. I am not sure whether or not they sell dyes.

Kensington Art Supply, in Calgary, Alberta, lists Procion MX dyes and iDye dyes, including iDye Poly for polyester and acrylic, but I don't think they sell by mail-order.

Most serious dyers buy their dyes by mail order, for wider product and color choices. In Canada, two of the most-often-recommended dye suppliers for hand dyers and artists are Maiwa Handprints in British Columbia and G & S Dye in Ontario. Both are very good sources for dyes and dyeing supplies.

Some dyers prefer to order from dye suppliers in the US, usually either Dharma Trading Company in California or PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, in spite of the added shipping costs to other countries; the prices on dyes are lower, which helps to make up for the shipping, and they carry some additional products.

See my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World", at pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml, for more information on where in various countries to buy supplies for dyeing.

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Monday, December 10, 2012

The stitches making the garment are synthetic so they are still white. Which dyes should I use to get best results?

Name: Steve

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Country or region: KENYA

Message: I have several T-shirts white in colour which I want to dye. I have dyed one using Red dye (reactive) but the stitches making the garment happen to be synthetic so they are still white. Which dyes should I use to get best results?

Unfortunately, the polyester thread that is commonly used in clothing will not take any of the same dyes that cotton does. Polyester can be dyed only with a special dye for synthetic fibers, which is called disperse dye. It will not dye with any cotton dye. See "Dyeing thread in pre-sewn clothing".

You could, in theory, dye the polyester thread and the cotton fabric in two separate steps, or by mixing the polyester dye with a less washfast kind of cotton dye called direct dye, but I personally would rather not do this. Disperse dye is applied either by boiling the garment in the dye, along with a foul smelling toxic dye carrier molecule, or by heat transfer. Both of these are too much trouble, in my opinion, for dyeing just the thread in a garment. Dyeing with disperse dye is much more trouble, and much more unpleasant, than dyeing cotton with a good dye for cotton. I would rather either accept the whiteness of the thread, or dye unsewn fabric yardage and hire someone to sew it into garments, using matching thread.

Garments that have been sewn with cotton thread do look better after dyeing than those sewn with polyester thread, when you are dyeing solid colors or designs that don't have a lot of white. Try to find t-shirts or other clothing blanks that are labeled as PFD ("Prepared For Dyeing") or RTD ("Ready To Dye"); these indicate a shirt that is sewn with cotton thread, which will dye well. I am sorry that I cannot help you find a source for PFD cotton t-shirts in Kenya. In the US, Dharma Trading Company sells clothing sewn with cotton thread, and they do ship to Kenya, but I would imagine that the shipping for clothing would be prohibitively expensive.

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Sunday, December 09, 2012

Most of the dye washed off with the hot water. Is this because I didn't do the dyeing properly?

Name: Hector

Country or region: Colorado USA

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Message: Hi Paula, I contacted you a few months back about batiking a Cuban flag. Your information was very helpful and although I'm still tweaking my techniques the projects are getting better.

My question (I haven't been able to come up with a definitive answer in the forum) is about removing the wax after dyeing. I"ve tried the ironing method but it leaves a waxy shade around the batiked area. I tried boiling the garment (I'm working with white tshirts) but most of the dye washed off with the hot water. Is this because I didn't do the dyeing properly? I am using the low immersion process with the soda ash. I have found your forum to be very helpful.

Thanks for devoting your time to help confused people like me achieve some knowledge of this art medium.

Hi, Hector,

Something must have gone wrong in the dyeing process, if most of the dye washed out, leaving little color behind. Fiber reactive dyes are very good at resisting very hot water, even when boiled, if they have been fixed properly. The first question I must ask is, what kind of dye are you using? All-purpose dye, for example, such as Rit brand dye, will not work for batik, because it inevitably washes out in hot water. You must use fiber reactive dye; the most popular type of this dye for hand-dyeing is Procion MX dye.

Since you are in Colorado, a good source for fiber reactive dye is Colorado Wholesale Dye, also known as Grateful Dyes. Their dyes are all Procion MX type fiber reactive dyes. They are located in Littleton, Colorado, and do most of their business by mail-order. Other good sources for dyes are on my page "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

There are other things that can go wrong even if you are using the right sort of dye, but they are less likely. You need to make sure that the dye is reasonably fresh, because dye that is too old will spoil and will not be able to attach to the fabric. It will usually last for at least a year or two. Sometimes, though not very often, a craft store will sell old dye that has been on the shelf for so long that it is no longer good. The dye needs to never have been exposed to high heat, such as being left in a car with closed windows on a sunny day, because high heat can spoil the dye quickly. The soda ash has to really be soda ash, and not, for example, mislabeled baking soda or urea. Fiber reactive dye has to be dissolved in room temperature water, not in boiling water, and, if you choose to mix the dye with the soda ash, it should not be mixed with the soda ash until just a few minutes before you apply it to the fabric.

The fabric can be a problem, also. Polyester will not work; look for 100% cotton, or 100% rayon or silk. Do not ever use stain-resistant or water-resistant fabric or clothing, because they will resist the dye, as well.

Even if you use the right sort of dye, and do everything else right, it doesn't mean you won't see dye come out of the fabric, though. Some of the dye does not attach, and has to be washed out; it can be rather alarming to see how much dye appears in the wash water, even when the dye has been properly fixed. This is to be expected. Quite a lot of washing is required after dyeing with reactive dyes. Your first washing should be done with cool water; don't use detergent in the first washing, unless you have Synthrapol, which is okay even in the first washing. Before boiling out the wax from batik, it is good to remove as much dye as you can with water that is not hot enough to melt the wax. Even after washing out as much dye as you can using cool water, more dye will come out into hotter water, but it is more convenient to remove as much dye with cool and warm water as you can, before boiling.

Boiling is in my experience the best way to remove batik wax. I like to add a small amount of real soap, not detergent, to the water used to boil out the wax. You don't actually need to reach temperatures as high as boiling, as the wax will melt and float to the top when the water is hot but not yet simmering. The fabric should be submerged so the it is not touching the surface of the water where the wax will collect. Let the water cool so that the wax solidifies before you remove the fabric.

You can avoid the bother of boiling out the wax by using a product called soy wax instead of batik wax. Soy wax is not quite as durable on the fabric as batik wax, but it is good enough most of the time, depending on what you are doing, and it is much less trouble to remove. Soy wax can be removed in water that is 140°F (60°C), if you use enough detergent to suspend the wax so that it does not deposit in your plumbing. I advise against removing soy wax in a washing machine, because it's harder to tell whether you have used enough detergent, and you don't want to get hardened wax into your pipes. I advice removing soy wax in a bucket of very hot water, checking the temperature of your tap water to make sure it is at least 140°F. After the soy wax has come out of the fabric, wash it in a washing machine as usual.

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