community of dyers

Local crafts stores are not generally a very good source for dyes, unless you happen to live someplace like San Rafael, California, or Somerset, Massachusetts, or Littleton, Colorado. Most of us in the US buy our dyes by mail-order from companies such as Dharma Trading Company, Colorado Wholesale Dye, or PRO Chemical & Dye.

Whatever you do, don't try dyeing with all-purpose dye. Don't use Rit or Tintex. You want to use Procion MX dye, or another fiber reactive dye. Since you're dyeing cotton/spandex blends, Procion MX dye is the best choice, since it does not require any heat, just room temperature at or above 70°F. Other dyes require at least a little warmth. Rit requires nearly boiling temperatures, which will damage spandex badly, and even with that much heat performs poorly, compared to Procion MX dye.

How to get coral depends on the specific dye that you can find. What brands do your local stores carry? At our local Joann's, I've seen Dylon Permanent and sometimes Dylon Cold, plus Jacquard Tie Dye Kits.

If you can get a Jacquard Tie Dye Kit at one of your local crafts stores, or another tie-dyeing kit that contains the colors turquoise, fuschia, and yellow, you can mix an approximation of coral. (Avoid the Rit Tie Dye kits, as they contain an inferior dye.) You'll need to mix a small amount of fuchsia (so the color will be light enough) with a smaller amount of yellow (to turn the color more orangeish). It's important to always do a test first to see if you get the color you want.

It would be easier, if you're still getting started on learning to dye, to just order a premixed jar of coral-colored Procion MX type dye from one of the good mail-order dye suppliers. Colorado Wholesale has a salmon mixture you might like: see http://www.bestdye. com/ fabric-dyes.php. Dharma Trading Company has a coral pink mixture: see http://www.dharmatrading .com/html/ eng/ 3796-AA.shtml. ProChem's coral MX dye is at http://www.prochemicalanddye. com/store/ product.php? productid=16693 &cat=388&page=1.

Jacquard Products sells only larger jars of dye directly, but you can get their products through art supply stores online such as Blick Art Materials or MisterArt, among others. Jacquard doesn't have a coral mix, but they're the ones who recommend using their 030 Fire Engine Red, diluted, with a touch of 128 Warm Black to tone it down. In Texas, you can buy Jacquard Products' dyes from Texas Art Supply.

-Paula