community of dyers

I have recently had problems with part of three batches of black cotton t-shirts where the fabric has been falling apart when embroidered or printed. The shirt are sulphur dyed and in each case the fabric weight is 15 gsm less than that of other shirts from the same orders. Also the fabric has a propensity to shred when you try to cut it (to weigh the fabric). Can someone offer a reason why some shirts are affected and not others?

I survived my class! All the kids seemed to have a great time and produced some really cool items.

[I fixed the links. -Paula]

Hi,
I do a lot of rainbow or space dyeing using acid dyes. I am really wanting now to learn about natural dyes. I have two great books and some of the dyes and mordants. First I will do a lot of experimenting.

My question though is how do you do variegated or space dyeing with natural dyes??

Can I make up stock dye solutions like I do now with the acid dyes? My method is sort of slow..handpainting each skein and wrapping it in plastic but it comes out great.

I would like to figure out a way to do this with natural dyes. I prefer to not buy the expensive extracts if I can and instead use natural herbs/raw materials. Can I make my own extracts?? I used to do this for herbal medicine but I have no idea if this is similar.

Does anyone know of a good desudser to add to detergent to cut down on the sudsy froth? I found one on google but it had no chemical name or ingredients or MSDS info.

I am trying to see if I can use regular dish soap in my automatic dishwasher because the dishwasher-approved products clog it up dreadfully and I am having to disassmeble the dang thing once a month and soak the tubes and pieces in vinegar to get the lime out.

Hope this posting is ok!

Thanks in advance,
Rachel

I'm worried by two details about how to correct splotches in a light lavendar silk. I used Rit and lots of vinegar in an aluminum pot on the stove -- the Rit call center people (I talked to three) said aluminum wouldn't affect it at all.
I have some overly light and overly dark areas in what I wanted to have completely uniform. I live in an apartment with front-loading commercial washers that cannot be stopped and the water temp never exceeds 120 F.
I'm worried because someone who dyes a lot told me she got a fuzzy, velvety surface after multiple dyeings, and 2) because at least from the Jacquard dye chart, violet colors and blues don't discharge well. I used 1 pkg Evening Blue and three teaspoons of Rose Pink Rit to achieve the color.

I'm excited to see Jacquard being more free with information about their dyes, in a chart in the acid dyes section on their web site. Click on "How To" and then, if necessary, on "Basics". They list the Colour Index name, solubility in hot water in grams per liter, washfastness on a scale of 1-5, lightfastness on a scale of 1-7, and dischargeability! This is extremely useful information. They also say that " Jacquard Acid Dyes are fully certified and conform to ASTM D4236-86." This is no small matter given that some popular acid dyes are either carcinogenic or contaminated with dyes that are known to be carcinogenic: those are probably okay for those who know how to take all safety precautions, but certainly not for the novice (or careless) user.

(Click on "Read More", below right, to see this full post, including a copy of the chart data for their unmixed acid dyes.)

Paula, I just read your instructions for LWI dyeing, and I notice you say not to use urea when you mix your dyes. Why is that? (I've been using the LWI instructions from Ann Johnston's Color by Design). I also want to say how much I appreciate your technical explanations, such as about the reason for waiting to add the fixer. It's one thing to learn how to do it, but obviously much better to understand why.

By overdyeing I was able to rescue a large piece of rayon/linen that I had unsuccessfully tried to LWI dye, and now I think I see why things went wrong.

Also, you mention the addition of salt in LWI dyeing, but don't say at what point in the process it should be added, if one wants to try it.

I know there are a lot of variables to this question so I am just hoping someone can help get me in the ballpark here.

I have created several color gradations using Anne Johnston's gradation recipe on page 44 of her book "Color By Accident".

I followed the recipe exactly as to how much dye concentrate and water to use and how much soda ash to add. I used 3 1-yard cuts of a good quaility cotton fabric.

My question is I would like to recreate the mid-range color without going through the gradation process. Is this possible?

I am not sure how the soda ash and dye are reacting through this process so I do not know if cutting the amount of soda ash water and the dye recipe would give me the color I want. I know most of this is experimental and hit and miss but I keep thinking there must be a way to narrow down how much dye and soda ash water I should use to create a color from the gradation.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! I just can't seem to be able to keep my lighter colors on a shirt from getting drips or other stains of a darker color, either while applying the colors or while curing. Has anyone found a solution? I will try wrapping the lighter part of the shirt in plastic foil, as soon as I'm finished with it then add the darker colors afterward. Any other ideas?

Does Dharma sell a blue that is similar to ProChem's 404 blue. Also, I have Sun Yellow MX-8G from Pro Chem. Does Dharma have a yellow that is the same as this??

I try to use just the basic Procion MX colors but sometimes I get confused by the names both of these companies give to the colors.

Thanks
Patti

I am planning to dye white bamboo yarn from Habu Textiles with Procion MX dye. Do I need to use a thickener or can I just mix the dye with urea water and then apply (after soaking)?
If you all think I need to add a thickener, would you go with sodium alginate or the Pro Print Paste mix?

I've mostly dyed cotton, rayon, linen with Procion MX dyes, but after successfully dyeing a piece of silk along with a rayon/linen blend, I decided to dye a small piece of silk to use for seam bindings on the interior of a teal linen garment. Using freshly made dye solutions, I blended a color that seemed to match well, using turquoise MX-G, fuchsia MX-8B and yellow MX-8G, then used that for low water immersion dyeing of the silk. The color on the silk looked muddy right from the beginning, and when I washed it out, the turquoise essentially disappeared, leaving a sort of pale gray-brown that was apparently a mixture of the remaining fuchsia and yellow.

Press the play arrow on the image below to see a video of a high school student named Jay Madison demonstrating beginning tie-dyeing....

I'm incredulous at how he handles soda-soaked fabric with no gloves at all - that's a fine way to get dry, sore, irritated hands in a hurry! I'm glad to see that he uses good dye. The use of yogurt cups and an ear syringe instead of yorker squeeze bottles is interesting.

I tried to dissolve procion dyes in denatured alcohol, and it works! however the problem is when I try to rub it on sealed wood it does not go on very well, like inconsistant and lots of speckles (I used fucshia and strong orange) and same thing when spraying lacquer over it. What I want to do is do a Fender sunburst on a guitar body I have and since I already have the procion dyes for tie dying, why not use them for guitar finishing as well (so I dont have to spend more money on aniline dyes for woodworking use) but I read you are supposed to spray it on, not whipe it on in order to do shader coats, but I dont have a spray gun and I dont want to spend lots of money on those kind of equipments. I think I will probably use a perfume sprayer or something to spray the dye mixture onto the sealed wood then seal the dyes with a coat of lacquer... will this work?

Does anyone know how to get information on potassium washing tank tops. I am screenprinting designs on basic tanks and want to add the look of the potassium wash without damaging the garments.

hi everybody
i am a learning to use vat dyes for rayon yarn
can anybody help me with the correct detailed procedure for using vat dyes

MY COMPANY SELLS WHITE VINYL RUBBERBANDS, FOR PATIENTS WHO ARE ALERGIC TO LATEX, AS WELL AS COLORED RUBBERBANDS MADE OF LATEX.

THANKS,
JOHN THOMPSON 800-251-3437

I have 3 rayon dresses from dharma that I want to LWI dye for that mottled effect. I have dharma procion dye #24 navy blue which according to the list is a mixed color. Anyone know what colors it will separate into? I also have already mixed from a tye dye party some Fire Red. I was contemplating mixing the two colors- but maybe I'll be happier with a more subtle effect on a dress? Red and navy could be rather strong together- and I don't really want a 4th of July dress (already got the tshirts dyed for that!) TIA for any ideas.

I'm a new Tie-Dyer, and I bought this product from Wal-Mart called Salt Resist. It looks like fun, however, I have no idea how to use it. Can anyone help me?