Name: Bonnie

Message: I love your site. So much info. Wow! I have dyed a lot of wool fiber and cloth and want to try my hand at dyeing some embroidery floss for hand dyeing with cotton dyes. I am unsure what brand of embroidery floss to purchase as I know some companies put a finish on the skeins and don't know if it will take the dye. Any idea?

I know that people successfully dye DMC Perle Cotton, DMC rayon floss, and DMC 6-strand embroidery floss. There may be other good brands to dye, as well, but I don't have their names.

DMC® 6-Strand Cotton Embroidery floss is described as being double-mercerized, which will help it to take dye as brightly as possible. Rayon normally dyes as brightly as mercerized cotton.

(This page used to include a link to a nice little video on how to hand-dye embroidery floss, by Melanie Testa. She described different flosses that she likes to dye, and showed a handy little plastic device made by DMC that you can wind your floss on for dyeing. Unfortunately, the video is no longer available.)

I have not heard about finishes that may be applied to embroidery floss. Any sort of stain-resistant finish would be a major problem. If you learn anything more about this, such as what brands present problems, please let me know!

Will you be using Procion MX dye? I strongly recommend that you use a fiber reactive dye on your cotton floss, rather than an all-purpose dye, such as Rit.

After dyeing and washing out your embroidery floss, you will want to test it to make sure that all of the excess unattached dye has been removed, so that there will be no problem with the color running after it has been used. To do this, dampen the dyed floss and place it between two white cloths, either both cotton, or, ideally, one cotton and one wool, and press it until dry, using a hot iron. If all of the excess dye has been removed there will be no color transfer. If there is color transfer, soak the floss in HOT water to remove excess dye, and then rinse again and re-test.

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