community of dyers

Sorry you've had this happen. I've always been slightly shocked to see the 50% polyester shirts being sold in Michael's craft store on the same aisle as the fabric dye. People are going to assume they are the right shirts for dyeing, when they're absolutely not. The shirts are also a little overpriced, if I recall correctly.

Jerzees makes both poly-cotton and 100% cotton clothing, so it's not a question of brand. It's just the fiber content. I've successfully dyed many Jerzees garments.

Sometimes I purposefully dye something that's a poly/cotton blend, but that's by choice when I know what I'm getting into. Never a simple t-shirt, which is so easily available elsewhere in 100% cotton.

Don't trust hobby stores to tell you the truth. By placing the poly-blend shirts next to the tie-dye kits, the craft stores appear to be claiming the shirts are suitable for dyeing. I've also heard of employees of Michaels' telling people that it's fine to put Rit all-purpose dye into squirt bottles and use it for the exact same method of dyeing that we use with fiber reactive dyes. A complete lie: Rit dye, applied cold, will just wash out. Rit dye is a hot-water dye and does not work at room temperature. Anyway, all-purpose dye is useless for multicolored tie-dye since the colors run and blend together in every wash, dulling them down to ugliness.

Another thing to beware of: don't buy stain-resistant t-shirts. You can buy packs of stain-resistant t-shirts in Walmart and other stores. They're worse than poly-cotton blends. The chemicals that resist stains also resist dyes. So far, as long as the package does not mention stain-resistance, you're okay. I wonder if some brands will someday start carrying stain-resistance that's not advertised on the label, but so far I don't think that has happened.

-Paula