A weird white residue on the fabric after dyeing an ivory silk gown black

Name: Sasha

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Message: I dyed an ivory silk charmeuse gown black, and after rinsing and drying, I noticed that there was a weird white residue on the fabric. It's kind of dull-looking and disappears in the light, but it doesn't come out when I dab it lightly with water or when I steamed it using a commercial steamer. What is it, and what can I do to remove it?

What kind of dye did you use? How did you apply it? What auxiliary chemicals did you use, and how did you use them?

It's very possible that some of the surface fibers in the silk fabric of your gown did not get dyed. This can happen if you do not stir frequently enough throughout the dyeing process, or if the silk had some sort of sizing or other substance on the surface when you bought it. Silk may have natural gums on it when you buy it, or it may be that some sort of spinning oils or other chemical used in the manufacture of your garment may have been present. Any of these substances can block the dye from reaching some of the fibers in your fabric, which will give the appearance of a white residue. This has happened to me when using the technique of low water immersion dyeing.

What I would recommend, if that's what happened to you, is that you clean the silk as thoroughly as possible by washing in hot (not boiling) water with detergent and rinsing thoroughly. After doing so, redye the gown, using plenty of black dye. This will work if in fact the problem was caused by incomplete dyeing.

However, my recommendation above will not help if the problem is due to some sort of damage to the fiber. The way you describe it as disappearing in the light suggests that some of the fabric may be flattened, or physically damaged in some way, possibly by heat. If that is the source of the problem, I don't think that there is any solution, other than covering the damage by embellishing the fabric. You can make beautiful effects on silk charmeuse by painting, stenciling, or stamping with a metallic or pearlescent fabric paint, or by adding a texture by rubbing Shiva's Artist's Paintstiks on the front while the fabric is against a textured surface, or by using fabric foils to make shiny metallic designs. See my pages, "Beyond dye: more ideas for coloring fabric" and "Fabric Paints: a different way to color fibers". Any of these would change the effect of your gown completely, but will also cover the problem.

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Posted: Monday - September 06, 2010 at 09:37 AM

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A weird white residue on the fabric after dyeing an ivory silk gown black

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