I want to dye cotton thread and I'm curious if there is a difference between the Jacquard Procion Dyes and the Dharma ones?

Hello,

—ADVERTISEMENTS—

Procion MX Dye

cool water dyes
are ideal for cotton

When mixed with soda ash, Procion dyes are permanent, colorfast, and very washable. You can easily create a palette of brilliant colors ranging from light pastels to deep, vibrant hues.

---

Soda Ash

Soda ash fixes Procion dyes to cotton, rayon, or silk at room temperature, with no need for hot water that will melt your wax.



My name is Carol and I have a couple of questions to ask. First, I want to dye cotton thread and I'm curious if there is a difference between the Jacquard Fiber Resistant Procion Dyes and the Dharma ones? I see that Dharma has many more colors to choose from, but are the colors going to be as vibrant on the thread as Jacquard? I've never used either and before buying one I just want to make sure I'm getting the right one. Also, (sorry for the long post and all the questions!) I will be dying the thread just for my own use, not to sell, so how small of a batch of dye mixture will I need? Should I invest in those little tiny dye spoons? I want to make them variegated, not solid colors (mostly). Is there a place with good recipes for a large variety of colors to be able to produce with these types of dyes? Anything you can tell me will be GREATLY appreciated!

The Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion Dyes are the same type of fiber reactive dyes as the Jacquard Procion MX dyes. They are the same strength and the same quality. Most of the colors are slightly different, because they are mixed in-house, but the most basic and important colors are exactly the same; see my page listing the handful of single-hue unmixed dye colors. If you are buying large jars of the dye, both Jacquard Products and Dharma Trading have similar prices; for small jars, though, Dharma gives you a better deal.

To choose which colors to order to start out with, check out my page, "What colors should I buy to start out with?". I recommend you buy one two-ounce jar of each of the most important colors for mixing. I recommend (using Dharma's names) lemon yellow, either light red or fuchsia, turquoise, and new black; if you can buy a few more colors, get strong orange, cobalt blue, and grape, and also consider cerulean blue and sky blue. You will also need soda ash, water softener (sodium hexametaphosphate) if your water is hard, and probably urea.

To learn about color mixing, see my page, "How can I mix Procion MX dyes to get specific colors?".

You don't need the tiny dye spoons. I usually mix no less than one teaspoon of dye at a time. You will probably want to use the recipe for tie-dyeing concentrates, to make a thin liquid dye paint to drip onto your threads. I have a page on "How much Procion MX dye should I use?"; you should also look at the recipe on the page "How to Hand Dye".

Thank you SO SO much!!! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!!

[from Facebook wall posts on All About Hand Dyeing, 2/18/2012]

(Please help support this web site. Thank you.)

Follow this blog on twitter here.
Tweet