community of dyers

Hi, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum so I'm also posting this in Fiber Reactive Dye, because that's what I'm working with.

I dye dance veils. Dancers love the look of dry dye powder applied directly to the fabric. The trick is to use colors that are blended from other colors, the more the better.

In other words, a primary color dye with only one pigment produces somewhat uninteresting, one color results. With a complex color like Marine that's blended from other colors, the result is an intriguing rainbow that changes with movement, light and distance.

I've tried mixing up my own dry dye blends with unappealing results. So, when I'm shopping for colors for next summers batch of veils, is there a way to tell which colors are blended from lots of other colors?

I'm having a very troubling time trying to dye this cord. The polyester thread won't dye which I've accepted, but the cotton is not dying evenly, and is only dying on the very surface. (You can see in the picture, when I cut the rope, the dye has not seeped into the middle at all.) When I rinse the rope, even when I do it by hand and am very gentle with it, the cotton fibers move around too much so you can see the undyed underneath. Also, I can't rinse it without the cotton fibers getting pulled out between the threads and the rope starting to look shaggy and ruined.

All in all, I feel like it looks so dull and awful and I don't know what I can do differently to make it dye pretty and clean and vibrantly.

I was hoping I could dye a piece of fabric with 3 different fibers a jet black with an acid dye and vinegar. I has Cotton (72%) Linen (10%) and Silk (18%). I want the silk to take up all the black and the cotton/linen to stay pure white. I was hoping for a true black and white effect in the end. Is this possible? I know I could cut a piece of the fabric, but that is going to shorten it causing issues. Can I protect the cotton/linen with anything to prevent it from taking up as little black as possible. I know it *may* rinse out over time, but I want to avoid as much staining/rinsing as possible.

Hello!
I've found some dextrin distributors in Italy. The potato dextrin isn't white but a yellow power (not white!). Indeed the corn dextrin is pre-gelatinized.

The vendor explained me the difference between corn dextrin and pre-gelatinized corn dextrin: the first one is obtained by the "overroast" of the starch, the second one is obtained by the "cooking" of the starch.

I cannot buy small quantities for a test but only 25 Kg bags.

Will they work?

Thanks!
Fabio

Hi,
I've been using procion mx dyes for a while and previously did not have this problem. But I've just discovered that a number of items recently dyed are bleeding. They appeared to run clear post-dye, but now are losing quite a bit of dye in the wash. Clearly there's unfixed dye still there!
A while back I switched from using soda ash bought online to using lectric soda from the supermarket - I thought they were the same thing. Could this be the problem?
I believe I have been using a sufficient quantity of soda ash and time frame for dye to fix.
I use a washoff in the first rinse, then cold, then hot, then hot washes at the end. As mentioned, the rinse water appeared to run clear at the end.

I'e been dyding yarns for weaving for awhile, but never been able to get a good solid black. My suppliers are now gone and I would like to dye some tencel and bamboo yarns pure black. Anybody have any ideas - should I stick with procion dyes or something else. I should I use vat dyeing or low water immersion and let it soak for a ong time
thanks

Hi!

I have been making some silk dyeing using food coloring, to make playsilks for my kids.

I used 8mm Habotai scarves from Dharma Trading Co. and dyed them using liquid food coloring (from the Club House brand). I used the microwade dyeing method:

1) I soaked the silk in a bath of vinegar and water solution (1:1) for half an hour

2) I prepared a dye bath containing vinegar:hot water (1:1) and about 60 drops of food coloring. I add the silk to this bath, covered with a plastic top and heated nearly until boiling point in the microwave.

3) I colded the silk under water and dryed it.

Its been pretty challenging! I don't want to use heat for fear of shrinkage so my current plan is to up the dye concentration so that the warm water bath is really concentrated and then to just leave the blazer in there for a week or so.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will post results once I get what I want out of the color (or I accept defeat :) )

Hi! I have been dyeing shoes for over a year now. I have just recently started to have some weird issues pop up. I am attaching a photo. Primarly on the yellow part sometimes a bit on the orange, but mainly affecting the yellow once the shoes start to dry I am noticing greenish tinges. They start to look pretty ugly.
I am not sure why I am having this problem.
I batch them for 24 hours, then I rinse them in cool water and then in hot water with synthrpol. I have tried letting them dry flat, I have tried elevating the toe to make sure no color is running down. The weird thing is that I do not notice any green until they start to dry. When I take them out of the wash they look fine.

Sorry to post another question so soon.

I keep hearing people talk about "curing." Does this mean letting the fabric (in my case, 220 yards of rope) sit in the dye bath? Or letting it sit for a while wet in its dye, AFTER its time in the dye bath? Or something else?

Also, I read that I'm supposed to keep the dye bath around 70F and that warmer water will speed hydrolysis (which should be avoided), but I also keep reading that people recommend using an electric blanket or space heater or something to warm it up. Is this to warm up the dye bath, or to warm up the wet fabric after removing it from the dye bath?

I crochet rugs out of this rope and I want to dye them a solid color. First I tried dyeing the finished rug in a 100 gal metal horse trough using 40 gallons of water. The volume was completely unmanageable and the weight of the dye-soaked rug combined with my awkwardly lugging it around and trying to rinse the dye out (in the backyard with a hose, stomping on it in the bathtub, etc.) ruined and stretched out the neat stitches...and the water still runs pink.

My Plan B is to use a 20ish gal plastic storage tub and dye the rope before it's a rug. My concerns:
1. 220 yards of rope equals 10 pounds. I will not fit the recommended 3 gallons per 1 pound fabric (30 gallons) in that little tub, so there is not as much room for the rope to move around? Will this greatly affect the dye process?

Hi everyone,

Wondering if anyone has come across this issue. I am creating a set of gradient swatches that combine two primaries, ProChem's mixing blue and ProChem's sun yellow. I want to have sets of swatches at different depths of shade also. I am using low water immersion method, where I let the fabric sit with dye and water only for about 15 minutes, then add soda ash solution and then batch or microwave.

At a dos of 4%, a swatch that is 75% blue and 25% yellow is a blue green. When I use the same proportions of dyes but change the depth of shade to a lower depth of shade, like 2%, 1% or lower, the hue is completely different. I can only see blue in the paler swatches.

How can I determine if "enough" of excess dye is washed out of a project?

Just tried Dharma 11X60 and 12X72 fringed silk rayon velvet scarves in LWI. Used 2tsp/cup of Dharma violet (1 cup), 2tsp/cup orange MX-2R (2 cups) and 1tsp/cup of violet MX-2R (1/2 cup). Smaller scarf was in a 1L pyrex beaker; the larger was in a 2L pyrex beaker. Waited an hour. Activated w/soda ash solution; waited 10 hrs for my convenience ;-), then microwaved for several minutes pausing every minute. Waited another 12 hours for convenience.

Scarves look beautifully mottled but after dozens of hand rinsings in cold, then hot water, much dye is still washing out. Ran through the washing machine double bagged in lingerie bags, on hot and w/ synthrapol, and dried on a rack. I want to give these as gifts but am worried that there may be so much dye left that it will transfer onto the wearer's clothes.

I want to use Dya Flow Paints to dye a silk and lace covered bra with stiff cups. I don't think I can easily iron this piece.

Is there another way to set the paint, maybe baking it in an oven or microwave? Will a long time in a hot dryer work?

Ok. So it's cold enough in my studio these days that I've got to find a heat solution because all my work is on summer products (i.e. cellulose). I use 18qt tubs to dye my stuff & would love to be able to microwave it (I don't have enough room to find space for 15 tubs to 'warm'). What I'm wondering is: how much faster is microwaving? I read the reference about the hydrolysis rate increasing 3x for every 10 degrees celsius - but does anyone know a formula for figuring (approx) what that would mean for heating in a microwave?
Let's say I can easily heat my stuff up to 100F - how long would it need at that temp? A couple of hours or less?

Hello, I don't think this question has been asked before, but I was just wondering if using essential oils (like lavender or clove oil) on wool would affect dyeing it later. Someone suggested to me to use essential oils on the last rinse when you wash your wool, to keep moths at bay. I don't like using moth balls, because they give the wool a funny smell.

I do use calsolene oil when I dye the wool with acid dyes on the stove--it seems to give me a more even color, but I suppose essential oils are a different kind of oil altogether.

Any thoughts would be appreciated, thanks!

Hi,
Any suggestions on how to achieve a rich, dark red? I am using procion dyes from kraftcolor. My last attempt was 10 Red, 5 Yellow, 1 Blue and that was quite *red*. Just need it a bit darker and wondering if perhaps it's a matter of using a LOT of dye.

Hi
I'm still a rank amateur but have been doing a little bit of dyeing on cotton with procion dyes and now have some questions about other fabrics.

#1
I have some woven fabric 20% silk, 80% cotton and wanting to dye just the silk threads. Will that work? Can I use the procion dyes to do that - is it possible fix it to just the silk?

#2
Is it possible to LWI dye wool with acid dyes...?

Thanks!

I have a dilemma... I have tried several times to use soy wax to do a batik resist on a silk scarf that was pre-dyed, then I over-dye with another color. Because the scarf is silk, I would normally nuke it to set the dyes, but since I have used soy wax to create the batik design, I am concerned that the wax will melt in the microwave. How can I heat set the overdyed area in this case? Should I allow the dye to dry, then just iron with newspaper to absorb the wax, as in other wax methods? I would love to hear from other dyers who use soy wax to dye silk. I am using Procion MX dyes, pre-soaking the scarf in soda ash.

This question may have been posted before but I am having a bit of difficulty searching for an answer.

I have a beautiful dress that I want to dye a solid color and I want to try to dye as much of it as I possibly can including the sticking.

The dress in question is composed of silk outer shell and polyester lining and crinoline and also the stitching.

I have experience processing with disperse dyes and have had some wonderful results. I also have good results processing silk.

I would like to know if the silk will suffer if I make the disperse dye bath, heat up the water, and then "quickly" dip the dress in this dye bath....and then after rinsing and drying I would process the silk with the acid dye process.