community of dyers

I've never heard of anyone else trying this. It may be difficult to dissolve the dye in a small amount of water. Disperse dyes tend to have relatively low solubility.

The iDye Poly dye won't react with the water, the way Procion MX dye will, so in that respect you don't have to worry about its going bad. It's possible mold will grow, given enough time at room temperature, but when acid dye mixtures get mold on the top, it's usually okay to just strain it out.

Even if a liquid color concentrate works fine with one color, it might be more of a problem with another color. One dye molecule might be more easily dissolved in water than another one.

What I've done with iDye Poly, when I was testing it and did not want to use the whole packet at once, was to put the original dye packet inside a zip-top freezer bag before cutting it open with scissors that could be washed. Dye powder tends to fly about, so I didn't want to carelessly cut open the package and pour it into another container. I used only part of the dye powder to dye a smaller quantity of material.

iDye Poly is not the only brand of disperse dye that is available. It's probably not even the best for your purposes. There are only eight colors of iDye Poly, and they are not designed for color mixing. The non-resealable packages are fine for dyeing a garment, but a bother to use in smaller quantities at a time.

Instead of having to buy a non-resealable single-use packet of iDye Poly, you can buy disperse dye in small jars from Aljo Mfg in New York, or from PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts.

Aljo sells two different selections of disperse dyes, one that is better for polyester, and another that is better for acetate and nylon.They have a much wider range of colors, as well. There are twenty-two colors of Aljo's disperse dyes for polyester alone! ProChem has thirteen colors, not as many as Aljo, but probably better for color mixing that the iDye Poly.

You can order from PRO Chemical & Dye online. For Aljo, you can decide what you want by looking at their web site, or you can ask them to mail you a price list, but then you need to call them on the phone to order, because their web site does not include an ordering system. It's worth it to have more color choices.

-Paula