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TULIP dyes and dyes with soda ash added revisted

I need to use up the tulip and other Michael's tie dye mixes before the dyes go bad and I can start using the Dharma dyes I purchased. These dyes have soda ash in the dye mix. Assuming that the working time is abut 45 minutes for full color then after 45 minutes what happens to the dye mix? Does the dye cease to react with the cotton or would the colors simply reduce to more to lighter ie pastels of the color? The bottles of mix dye are about 1 quart so there is a lot to use in one session.

Also if I prewash and dry do I need to have any concerns about using the dryer which typically is used with fabric softener sheets? I had dried some wet towels without dryer sheets to "clean" up residual but I would like to eliminate that step,

thanks

By johncedars at 2012-06-06 09:03 | login or register to post comments

Tulip dyes revisited

As time passes, the dye reacts with the water, in the presence of a high pH, in exactly the same way that it reacts with the cotton fiber. This means that, after a certain amount of time, the dye will be half as strong as it was when you first mixed it up, even though it still looks like exactly the same color. Let's say that time is 30 minutes (this varies according to a number of factors including temperature and the individual dye molecule: fuchsia is faster, turquoise slower). Then after 30 more minutes, half of the dye remaining will have reacted, so it will only be one-quarter as strong as it was at first. 30 more minutes later, it will be one-eighth as strong. After a total of two hours it would be one-sixteenth as strong, which means a very light pastel. Another 30 minutes after that, it will be one-thirty-second as strong, etc.

After a dye molecule has reacted with the water, it cannot react with cotton. It can only stain it, but the stains should wash out if the wash water is hot enough.

I'm surprised if there are quart-sized bottles in a Tulip dyeing kit. More likely they look bigger than they are. My biggest dye bottles are one pint (half a liter), and they're bigger than any bottle I've ever seen in a kit. The Tulip SuperBig One-Step Tie-Dye kit is supposed to contain eight 4-ounce bottles.

I don't know how much dryer sheet residue is left in a dryer. We live in a humid climate where we don't get much static cling, and I hate the smell of commercial fabric softeners, so we never use fabric softener (other than vinegar in the final rinse of the washer). Has anyone else had problems with this?

-Paula

By pburch at Wed, 2012-06-06 09:49 | login or register to post comments

I just got home and looked at

I just got home and looked at the bottles--bigger than 16 oz. Bottles are about 8 inches tall and 2.5 diameter. So it seems that I could use the dye for a longer time but just expect to have softer colors. I did not use a soda ash soak for the one I did and the colors seemed very bright. I worked for about 45 minutes and emptied the 4 oz bottles. I agree does seem ridiculous to add fixer and kill the batch and then say to use soda ash.

By johncedars at Wed, 2012-06-06 12:07 | login or register to post comments

bicarbonate or carbonate?

Funny thing about the Tulip tie-dyeing kits. The warnings part of the label says, "Contains organic dye and sodium bicarbonate". Why do they contain bicarbonate instead of carbonate?

If it's true that they substitute bicarbonate for carbonate, then they ought to last a bit longer in the bottle than they would if they contained carbonate, and they should not work as well on the fabric. Bicarbonate typically gives you a pH around 8, which is high enough to get some dye reaction, but low enough to probably waste some dye. Carbonate gives you a pH around 11.

The label of Tulip's way-overpriced soda ash says, "For superior dye absorption, turn to Tulip®. Use Tulip® Fashion Dye Soda Ash™ to pre-treat all of your dye projects for optimal color results!", implying that you might get better results with all of their tie-dyeing kits if you add a presoak with soda ash. If you have your supply of soda ash already, maybe you should do this. What a pain to have enough of a high-pH ingredient in the dye mixtures to make them spoil quickly, without having enough to work optimally well. The worst of both worlds.

Another funny thing is the way they toss around the term "organic dye", no doubt knowing full well people will misunderstand this to mean something safe, all-natural, and organically-grown, when in fact all it means is that petroleum-derived dyes happen to contain carbon atoms.

-Paula

By pburch at Wed, 2012-06-06 10:02 | login or register to post comments

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