Can we tie-dye a white polyester shirt without using dangerous chemicals?

Name: Nancy

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Country or region: California, U.S

Message: Hi, I hope that you can help me. My son is a fifteen year old hockey player, who is also very artistic, and for Christmas, he has asked if we can purchase a white (100% poly) shirt and he would like to tie dye it. Is there any easy way to create a tie-dyed look on a polyester shirt, without using the dangerous chemicals that you mentioned in your article? I have never done this before, and even though my husband has a chemistry background, I am not comfortable using the disperse dyes. Thanks so much, and Happy Holidays, Nancy

Disperse dyes are not dangerous; they're certainly no more dangerous than the Rit brand all-purpose dyes you're probably comfortable with buying in stores, simply due to familiarity. (As with all art materials, you should avoid breathing them or getting them on your skin or in your eyes, and you should clean up all spills immediately, but these are standard safety practices that everyone should always use with every art material or household chemical.)

Immersion dyeing polyester to a solid color is rather unpleasant, though, because it's hard to get a deep color on polyester without using a dye carrier molecule which is very smelly, and requires a lot of ventilation. I can understand why you'd want to avoid using the carrier chemical.

There are two easy alternatives.

One alternative is to use disperse dye crayons, or disperse dye paints, to make iron-ons, by applying them to paper. You can then place these iron-on transfers face-to-face with the fabric to be dyed (be sure any writing is backwards at first!), and use a hot dry iron to transfer the color, repeating as necessary to complete the design. The high heat of the iron makes it completely unnecessary to use the smelly carrier chemical or to invest in a large cooking pot for dyeing in. It's a very easy technique, and safe for anyone who can wield a hot iron. The colors look dull and dim when you apply them to the paper, but when you iron them onto the polyester fabric, they become brilliant. See, for example, my page, "Iron-on Fabric Crayons for Synthetic Fibers".

The crayons are very easy to find, because local fabric stores often carry them, and a hobby store might carry them as well. You will see them labeled either "Crayola Fabric Crayons" or "Dritz Fabric Crayons". They are shaped just like ordinary wax crayons, so much so that you must make a little effort not to confuse them. Of course, ordinary crayons will not work at all for dyeing polyester or any other fabric, though they can produce some horrendous stains.

The iron-ons made from the crayons really do look like crayon marks. For iron-ons that look more like paint or dye, all you have to do is buy disperse dye powder, mix it with water (and possibly also a thickener to make the dyes feel more like regular paints), and paint it on to paper, then transfer as with the crayons, after the disperse dye paint is dry on the paper. You can mail-order disperse dye powder from PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachusetts, or Aljo Mfg. in New York. I don't recommend that you use iDye Poly disperse dye for dye painting, since it's packaged for use in immersion dyeing. For detailed recipes on how to use disperse dye for transfer printing, see PRO Chemical & Dye's instruction sheet, "Transfer Printing on Polyester using Transperse Transfer Printing Dyes", and "Transfer Printing on Polyester using PROsperse Disperse Dyes". [PDF files]

The other alternative is very different and does not involve the use of dyes at all. Instead of dyes, you can use a fabric paint that is designed to work on polyester. Not all fabric paints will last well on polyester, and you want only a paint labeled 'fabric paint', not artists' acrylic paints or house paint or any other sort of paint. The two brands of fabric paint that I recommend that you consider are Dye-Na-Flow, which is made by Jacquard Products to be a fabric paint that simulates a dye, and Dharma Pigment Dyes, which is available only from Dharma Trading Company. You can dilute the Dharma Pigment Dyes with a larger proportion of water, since they are so concentrated, so they make a more economical paint for tie-dye-like fabric painting. You dilute your "pigment dye" fabric paints as directed by the manufacturer, then dip your tied garment into it, or use yorker-top squeeze bottles to squirt the dye on, making sure that the color throughly penetrates, then hang up or lay out the completed shirt to dye. Use the same folding techniques as for tie-dyeing cotton with fiber reactive dyes. There is no need for soda ash or any other chemical, but it is important to thoroughly prewash any garment before you try to dye or paint it.

Fabric paint does not penetrate as deeply as dye into the fibers within the the fabric, but instead rests on the outside of each fiber. This means that all fabric paints tend to wear off more quickly than true dyes. Maintain the appearance of your tie-painted clothing by always turning it inside out before laundering, and consider placing it into a mesh laundry bag for washing. The disperse dye used for making iron-ons, in contrast, is most at risk from the heat of a machine dryer; the label on the Crayola Fabric Crayons cautions that decorated clothing should be line-dried rather than dried with heat, since high heat might cause some color to redeposit where it is not wanted. While the disperse clothes in the polyester clothes that you already own resist transfer from relatively moderate amounts of heat, the Crayola Fabric Crayons and other transfer dyes for polyester are made from disperse dyes that are carefully chosen to transfer at relatively low temperatures.

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Posted: Wednesday - December 22, 2010 at 08:27 AM

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Can we tie-dye a white polyester shirt without using dangerous chemicals?

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