Archives for August, 2012

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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

How can we dye nylon 6,6 balls red without affecting their impact properties?

Name: Maurice

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Linda Knutson's
Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers

An ideal introduction to how to use synthetic dyes.

Country or region: Florida, USA

Message: We are trying to dye 3/4-inch diameter 6/6 nylon balls to a bright red color. The outcome must be such that impact properties of the nylon are not adversely affected. We have tried RIT dye, 100%, immersion for 4 days, only for the dye to rinse off, leaving the balls a tan color. What would you recommend? Thank you for your help on this matter.

It's possible that your nylon balls have some sort of surface finish that is preventing the dye from bonding to the nylon. The finish might have been applied for some other purpose in manufacturing and only inadvertently prevent dyeing, or it might be a water-repellent or stain-resistant finish of some sort. Some surface finishes can be removed by a dip in strong acid, but many are impossible to remove. (Always prewash anything you want to dye, as thoroughly as possible, using detergent and very hot water.)

Although the acid dye in Rit all-purpose dye is not of the highest quality, I would expect it to work on any dyeable nylon, to at least some extent, when applied to under the right circumstances, which means in the presence of both heat and a mild acid. Perhaps the Rit dye would not produce the very best red, but I would expect at least a light pink, indicating that the material is what it's supposed to be. In a very small-scale test, I myself have obtained a rather intense reddish color on nylon 6,6 by simmering it for half an hour at 85°C with fuchsia Rit dye (new formula), even without any added acid.

Did you use any acid in your dyebath, such as vinegar? The right pH is helpful in getting dyes to work well on nylon. The makers of Rit dye recommend adding one cup of vinegar for three gallons of water, when dyeing nylon, or about 2% by volume.

The right temperature is an even more important part of dyeing nylon. Did you heat your dyebath? I would not expect any dye to take well on nylon when applied at room temperature. Have you tested your nylon 6,6 balls to determine whether heating them in a dyebath interferes with their impact properties? The melting point of nylon 6,6 is supposed to be 509°F (265°C), which is safely far above the temperature required for a nylon dyebath. Different recipes for dyeing nylon with acid dyes call for temperatures anywhere from the 140°F (60°C) called for by Rit to almost boiling at 205°F (96°C). I usually aim for 185°F (85°C).

Try your all-purpose dye again, using some vinegar and heating the bath to at least 140°F; if the balls do not turn pink at all, then either they are made of a different fiber than nylon, or they are coated with an undyeable surface finish. If they do turn pink, then you may want to look into getting a better acid dye. Getting a true red often requires using much more dye than most other colors do, because bright red is a very intense dye color; you may want to double the amount of dye powder you use.

While there are many different kinds of acid dyes that should work on nylon, a particularly good choice would be one of the Nylomine dyes, sold by PRO Chemical & Dye under the name Washfast Acid dyes. They have many different color choices. Do not rely on the color chips that they publish for the dye; the color chips are intended for use only as an indication of likely color, but, like all dyes, must always be confirmed with a test dyeing. Since they do differ chemically, one of the colors might work better for you than another similar color. When applying the dye, it is important to follow the manufacturers' instructions as closely as possible. PRO Chemical & Dye's instructions [PDF] for using their dyes are available online for dyeing nylon using Washfast Acid dyes.

The Washfast Acid dyes should work well if your nylon is free of surface finishes and if you follow the recipe; however, no dye will work if the balls are coated with a surface finish that keeps the dye from penetrating into the surface fiber. If that's the case, it's likely that the only solution will be to try a different ball supplier.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Name: Constance

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Label:
Remazol dyes
for use on silk without steaming

Jacquard Silk Color Kit dyes and instructions

The Jacquard Green Label Dyes can be used with a chemical fixative without steaming your silk, but they are far more dilute than the newer Jacquard Vinyl Sulphon dyes.

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Country or region: U.S.A.

Message: My regular suppliers (i.e. Prochem, Dharma, Rupert Gibbon) have all discontinued Procion H dyes. I AM FRANTIC ! Do you have another source for this dye?

Many former users of Procion H dyes have switched to Remazol fiber reactive dyes, the vinyl sulfones, which are sold by ProChem as Liquid Reactive Dyes and by Dharma and other retailers of Rupert Gibbon and Spider products as Jacquard Vinyl Sulphon dyes. However, if you really don't want to switch dye types, there are two extremes that I can suggest as sources of Procion H and HE dyes.

One is G&S Dye, in Toronto, which sells small jars of many different colors of Procion H and HE dyes in liquid form, pre-mixed with all needed auxiliary chemicals for silk painting. G&S is a company aimed at the hand dyer, so they are easy to deal with. They carry an incredible 97 different colors mixed from a dozen or so different Procion H and HE dyes.

The other is a more industrially oriented supplier, Standard Dyes in High Point, North Carolina, which sells Procion H and HE dye powder, suitable for use in dyeing both silk and any plant fiber, such as cotton or rayon, depending on the recipe you follow. They sell dyes with a minimum order of one pound per color; they do not sell premixed colors, so you would have to mix your own. The powdered dyes from Standard are usually available at lower prices per pound than you've paid in the past, and certainly cost less per gram of Procion H dye than G&S's Procion H dyes do, but the minimum size makes an order more expensive than buying the smaller jars from your former suppliers.

My experience with Standard has been that they may substitute a mixed color of a similar hue unless you are careful to specify that you want a certain Colour Index Name (the generic name as listed in a publication called The Colour Index). Here is a table indicating probable equivalents from Standard for Prochem's old Procion H and HE dyes:

ProChem	Colour Index name	Standard Dyes
Pro H-E6G Sun Yellow	reactive yellow 135	Permabril Yellow HE-6G
Pro H-E4R Gold Yellow	reactive yellow 84	Permabril Yellow HE-4R
Pro H-ER Real orange	reactive orange 84	Permabril Orange HER
Pro H-E3B Basic Red	reactive red 120	Permabril Red HE3B
Pro H-E7B Fuchsia	reactive red 141	Permabril Red HE-7B
Pro H-ERD Bright Blue	reactive blue 160	Permabril Blue HERD
Pro H-EGN Basic Blue	reactive blue 198	Permabril Blue HEGN 125%
Pro H-A turquoise	reactive blue 71	Permabril Turquoise HA
Pro H-E4BD Forest Green	reactive green 19	Permabril Green HE-4BD
Pro H-ERN Full Navy	reactive blue 171	Permabril Navy HER 150%

There are many different Procion H and HE dyes for each basic color; it happens that, in many cases, G&S doesn't choose the exact same dyes as ProChem did. The ones that contain the same dye, and no other dyes, are reactive blue 234, which ProChem sold as Pro H-5R Reddish Blue and G&S lists as P555 Blue; reactive blue 171, which G&S lists as P570 Indigo; reactive blue 71, which G&S lists as P500 Turquoise; and reactive brown 17, which G&S lists as P730 Brown.

Please let me know, if you decide to order these dyes, how it works out for you. I have never ordered Procion H or HE dyes from either Standard or G&S. Standard still shows these dyes on their web site, so I would assume that they do still carry them; on the other hand, the fact that ProChem no longer sells them may indicate a problem with accessing supply, so we can't be sure until you contact Standard. I do believe that G&S plans to continue selling their Procion H dyes.

For more information, see my page about Procion H and HE dyes. Contact information for both G&S Dye and Standard Dye are listed on my page. "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".

UPDATE: Maiwa Handprints, in Vancouver, is selling Procion H liquid dye which appears to be the same highly concentrated no-auxiliaries formula that ProChem used to sell, suitable for both plant and animal fibers.

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Is it true that there are now only three colors of Inkodye light-sensitive dye?

Hi Paula,

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using Inkdoyes

Artistic Photographic Processes
by Suda House

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Thank you for the information that I found on the internet about INKO. I have been using them for 30 years, purchasing from the source in Oakland, California, when Dharma did not carry INKO. Dharma Trading Co. has now said that Inko is no longer available in the original palette and has only 3 colors??? Do you know if this is true?

I have used Inko to excellent effect on some very large projects, using linen. I hand paint pattern with no wicking, etc. I have recently been commissioned and the client would prefer silk charmeuse. I have only found reference to "raw silk" in relation to INKO use.

I would love any thoughts you might have.

Thank you, Margaret

I'm sorry to tell you that this is true. I noticed that the company that now makes Inkodyes was limiting the sales on their site to only those three colors several months before Dharma was, presumably while Dharma still had some of their old stock. I thought about ordering some from Dharma while I could, but now it is too late. Maybe it's just as well that I didn't stock up, since the shelf life is supposed to be only about six months after the bottles of dye are opened, and no more than two years unopened.

It's particularly a shame that they chose orange as their third color, instead of yellow, which would at least allow one to mix them together to make a full range of colors. The original palette was so wide. I very much doubt whether the current blue, mixed with red, will make as lovely a color as the old violet. Royal blue and true red are not nearly as good for color mixing as cyan and magenta.

The nature of silk charmeuse is to wick the dye more readily than raw silk. Raw silk would be more similar to the line you have used. I strongly recommend you buy some extra silk charmeuse and experiment with how whatever dye you use creeps along on it. It's lovely material to dye.

If you have to switch from Inkodye to another sort of dye, such as fiber reactive dyes or acid dyes, you will probably want to use a thickener such as sodium alginate to prevent the dye from spreading as easily on the fabric. Let me know if you have questions about that. A good choice for silk painting is the Remazol liquid dye, which can also be used on linen; ProChem sells it as Liquid Reactive Dye, while Dharma sell it as Jacquard's Vinyl Sulphon dyes (the two companies have different color selections). Whether this dye needs to be steam-set depends on which auxiliary chemicals and what recipe you use.

There is a little bit of discussion going on now about Inkodyes on the Dye Forum on my site. Other links to information on Inkodye on this site:

How to Dye and Paint Fabric with Light"
What kind of dye goes on clear and develops under sunlight?
Problems in washing out Inkodye light-activated dye
Inkodye Tutorials [June 2011 Dye Forum post]

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Can you please tell me if you can tiedye "Chiffon" and what would be the BEST dye to use?

Name: Tye

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Ann Milner's book
The Ashford Book of Dyeing

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Country or region: Australia

Message: Hi, Can you please tell me if you can tiedye "Chiffon" and what would be the BEST dye to use?? It's my 30th Birthday in October and I'm having a T party (come dressed as something starting with a T) and I would like to wear my wedding dress again but tie-dye it :) also can I buy the dyes from you ?? Thanks again for your time and looking forward to hearing from you. - Tye

Instead of dyeing, I think you should consider tie-painting, that is, tie-dyeing with a fabric paint, one that works on both natural and synthetic fibers. It's not as good as using the best dye on the most dyeable fabrics, but it's often the best option if you are working with synthetic-fiber fabrics.

Can you dye chiffon? The problem is that this depends on what kind of chiffon you have. Silk chiffon is easy to dye, but polyester chiffon is a big pain. Nylon chiffon is in between the two. Chiffon is a word used to describe a light, fine weave; the word contains no information about what the fiber content of that weave may be. The fact that it is so thin and sheer means that it can't be dyed really dark colors; since light shines right through the fabric, it produces paler-looking colors, unless you have many layers of it.

Is your wedding dress made of silk or of polyester? Silk feels nicer and is more beautiful, but polyester is cheaper. Sadly, if you have no idea what fiber your dress is made of, it is probably made from the cheaper and more difficult-to-dye material. Before you buy dye for your project, you will need to figure out what the fiber content is. Look inside the dress for a seam where there is a little extra fabric, in a place where you can snip a little bit out without its showing. You can do a burn test with this snippet to get an idea of the fiber content. The smell of the burning fiber is an important clue, as is the kind of ash produced, and whether the fabric melts or burns. See the Ditzy Prints Fiber Burn Chart for full details.

If your chiffon is made of silk, you can dye it with acid dyes or fiber reactive dyes. If it's made of nylon, you can dye it with acid dyes or disperse dyes. If it's made of polyester, your only choices are disperse dye or fabric paint. Boiling a wedding dress in disperse dye is a bad idea, but there is a fun and less-damaging way to apply disperse dye by making disperse dye iron-ons. Check out the following pages on this site:

• "How to Dye Silk"

• "How to Dye Nylon"

• "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes"

• "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers"

• "Can we tie-dye a white polyester shirt without using dangerous chemicals?"

• "What is the easiest way to tie-dye a pair of 100% polyester fleece pants?" [The processes described are the same for polyester chiffon as for polyester fleece.]

I don't have any affiliate links for Australian companies, but I doubt that you'll want to use any of the links for US dye sources on my site because of the cost of shipping. Kraftkolour is an excellent source in Australia for ordering acid dyes, reactive dyes, disperse dyes, Transprint inks for polyester iron-ons, and fabric paints.

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Dearest Paula,

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I've been searching around on your website for a few days hoping to find the answer to my question. I have to teach a large group of kids tie-dye t-shirts this Saturday. I've already bought about a dozen packages of Dylon Permanent Dye for the project. I want to premix the dye on Friday evening (if this is okay) but can't find the ratio of water to dye for this method of tie-dye (as I want to stretch the dye as far as possible for the large number (maybe 50 kids).

I'm doing the spiral twist method where we make a tight spiral and tie with elastics to make a pie slices pattern. Then apply dye from squeeze bottles to the top and then the underside of the "pie" shape.

On the package I believe it says to disolve the packet in 500ml of tepid water then add 6 litres of water for immersing a whole t-shirt. I'm at a loss for the water to dye ratio for what I want to do. I tried "winging it" with the water mix last year but the shirts turned out very pastel. I'm hoping for darker shirts this time.

Also, do I need to add salt to the dye mix or just mix salt into the rinse that we'll do to "wet" the shirts before twisting into rounds?

I'd just really appreciate if you could get back to me.

Thanks, Karen

Hi Karen,

Do not mix Dylon Permanent dye the night before! It has its high-pH dye fixer chemical already included in the dye mixture, which will cause the dye to start to react as soon as it gets wet.This means that it will go bad after a couple of hours, after which it will produce only very pale colors. (Dylon Permanent Dye contains trisodium phosphate, or TSP, as a good substitute for the soda ash used in most tie-dye kits and recipes.)

Is there any chance you could return the Dylon Permanent dye to the store in exchange for some good tie-dye kits? The Dylon Permanent Dye is designed for use as an immersion dye, not a direct-application dye. You are supposed to mix the dye powder with the recommended amount of water and then immerse your fabric in the dye. This is different from making a dye concentrate and squirting it on, as one usually does for tie-dyeing. You can't simply add less water to the Dylon Permanent dye, because then you will not have added enough water to dilute the TSP and the salt. It is too hard to get the salt to dissolve, and the pH ends up being higher than intended, which makes the color splotchier.

The amount of dye in one packet of Dylon Permanent Dye is supposed to be dissolved in 4 cups (one liter) of water in order to color up to one-half pound of fabric. This is a good quantity for immersing one adult size extra-large t-shirt; depending on the size, you can use this amount of dissolved dye for two or even three kid's t-shirts, because a small kid's t-shirt will weigh half as much or maybe even a third as much as an adult's XL shirt. It's always a good idea to gather several of whatever garment you are going to dye and weigh them, or try weighing one on your kitchen scale, so you can estimate how much dye will be needed.

Are you sure that what you have is Dylon Permanent Dye? Your recipe of 500 ml for dissolving the dye and then 6 liters of dye for the soaking is completely different from the recipe on the Dylon Permanent Dye packages that are sold here in the US, which contain a smaller amount of dye, to be used in only one liter of water, total. Dylon packages their dyes differently in different countries: where are you? Dylon Cold Dyes are completely different in their recipe than Dylon Permanent, so it makes a big difference exactly what you have.

When you dye with large volumes of water, it is important to add the amount of salt required by the recipe. Otherwise, too much of the dye never even manages to reach the fiber in the fabric, so a large amount of the dye gets wasted. When mixing tie-dye dyes at much stronger concentrations, there is no need for salt because of the very high concentration of the dye touching the fabric; unfortunately this method is not suitable for use with Dylon Permanent Dyes and any other dye that has been pre-mixed for high-water-ratio immersion dyeing.

The most popular way to tie-dye t-shirts these days is to use dye powder that either has no soda ash or TSP, or that has the right amount for adding a much smaller amount of water. When you use a dye that is suitable for making a more concentrated tie-dye mixture, you can put it into squirt bottles and drip it directly onto the t-shirt. However, for immersion dyeing in the old-fashioned way, you should tie the shirts and then completely soak them in a single color of dye, following the instructions on the side of the Dylon Permanent Dye package as closely as possible. If you have time, such as a multi-day class, you can rinse out the excess dye afterwards, untie the shirts, tie them again differently, and then dip them into another color of dye. You end up seeing the first color of dye on the shirt wherever the tie covered it in the second dye dipping, and the second color wherever the tie covered it in the first dipping, but a blend of the two colors wherever the shirt was not tied. This old-fashioned method was the only form of tie-dyeing that was practiced before the introduction of modern fiber reactive dyes.

Thanks so much for all the detail in your email. Yes I can return the dye, I can see now that's it's not going to be the best to use in making multicoloured shirts. My issue becomes what to buy and where to get it. I'm in Toronto - actually the northeast end of the City. If you tell me what to buy I can try and get it here in town - we have an art store called Curries but other than that I'm not sure.

Thanks again for writing back with such great info. Hopefully I can get new supplies tomorrow as I leave town Friday to drive to where I've volunteered to do this.

The best Toronto source for dyes is G&S Dye: see their contact page.

Ask them if they have prepackaged tie-dye kits, or buy Procion MX dye, soda ash, and plastic squeeze bottles. You'll also need rubber bands or synthetic sinew, and, most importantly, waterproof gloves in the smallest size you can get for the children to wear. G&S sells latex gloves, I think. You will also need at least fifty disposable plastic zip-top bags for the kids to each put their shirts into to take them home, as they should not wash them out until the next day.

For fifty adults' shirts you would need three jars of different colors of Procion MX dye, at least 6 ounces in total; 3 pounds of soda ash; 2 pounds of urea (optional); and maybe twenty plastic bottles. You won't need quite as much for fifty kids' shirts. Don't forget one dust mask for you to wear while mixing the dye powders with water. You can buy TNA soap from G&S Dye as a Synthrapol substitute, or just use regular laundry detergent. (Prewash all the shirts if possible, and make sure they are 100% cotton.) Use the soda ash as a separate presoak, and you will be able to mix the dyes up the day before. It's not until the dye powder mixes with the soda ash that the dye begins to go bad; if you presoak the tied shirts in soda ash, you can squirt dye that has no soda ash in it at all onto the shirts.

Or you should be able to find prepackaged tie-dyeing kits at local crafts stores or sewing stores, and if they don't have gloves you can buy them at a pharmacy or hardware store. The crafts store is more likely to have the smaller sized gloves. A medical supply house would be even better for extra-small gloves. My favorite tie-dye kits are the ones made by Jacquard, but other brands will work, too. If the kit does not have a separate soda-ash presoaking step, then the dyes must not be mixed with water until just before use. Separating the soda ash step from the dyeing step saves a lot of work since it means you can mix up the dyes a day or two in advance.

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Sunday, August 12, 2012

Is there any difference with a product labeled "natural light soda ash"? Will it work with Procion dyes?

Name: Jamie

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Country or region: USA

Message: I was wondering if you could tell me if there is any difference with a product labeled "natural light soda ash"? Do you know if it will work just fine with procion dyes or might it not be "strong" enough? The package does also say "commercial sodium carbonate". So, does this mean that it is the correct formula regardless if it is labeled as "light"? Thanks if you are able to answer.

Light soda ash is perfectly fine. In fact, it is the normal grade of soda ash that is sold by dye suppliers such as PRO Chemical & Dye. This is exactly what you want to use. However, if you had soda ash that was not of the "light" form, I would tell you to go ahead and use that, anyway.

There are two main grades of soda ash, light and dense. Both have the same molecular weight (105.99), have the same solubility (maximum 33.2% at 35.4°C), and produce the same pH when measured by weight (a 1% solution in plain distilled water is supposed to produce a pH of 11.4).

The difference between the grades lies in density and particle size. Looking at FMC's technical data sheets for their light versus dense soda ash, light soda ash weighs 0.77 grams per cubic centimeter, while dense soda ash weighs 1.06 grams per cubic centimeter. You would use the exact same amount of dense soda ash as light soda ash when measuring by weight, but, in theory, you would need less of the dense soda ash than light if you are measuring it by volume, that is, by the cupful.

In actual practice, we always use more soda ash in dyeing than we really need to. Since soda ash is a relatively weak base, not all of it ionizes when it dissolves, and adding more does not increase the pH all that much, so it's fine to overdo it a bit. Even using ten times as much soda ash as you need will increase the pH by only about half a pH unit. Our recipes typically contain considerably more than the minimum needed to raise the pH to the desired level in order to activate the cellulose molecule so that it can attack a fiber reactive dye.

As far as the description "natural" is concerned, most soda ash in the US is mined in the form of the mineral trona. That must be what is meant by "natural", on your soda ash. In the rest of the world, most soda ash is produced by the Solvay process, from salt plus limestone. I don't see any strong reason for us to choose one over the other, other than the overwhelming reason of local availability.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

Name: Shari

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Country or region: USA

Message: I can't find the answer on your site to my problem. I want to HAND PAINT devore scarves (silk/rayon) with Procion dyes. If I hand paint the scarves, can I then steam them? Obviously I can't use soda ash with silk. How can I hand paint these scarves on a stretcher, and then steam them? OR do I need to steam them, can I just air dry them for a few weeks? Someone said to try dipping the scarves in a baking soda/water solution first and letting it dry. I can't find any info on hand painting devore scarves. Thank you for your help.

The fact is that silk will dye wonderfully with Procion MX fiber reactive dyes and soda ash, following the exact same recipes we use for dyeing cotton. With this dye and fixative, you can stick to room temperature, and avoid steaming altogether. You can presoak your silk in soda ash and then paint on the same dye concentrates we use for tie-dyeing, or you can mix some of your dye concentrate with a teaspoon of soda ash and then use it up within an hour of doing so. There is no need to air-dry for weeks; Procion dyes used with soda ash on silk take between one hour and one day to fix, depending on the recipe that you follow, and must be moist for the entire time.

There are a few precautions to take. One, you should not leave silk to soak in soda ash for days, though that's fine for cotton; presoak it only immediately before dyeing, and wash it out within twenty-four hours. (After you are done washing out the excess dye, restore the pH of the silk by soaking it in water with a few tablespoons of vinegar added.) Two, don't do this with extremely shiny, stiff silks, because soda ash may soften the silk a little.

A third warning: don't expect pre-mixed colors of dye to produce the same colors on silk that they do on cotton, when you use them with soda ash; only the unmixed single-dye colors will stay the same. (See "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?".) This color shift is actually a good thing on silk/rayon devoré scarves, as the contrast between the colors produced on the silk backing and the colors produced on the rayon plush can be very nice. For example, a mixed dye color labeled purple may produce a raspberry color on silk, while a dye labeled aquamarine might produce an emerald green on silk. To use mixed colors, take a scrap piece of the same material and spot on each of your dye colors, keeping careful track of which dye mixture produces what color, both on the silk backing of the scarf and on the rayon plush, so you will know which dyes you want to use for each color.

You can steam scarves that have been dyed with Procion MX dyes, whether you've used soda ash, baking soda, or vinegar as the fixative. When you use Procion MX dyes with soda ash, steaming is not necessary, but some dyers like to steam even then, for the best color. Whenever you use Procion dyes with heat, it is a good idea to add some Ludigol to your dye mixtures to prevent color loss at high heat; you can buy Ludigol from a good dye supplier such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company.

If you dye silk according to the acid method, you will need to apply heat. If you use Procion MX dyes with vinegar instead of soda ash, they will function as acid dyes, not as reactive dyes, so they will need to be steamed, just as with dyes that are labeled as acid dyes. Air-drying for weeks can work for setting fabric paints, as an alternative to ironing or baking, but not for setting acid dyes, which require moist heat to set. A big problem with acid dyes, when dyeing silk devoré, is that acid dyes do not work on the rayon plush, since rayon is a cellulose fiber like cotton. Some acid dyes will stain cotton or rayon, but you should not expect this color to last reliably.

Steaming is usually done after you have allowed the dyes to dry on the fabric. It works well when done with baking soda. After the dye is dry, wrap each scarf in layers of paper. Use either unprinted newsprint, which you can buy from Dharma or an art supply store or a movers supplier, or newspapers that you have saved for six months so that the ink is no longer apt to transfer onto your silk. For small amounts of silk, you can then use a vegetable steamer, but large amounts call for a better system. See my page, "How to Dye Silk", scrolling down to the the section on "How to Fix Your Silk Dye".

As an alternative to steaming, you can enclose your wet silk in zip-top freezer bags and then microwave them just until they are steaming and the bags inflate with steam (it's best to repeat this several times, after letting the bags cool a little to deflate each time so that they do not explode, so that the steam has enough time to work), or you can place your wet dyed silk into black plastic garbage bags and expose the bags to bright sunlight so that the bags get hot inside. (Don't put them on a cold concrete surface; insulate the bags underneath, by placing a blanket or wood or thick plastic under them.) You can also enclose your damp silks safely in plastic bags or plastic boxes and put them inside a closed car on a sunny day; the temperature inside the care can get quite high. To keep different sections of the silk apart, cover each scarf with a large piece of plastic wrap before you roll it up and place it inside a plastic bag; be generous in wrapping your silk with plastic wrap, so color will not transfer from one part of the scarf to another, ruining your design. Note that there must be moisture present, either in the scarves themselves in or the steam you expose them to; the reaction between dye and fiber requires moisture, so the dye cannot be set after it dries out completely.

Baking soda works as a dyeing auxiliary only if you are going to steam your silk. Baking soda does not have a high enough pH to work well with fiber reactive dyes such as Procion dyes, but the heat of steaming turns baking soda into soda ash. (Heating turns sodium bicarbonate into sodium carbonate.) You can use a steam-set dye such as Procion H or Remazol dyes on silk/rayon along with baking soda. These are fiber reactive dyes that need more heat than is provided by room temperature. Remazol dyes are available as ProChem's Liquid Reactive Dyes and as Jacquard Products's Vinyl Sulphon dyes. Unlike acid dyes, the heat-set fiber reactive dyes will work on both rayon and silk, when steamed with baking soda. Remazol dyes are highly suitable for silk painting, much less expensive than the little bottles of silk dye paints, and possibly a little safer to use, as well, since you can get better information on what's in the dyes.You can mix up jars of different colors and keep them for months in the refrigerator. Surprisingly, Remazol dyes work well when steamed even with no fixative at all, no soda ash or baking soda or vinegar.

There is a great deal of additional information on this topic on my page, "How to Dye Silk".

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Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Is it alright to pre-treat cotton with soda ash, dye with a Tulip kit and use Retayne after?

Name: Sacha

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Country or region: USA

Message: Is it alright to pre-treat cotton with soda ash, dye with a Tulip kit and use Retayne after? Will doing so help set and keep the colors fast? Does Tulip really have soda ash in the dye powder?

It is not a bad idea to pre-treat cotton with soda ash before dyeing it with a Tulip kit, even though the dyes are pre-mixed with everything but water. The package of Tulip brand soda ash says on the label, "Use Tulip Fashion Dye Soda Ash to pre-treat all of your dye projects for optimal color results!"

Although soda ash (sodium carbonate) is the best choice for use in tie-dyeing kits, the Tulip tie-dye kits claim on their label to instead contain sodium bicarbonate, which is baking soda; if this is true, then a soda ash presoak will help, because it produces a higher pH which is more suitable for the fiber reactive dyes in the kit.

I strongly advise you to use a much cheaper brand of soda ash than Tulip, though. One four-and-a-half-ounce package of Tulip soda ash costs $6.49 and contains only enough to make two one-gallon batches of soda ash presoak. In contrast, a 4-pound package of 99% sodium carbonate, which is the same stuff, costs less than $10 at a hardware store or pool supply store and will make more than twenty batches of soda ash presoak. It is sold under the name of "pH Up" or "pH Increaser", but be sure to check the fine print on the front of the label to be sure you are getting sodium carbonate and not sodium bicarbonate. In spite of its price, the Tulip brand soda ash is not superior in any way to the much cheaper hardware store product. You can also buy soda ash by mail-order from a good dye supplier, or use Arm & Hammer brand washing soda from the grocery store. Incidentally, it is better to order Procion dyes from a good dye supplier, such as PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company, than it is to buy Tulip dyes, which are more expensive per use, and not always as fresh.

There is no need to bother with Retayne or another cationic dye fixative if you use soda ash with the fiber reactive dyes in a Tulip tie-dye kit, or any other brand of tie-dye kit that contains fiber reactive dyes. Retayne is very helpful with poorly washfast dyes, such as Rit all-purpose dye, but it is not needed for fiber reactive dyes that have been properly washed out. Fiber reactive dyes form a much more permanent bond to the fiber than Retayne does.

One added side note, however: when you apply any dye, you should be sure to put on what will look like too much dye before you wash it out. There is always quite a lot of unattached dye present after the dyeing process is completed, which will have to be washed out, so the true color will turn out to be lighter than what you see while you are applying the dye. This does not mean that the remaining dye is less permanent.

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Thursday, August 02, 2012

Name: Louise

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Synthetic Dyes for Natural Fibers
by Linda Knutson

Country or region: US

Message: Hi Paula,
I was just wondering, for prewashing your fabric, dyeing it, and after washing it, how long should you take to do everything? I originally used RIT dye for everything and would take 30 minutes for prewashing, 30 minutes for dyeing, and minutes for afterwashing, but I have now switched to Procion and don't know if that still applies. I have asked dharmatrading.com but they havent responded.

Prewashing is the same for any dye. It's important to removing sizings, finishes, and invisible stains from fabric before trying to dye it, no matter what dye you are using, because they can block any dye from reaching the fabric evenly. Use the hottest water that the fabric can tolerate, along with Synthrapol or another detergent, plus washing soda or soda ash for extra cleaning power. (This is completely separate from the soda ash you use to fix Procion dyes, because the soda ash used in prewashing rinses out and is gone.)

The amount of time to spend applying the dye varies according to the recipe you are using. Find a trustworthy recipe and follow it carefully, step by step. It's actually better, when machine-dyeing with Rit all-purpose dye, to reset the machine repeatedly for a full hour, rather than the half-hour you've been using. You will find that Procion fiber reactive dyes are far more satisfactory on cotton than all-purpose dyes such as Rit are, since they last so many times longer and don't bleed and ruin the rest of the laundry if they get mixed in with it, the way all-purpose dyes do.

If you are dyeing in the washing machine, take a look at my page, "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?"; there are links to many good recipes on that page. Choose just one recipe and stick to it. Read other recipes to get an idea of what they have in common, and to decide which recipe you want to use, but use only one recipe at a time.

Unlike all-purpose dye, which is fixed by hot water, Procion dye is fixed with soda ash or washing soda. Your recipe should tell you to agitate your fabric with dye and salt for a few minutes without the fixer, then add the soda ash and agitate between half an hour and a full hour. It is best to add only a third of the soda ash at first, agitate another few minutes, add another third of the soda ash, agitate, and then finally add the rest of the soda ash. Adding the fixative gradually allows it to penetrate all of the fabric evenly for a smooth solid color. Reset the timer on your washing machine repeatedly so that the water and dye do not drain out. It's best to agitate for a total of one full hour (carry a timer with you so you don't forget to reset it each time it reaches the end of a cycle), but cutting this short to half an hour will work as well with the Procion dyes as it did with your all-purpose dyes. Also, just as with Rit dye, results are better if you don't use hard water for dyeing; if you have hard water, an easy solution is to add some of the water softener that Dharma and other dye suppliers sell.

Washing out after dyeing is quite different with fiber reactive dyes than it is with all-purpose dyes. Using hot water will cause all-purpose dye to run and fade badly, since it is not attached to the fabric very strongly. However, using hot water is completely safe on properly-bonded Procion dye; hot water will wash out only the unattached excess dye. The best procedure is to wash your freshly-dyed fabric once in cool or room-temperature water, to get rid of the soda ash and the salt and some of the dye. You don't have to use detergent in this step, but if you do, use a dyer's detergent such as Synthrapol or Dharma Textile detergent. Next, wash the Procion-dyed fabric in the hottest water available to you, preferably 140°F or hotter, with or without Synthrapol or any other laundry detergent. Two rounds of washing in hot water are usually sufficient, but if you are using the fabric in a pieced quilt you can do a hot press test to be sure all of the unattached dye has been removed.

For more on washing out after dyeing, see "How to wash out after dyeing with Procion dyes".

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Archives for August, 2012

Instructions forusing Inkdoyes

Instructions for
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