Shouldn't I use soda ash to help fix pigment dyes?

Name: Kevin

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Country or region: Maine, USA

Message: I am trying to tie dye wicking sports shirts, I have ordered Dharma pigment dye, which states you don't need chemical fixatives, steamers or extensive heat setting. Shouldn't I immerse it in a soda ash solution for 20 minutes for best results?

Don't use any ingredients not specifically called for by the manufacturer's instructions. Soda ash is an excellent fixative for fiber reactive dyes, but not for fabric paints (which include pigment "dyes"), nor for most types of dye other than the fiber reactives. There will be no advantage to you in adding soda ash to your pigment dyes; in fact, doing so might interfere with the binder for the pigment dyes so that they do not set properly.

Dharma Trading Company provides instructions for using their Dharma Pigment Dye System on their website. The only additives you should even consider using are the optional additives described there, but you probably will not want to use any additives at all, other than water.

Pigment dyes and other fabric paints are not true dyes at all. True dyes attach directly to the fiber in the textile, unlike pigments which have no affinity of their own for the textile fiber. Pigment dyes are made by mixing insoluble colored particles, called pigments, with a very thin, highly specialized sort of glue, which holds the particles of pigment to the fiber. Depending on the binder, pigment dyes can work on many different types of fiber. This is why some kinds of pigment dyes work pretty well as a substitute for true dyes on polyester and other fibers. See my page, "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers".

You should try tie-dyeing just one or a few pieces as a test, to see how you like the results. Pigment dyes give somewhat different results than you are used to seeing when 100% cotton is dyed with good fiber reactive dyes. Pigment dyes tend to wear off of the fabric in quite a different way than true dyes. There is also a serious risk that the surface treatments on the fabric will interact badly with the application of fabric paints (including pigment dyes), or with true dyes. You will not know whether this is a problem until you try it. (Please let me know how it works out for you!)

If your wicking sports shirts are made of polyester, as are many "performance" fabrics for sports, the other main alternative for coloring them would be disperse dyes, which are usually applied to paper, in the form of disperse dye paints or crayons, and then transferred using the heat of an iron or transfer press. They can also be applied directly and then fixed with high heat. See my page, "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes". Again, it will be necessary to do some small-scale tests to determine whether the surface finishes interfere at all with the application of the dyes. It is always extremely important to do tests of your materials before beginning any large or expensive project.

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Posted: Sunday - July 25, 2010 at 09:39 AM

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Shouldn't I use soda ash to help fix pigment dyes?

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