Name: Nicole
Message: I recently purchased 3 different RIT dyes. I believe they are used mainly to dye clothing all over by putting the dye in the washing machine. I bought them in hopes I could use it to tie-dye but I am confused on the steps since I don't have everything. Obviously I will put the dye into an empty bottle just like you would normally do. Before that do I still need to seperately buy soda ash to soak? Will this dye even work or is it a different type of dye? Please advise.

No! It is very fortunate that you decided to write to me before trying this doomed project. Many others have written to me only when it was too late, when their Rit dye that they'd used in squirt bottles had just washed out of their shirts. It's very disheartening to go to all that work, only to have it just disappear.

You CANNOT tie-dye with Rit dye by putting the dye into squirt bottles! Rit dye is a hot-water dye. It will not work AT ALL if you apply it cold. You cannot use Rit dye with squirt bottles. You might as well try to tie-dye with water-soluble markers. It will just wash out! Soda ash will do nothing to make Rit dye last. Soda ash works only for a totally different type of dye.

If you want to tie-dye with Rit dye, you must dissolve the dye in water, and HEAT each dye color in a separate large cooking pot (which will never again be used for food). You then tie your shirts and either drop them into the dye, simmering them for half an hour, or, for multiple colors, you stand there and hold the shirt partially-submerged for half an hour, then rinse it out and repeat by holding a different part of the shirt partially submerged in another dyebath. Also see more detailed instructions on how to tie-dye with Rit dye.

If you want to tie-dye using the room temperature technique and squirt bottles, you must buy a completely different kind of dye, one which can be used without heat. This kind of dye is called fiber reactive dye; one type is Procion MX. You can go to a crafts store and purchase a tie-dye kit, if you can find one made by Jacquard or Rainbow Rock. Or, you can mail-order a tie-dye kit from a company such as Tie-dyed.com (see the small tie-dye kit or the standard tie-dye kit), or from any of the other companies listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page. Unlike all-purpose dye, this dye, when used correctly, will not bleed onto your other clothes in the laundry, and clothing dyed with it can be washed a hundred times without fading! And, it is just so much easier to use, and the colors are much brighter and prettier.