community of dyers

What was the temperature of the room in which you left the dye to react?

Whenever someone complains of pale colors, particularly with turquoise, the answer is almost always that there was not enough warmth for the reaction. Having worse problems with turquoise is a particular marker, because turquoise is the most cold-sensitive of the Procion MX type dyes.

The minimum temperature for Procion MX dye reactions is generally agreed to be 70°F (21°C). The best temperature is between 95°F and 105°F (35°C to 41°C), except for turquoise, which prefers up to 130°F (55°C), but allowing extra time for the reaction, as we usually do, means we can get by with temperatures considerably lower than optimal. The practical lower limit seems to be about 70°F.

The only other possibility as a source of your problem would be the amount of dye you used, but I don't think that this is likely. If you used at least 2 teaspoons of dye powder for a medium color, or at least 4 teaspoons of dye powder for a dark color, that should be sufficient. You do always (in my experience) have to make sure your dye is darker on the fabric than you really want, since some will wash out.

Old dye, or dye that's been stored in a hot place, will go bad and produce similar poor results. Dye powders usually last at least a year or two, though, and a warm room is okay, but any very hot situation, such as being left for a day in a hot car in the sunlight, is not. Mixing dye powders in boiling water will also have this effect, since the dye will react with the boiling water if you use that to dissolve it. Use lukewarm water to mix dyes, no warmer than, say, 95°F.

My kitchen has been staying around 65°F lately, so I've been taking care to add a little extra warmth to my dye reactions. There are lots of different ways to do this, especially if your work is conveniently plastic-wrapped. See the suggestions on the page What is the effect of temperature on fiber reactive dyes? (scroll down about one page to find them).

The confusing thing is that the textile industry uses the word "cold" for dye temperatures below scalding-hot. "Cold Batch" does not mean at all the same thing that we mean by "cold"! "Cold water" dyes do not require nearly as much heat as "hot water dyes" or even "warm water dyes", but they do require some. Without it, there's just not enough energy there to make the chemical reactions get going.

I hope you can try again, but this time with more warmth.

-Paula