Purple/Black/Blue Liquid Reactive (Remazol) Dress

dyed August 2006

remazol LWI with black, intense blue, and fuchsia Here's another piece I dyed with remazol (vinyl sulfone) dyes, a long rayon dress.

These Remazol dyes are PRO Chemical & Dye's Liquid Reactive Dyes. They are more expensive per use than Procion MX dyes, but they are easier to use since they are sold already dissolved in water. The cost is still low compared to dyeing with the individual packets of dye that are sold in local stores, and the results are much better than any you can get by dyeing with all-purpose dyes such as Rit brand dye.

I crumpled the dress tightly, making very rough horizontal pleats, and fitted it tightly into a glass container. Then I poured three cups of dye over different parts of the dress: 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of PRO Black 50% LR604 Liquid Reactive Dye in one cup (250 ml) of water; 1 teaspoon of PRO Intense Blue 50% LR406 Liquid Reactive Dye in one cup of water; and 1 teaspoon of PRO Fuchsia 50% LR308 Liquid Reactive Dye in one cup of water. Finally, I added 5 teaspoons (25 ml) of soda ash, dissolved in yet another cup of water, and microwaved to set the dye rapidly.

This black dye is the only single-color black reactive dye I've seen. It is Colour Index reactive black 5. All of the black dyes you see among the Procion dyes and Cibacron F dyes are mixtures of several different colors of dye. It's very useful to have a good dark black that will not separate out into different colors on the fabric, even in low water immersion dyeing.