Will it work to dye rayon lace and cotton fabric after sewing them together?

Name: Bette

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Country or region: U.S.

Message: Hello -- I hope you might be able to give me some advice regarding a project I am embarking upon. I am cutting cotton fabric into strips and serging all the edges. On the sides and down the middle of these I am sewing different rayon venice laces. Then I am taking the finished product (I am planning to make about 50) and dyeing each one. The scarves will each be a single color but I am planning to create many different colors.

Here are my questions: Is it going to work creating the scarf first and then dyeing it or will the rayon and cotton look different? It seems like it will be easier sewing the scarf and then prewashing it. Will this work considering I am using two different materials? And lastly, what do you think would be the simplest dying method to use?

Rayon will dye a very similar color to cotton, assuming that it's viscose rayon (which is what we usually mean by "rayon" in the US), and not rayon acetate. I think it will be close enough to be no problem. Often, rayon will appear to take more of the dye, resulting in a somewhat darker value than cotton, but the same hue, so it still "matches"; usually, the different color intensities look good together. Mercerized cotton dyes more intensely than unmercerized cotton does, so the color you get is closer to that of rayon.

However, watch out for the thread you are serging with. Most sewing thread is made of polyester, which will not take the dye at all. I don't know about serger thread. Be certain that your serger thread is made of cotton, or of cotton-wrapped polyester, so that it will take the dye, too.

It would be wise to test-dye a snippet of the lace as soon as possible, to make sure that it is made of the dyeable material that you think it is.

Another issue is shrinkage. It would be terrible if one material shrank considerably more than they other, after you sewed them together. It might be a good idea to pre-shrink both your cotton and your lace, to make sure that they do not shrink differently after they are sewn together.

What is the simplest dyeing method to use? If you are interested in a multi-colored effect, then low water immersion is by far the easiest technique; it's easier than any other form of dyeing. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". If you want a single solid color, then washing machine dyeing is the easiest: see "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". Washing machine dyeing would be wasteful of materials if you're dyeing only one or two scarves in each color, though. You can use a five-gallon bucket to use the same method, scaled down appropriately, but then you have to stir by hand. See the link on the above page to Dharma Trading Company's "The Vat (Washing Machine, Tub, Bucket) Dye Method," or see PRO Chemical & Dye's instructions for "Immersion Dyeing using PRO MX Reactive Dyes".

I strongly recommend fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, for dyeing both cotton and rayon. Read through the recipes in advance to see the other ingredients that you will need.

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Posted: Wednesday - November 17, 2010 at 09:46 AM

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Will it work to dye rayon lace and cotton fabric after sewing them together?

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