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Home » forums » Procion MX dyes and other fiber reactive dyes

cashmere scrap lap-rug

Hi, I'm new here. I used to do natural dyes but my current project is making a lap rug from cashmere sweaters. I have the luck to live near a "Goodwill by the pound store." For those unfamiliar with them: they're Goodwill Thrift stores that have enormous bins of goods. You dig and rummage thru the bins and pay for what you want at a specific price per pound. I think the current price for fabric/leather goods is $1.29. I stop by frequently to rummage for half an hour or so.

After nearly a year I now have plenty of moth-eaten or shrunken pure cashmere sweaters. Although I have a few cabled sweaters the majority are plain and various shades of "natural" - a beige-y, oatmeal color. One is pastel pink, one a very vivid aqua.

At last, my question is: Can I dye these sweaters using Procion dyes I already have on hand? I've read that substituting vinegar for soda ash will make the dye work well. Is this true? What quantity of vinegar?

I have already washed all of these sweaters on the "heavy" cycle and dried them on hot until they were toasty. (Did you know cashmere doesn't really felt?) I know that sometime in its life my lap-blanket will end up going thru the laundry with bluejeans or towels and I don't want any surprises. This means I can use any dye process at all as long as the result will be color fast.

I want to end up with black, natural and red (the color of maple leaves in the fall).

Any advice or suggestions or questions welcomed!

zaftig

By zaftig at 2008-11-07 17:20 | Procion MX dyes and other fiber reactive dyes | login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

My favorite earth red

I can't help you with the cashmere part, but I can tell you that I have fallen in love with Dharma's new oxblood red dye. It is extremely versatile for an earthy color. It goes really well with most earth-greens, all browns and yellows and even the deepr blues. I use it in my leaf-color mixtures.

Sara Earthmama
www.wildtyperanch.com
I blog at www.downtoearthblog.com

By SARA EARTHMAMA at Fri, 2008-11-07 21:43 | login or register to post comments

animal fibers with Procion and other acid dyes

You can dye wool or cashmere with Procion MX type dyes plus acid plus heat. See, for example, PRO Chemical & Dye's instructions for Immersion Dyeing Wool using PRO MX Reactive Dyes. However, the Procion dyes, when used as acid dyes, are not nearly as washfast as they are when used as fiber reactive dyes, with soda ash, which will tend to damage wool. At least some of the colors will be no more washfast than Kiton acid leveling dyes, or the acid dyes found in all-purpose dyes such as Rit, which means that laundering should be done only in cool water, separated by color, if you don't want the colors to run. (Any color that does run can be removed from blue jeans and the like by washing in hot hot water.)

Another problem with using Procion MX dyes on protein fibers is that the premixed colors, including all reds and blacks, will tend to produce different hues on protein fibers than they do on cotton. The color chips in the Dharma catalog are tested on cotton, not wool. You can't expect the black mixtures to produce black—more likely a dark green or purple—and the reds may be a lot more bluish or more orangish than you would expect. You might be able to overdye reds to correct the color, though.

The most wash fast dyes for hand dyeing wool are the Lanaset dyes. They will resist fading even when washed at 140°F (as opposed to 104°F for the other acid dyes). The WashFast Acid Dye Jet Black contains one of the two black dyes that are mixed in the Lanaset Jet Black, but costs only half as much. A lot of the WashFast Acid dyes are really not very washfast at all, but the Jet Black is highly washfast, like the Lanaset dyes.

Procion MX dyes are very washfast when used on wool with soda ash, and they work well, very unlike their performance on nylon, but the soda ash will damage the texture, roughening up the fibers. Don't try it unless you are willing to experiment with changes in texture. I think it might be worth a small-scale test if you are, though, and it seems like you might be, given that you have washed your cashmere sweaters in hot water already. If you try this, please report back!

-Paula

By pburch at Fri, 2008-11-07 22:33 | login or register to post comments

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