Name: Elisa
Message: Hi!  I've got a 100% cotton corduroy hat.  It is red.  I want to dye it black.  I don't want the dull black this website says I'll get with Rit, I want a rich, deep black.  What products should I buy for this small project?  Thanks, if you can find the time to send a reply.

I always recommend cool water fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dye, for dyeing cotton. Anther kind of dye which is similar, and good to use, is Cibacron F dye. Cibacron F has what some people say is a better black. You can buy it in a suitably small quantity by mail-order from PRO Chemical & Dye, or you can mail-order Procion MX dye from most of the companies around the world that are listed on my Sources for Dyeing Supplies page. Dylon Cold Water dye ought to work reasonably well, unlike all-purpose dye; sometimes you can find it at your local fabric store or arts supply store.

AS a general rule, always use two to four times as much dye as usual when dyeing black. It is fine to apply black on top of any other color, as it will just make the black deeper and richer. If your hat ends up too reddish, you can always overdye it with a dark green, to get it closer to a true black.

You will also need to buy soda ash, or sodium carbonate, to fix the fiber reactive dye. If you choose to do the dyeing in the washing machine, you will need a large quantity of dye, and also ordinary salt. (This is an ideal dye for redyeing any black cotton clothing you have that has faded with use.) Or, you can dye it outside using the tie-dye recipe, though some sections may come out darker than others.

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