community of dyers

This forum is for all sorts of hand-dyers to post links to pictures of their work and discuss dyeing with other dyers. Please jump right in and post. We'd like to see your work!

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I'm planning to dye a silk cotton blend orange with natural dyes. I'm thinking, after mordanting with alum, to dye yellow and then overdye with madder. Is this a good idea? Or should I dye with madder first and then overdye with something yellow? Or just try to get orange with one dye? Does anyone know of any flowers that produce a good dye? I live very close to a huge flower market and thought it would be fun to get something there for a dyestuff. Does anyone know how fast marigolds are? I was thinking of using goldenrod, but I think that is more of a weed that is probably not sold at a flower market, and I have no idea where to go pick it or even when it is in season.

Hello,

I have my class B, standard blue uniform pants, that are Nomex.
Several of us are looking at ways to darken the pants back to original or darker than original from new.

Its 98% Aramid Fiber 2% Carbon Filament

Target color is Navy Blue or a combo of Navy Blue and Black to reach a darker color.

What type of Dye would work?

Thanks
Dan

Hi, I am a newbie hobbyist and have enjoyed working with procion dyes to do some small silk paintings. I am interested in making a larger piece, mural size, and am wondering if it is absolutely necessary to keep the silk wet for 12 to 24 hours to produce the bright colors I would like. I would like the silk to maintain its luster and softness and that is why I enjoy using the procion dyes, but I am open to other options as well. I prefer to use heat set iron dyes and paints over a steamer, in fact I am not sure the large piece I do would fit in a steamer.
Thank you!

I've been dyeing a few years now, and gradually I've gone through what I imagine is the usual amateur crafter spectrum:

--dye for yourself
--dye for friends
--dye for friends who then pay you for your work
--dye and sell a few things, then a few more things
--dye and actually take things to an informal neighborhood market to sell

I've done all this without really considering the business aspects, because frankly, my net profit hovers around $0. I do it because I like to, and haven't sought out the cheapest sources of supply, et cetera, that would allow me to make more money from what I do.

I would like to realise some complicated drawings and I would like to know to delimitate the areas in a picture if there are another technique apart of gutta. I was thinking in something like transfers so the line could be thinner than I want and constant. Or if you recommend me gutta, what tecnique is better?

I'm thinking whether urea would increase solubility of other than reactive dyes. Maybe I read it somewhere, that one of urea's purpose in textile industry is moderating solubility of dyes. Is that true?

I would like to dye a jewish prayer shawl that happens to be wool. Will Procion MX dye work or do I need special dye for wool?

thanks

~Elisheva

I've found these two articles:
http://www.jacquardproducts.com/support/instructions/chemresist1.php
http://www.jacquardproducts.com/support/instructions/chemresist2.php

Does anyone know what effect we could get by applying this process?

Does anybody out there understand why the dye sometimes just rolls off the surface of a presoaked piece? I used to dye things damp, but have recently been experimenting with dryer pieces. I think mandala designs in particular come out better when they're dryer. You get richer color, less white and just more control over where the dye ends up. That is, IF you've manage to achieve exactly the right moisture content (or lack thereof!) I can't tell you how many times I've intricately folded a piece, tried to dye it and, failing, had to untie it and throw it back in to soak because the dye just won't absorb into the shirt! I'm so frustrated!!!

Hello--

I hope this is ok to post--I've seen a lot of similar topics on this site, but am still a bit confused.

This weekend we're planning to tie dye ~300 shirts for a spring fair fundraiser.

I know every dye is different and formulas can be problematic--but we're going to have volunteers coming in and out all weekend and need to keep things simple.

We're using 32 ounce squeeze bottles of dye, and we bought the Dharma fiber reactive dyes.

Per 32 ounce bottle--

2 to 5 tablespoons of dye (depending on whether it's the single or double strength)
2 tbsp of soda ash

1) Do these numbers sound reasonable? (For dye--I'm going off the numbers a dharma person gave me--but do you think we could cut it down a little to make sure we don't run out?)

Hi Everyone, this is my first post here. Anyway, I recently bought a brown corduroy 100% cotton jacket at a vintage clothing store. I didn't notice the discoloration in the dim store light til I paid (no refunds...doh!) and went out into the sunlight where it was pretty clear. It's kind of a gradual fade from a dirty brown to a warm tan over the entire surface. I don't know if it's a stain or sun-bleaching or what. I figure I can dye it, but is my only option to dye it black to cover the discoloration? Will I need to bleach it first? Please help educate a noob!

Thanks!

Ryan

Looking for tie dyer for t-shirts and wraps

Hi,

My name is Karen Cherniack and I am looking for help! I live in sourhern California and I need to find someone who does tie dye projects and possibly even some stamping and airbrush work. I am working on some t-shirts and wraps with rhinestone transfers and foils or stamping that I would like to do tie dye or air brush with.

Do any of you do this type of work? If you are in southern California great! Even if you are not I would still like to get in contact with you to see how we could explore working together.

Thanks so so much for your help!

I just did a huge batch of onesies, sheets and diaper cloths. since there were so many I actually put in a load of blue colored ones (darker colors) into the washing machine. I just took a look at it and it bled ALL over EVERYTHING! everything is blue and stained! what did I do wrong?! what can I do??? I am puting it in for another run again on the hottest setting. I still have a load of my red's next - but im afraid! also, after I dyed the stuff I let it sit for more than 2 days so it cant be that I didnt let it react - and its hot!!!

PLEASE PLEEEEEEEEEEASE HELP!!!!

~Elisheva

Sometimes a question comes through that just boggles my mind. Look at today's dyeblog entry, "A friend of mine told me that she uses RIT dye to dye her eggs". A little web searching turned up utterly preposterous claims that it's perfectly safe to use Rit clothing dye to dye eggs that will later be eaten, e.g., under here, here, here, and here.

Here we are concerned about whether someone reuses a dyepot for cooking, even after washing it thoroughly, and this woman's friend is giving her children Rit-dyed eggs to eat! This can't possibly be safe, because some of the shell dye always gets on the eggs when you go to peel them.

-Paula

Has anyone tried acid reserve for printing with MX? I don't know exactly, but I think they use either CH3COONa or Burrow's solution.

I have some very interesting fabric I am attempting to dye. It is 30% silk/70% cotton. It's actually a cotton fabric with silk threads woven in. I'm attempting to get a nice contrast betweeen the silk thread and cotton background. I've been using jacquard acid dyes with vinegar as the fixer and not getting the best results. I used hot tap water and let the swatches soak in the vinegar dye solution for about 30 minutes before rinsing them. ALOT of the dye rinsed out, so I think I must have had more than enough dye in there. I was only able to get a light pink in the silk threads using crimson, and a light lavendar using lilac. I suspect the silk threads are actually a cotton blend, but I was wondering if it would help to use either hotter water or let them soak longer. I will not be able to simmer my fabric yardage as I don't have a pot big enough to do it...I was just planning to use very hot tap water and a big rubbermaid tub, stirring frequently. Also, I am wondering how to minimize staining of the cotton fabric? In the swatches, I wasn't able to get the dye to rinse completely from the cotton threads, even with hot water and detergent. And do I need salt with acid dyes? The instructions didn't say. Also, is there any difference if I use citric acid instead of vinegar? What about adding urea to the mix? I've read some conflicting information about using urea.

There's a summer fair that I've sold at a couple of times, and my silk stuff doesn't sell too well there. I thought that I might do some fun cotton items instead, but not straight tie dyes.

I was thinking of embellishing some procionMX-dyed shirts with heatset rhinestones or with the Jones Tones foil products. Has anyone used the foil with the glue successfully? How does it wear? I wouldn't like to sell shirts with decorations that peeled right off...

Your advice, as always, is appreciated.

I'm trying to dye a hemp/cotton blend a very light pastel baby pink color with fiber reactive dyes. However, the fabric is natural color and has a distinct yellow cast to it. When I try to dye it, the color comes out very orangish/salmony. I can get the color I am looking for on swatches of 100% cotton bleached muslin, so I am thinking the natural color must be interfering with the color. What is the best way to counteract this? Is there another color I can add to the dye to help? Or should I attempt to bleach the fabric and use a whitening agent like Dharma's optic whitener? Or can I use the whitener without bleaching the fabric? I need this very specific fabric weave, so ordering whiter fabric is not an option.

I dyed using PRO Midnight Blue and PRO Strongest Red and did gradations using fat quarters. All went well. Thinking that the leftover liquid might still have enough dye in it, I later put in new fabric; let it sit without soda ash for 24 hours; since it seemed to yield pale colours, I then added some other leftover dye solution, added the soda ash some minutes later, let it be for 24 hours, rinsed and looked at some intense, deep, dark colours. I thought all went well. As I now took it out of the washer, turns out that the colour from the first application is completely absent!

Is this due to the fact that I did not add the requisite soda ash until much later, near the time I added the 2nd colour?