Country or region: Franklin County

Message: I need to dye my scrubs to a Solid Black. I just got a new job and the dress code is black. I have gray, pink, and blue scrubs. Can you please help me? Today is Friday and I neede them by Monday. I don't have any money for a few weeks. The scrubs are the 65% Polyester and the cotton blend. PLEASE HELP ME!!

You've got a problem. I'm not sure that you'll be able to buy the polyester dye locally. Get on the phone right now and call every crafts store in your area, and the Joann's fabric stores, too, and some art supply stores if that doesn't work, and ask them specifically if they have the "iDye Poly in black". Do not let them sell you only plain "iDye", which is a cotton dye; you must have "iDye Poly".

There is no other brand of dye in any local store that will work on the 65% polyester in your scrubs. Do not try to dye your scrubs with Rit all-purpose dye, because it will not work at all on the polyester. It will just wash out of the polyester. Without a polyester dye, the darkest black you will be able to buy will turn your scrubs no more than a light-to-medium gray, one that is only 35% the intensity of black, which won't help you a bit.

There are other sources for polyester dye, but they all involve mail-order; some will do overnight expedited shipping, but not on the weekend. I don't know whether you live in Franklin County, Ohio, or Franklin County, Virginia, or Franklin County, Washington, or Franklin County, Georgia, but none of the specialty stores I know for dyes for hand dyeing are located in any of those places, anyway. There is a large dye company near Franklin County, North Carolina, but I don't think they'd be open on the weekend. You should try calling and asking them, if you're in that area. If you live in North Carolina, contact Standard Dyes at 1-800-859-1240 or Classic Dyestuffs at 336-841-2346 and ask whether they can sell you any "black disperse dye". Disperse dye is the only kind of dye that works on polyester, and it is what is found in iDye Poly and other brands of dye for polyester. Both Standard and Classic will sell you a quantity of no less than one pound of dye for each dye color, but their prices are generally pretty good. They can also sell you dye for the cotton portion of your fiber blend, in a separate jar.

The best mail-order sources in the US for small quantities of disperse dye are PRO Chemical & Dye, in Massachusetts, and Aljo Dye, in New York. Their phone numbers and web sites are given on my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World". You can also buy "iDye Poly" from a number of different arts and crafts suppliers, including Blick Art Materials and Dharma Trading Company. Express shipping is available, certainly from Dharma and probably from the others as well, so that you could obtain your dyes Tuesday if you order on Monday morning. It's unfortunate you weren't able to get started on buying the dye on Thursday or before, so that you could use mail-ordered dye to do your dyeing this weekend.

You will have to dye both the polyester fibers and the cotton fibers in your scrubs to get a true dark black, although they require entirely different types of dye. If you buy both iDye, which is a direct dye that works on cotton, to dye the cotton in the blend, and iDye Poly, which is a disperse dye, to dye the polyester, you can dye both at once in the same five-gallon cooking pot. (The pot should be made of enamel or stainless steel; look for a large enameled canning pot, as large as you can find.) You cannot dye polyester at room temperature; for good black results, you must cook the dye into the polyester, at or near boiling. If you attempt to dye polyester black in the washing machine, I predict you will get a disappointing gray, at best.

iDye is not my favorite dye for cotton, but it's convenient to be able to add it to the same dyebath as the iDye Poly for polyester. iDye is better than Rit dye for cotton, but not by a lot. I can tell you about what the best black dyes for cotton are, but at this point I've probably given you as much information as you can use at the moment.

Good luck in finding polyester dye — and congratulations on the new job!

Followup:
 Thank you for getting back to me so fast. I did call Joann and they have two and are placing it on hold. Thanks so much!

That's great!

You'll need to buy both the iDye Poly, for polyester, and the regular iDye, for the cotton part of the fiber blend. When in doubt, use more dye than the package says, when you're trying to get a deep dark black. Don't use the washing machine method for dark colors on polyester.

If they don't have any of the regular iDye for cotton, you can substitute Rit all-purpose dye, just for the cotton, or you can wash the scrubs once after using the polyester dye and then repeat the dyeing with Tulip One Step Fashion dye or Dylon Permanent dye, both of which last much longer on cotton.

It would be a good idea to use a dye fixative after you are done with the dyeing, such as Retayne or iDye Fixative. While you're at Joann's, ask if they have any. The old wives' tale that vinegar or salt will set the dye is untrue, but the commercial dye fixatives really work.

If you don't use Retayne or another commercial dye fixative, be careful to launder the black scrubs separately in cool water. The iDye for cotton, like Rit all-purpose dye, tends to bleed in the laundry, and it bleeds much worse in hot water than in cold water.


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