Name: John

Country: Canada

Message: I have a couple of pieces of cotton muslin. 12' x 10' that I wish to dye.  I hope to use my top-loading washer.

How much dye of what type do I need for each?

What else do I need?

Do you ship by post?

Thanks in advance for your help.

The amount of dye you will need to use depends on the weight of your fabric. The simplest way to determine this is to just weigh it yourself. If it's not too heavy for your kitchen scale, that will be ideal. It may be too light for your bathroom scale, but try it, weighing yourself with and without the two pieces of fabric. If neither scale can handle this weight range, take it to the grocery store and try weighing it on a produce scale. The fabric should be dry when you weigh it.

I recommend that you use Procion MX dye. The amount of this type of dye you'll need will be the product of the weight of your fabric and the darkness to which you want to dye it. See my page, "How much Procion MX dye should I use?". You'll need more dye for a darker color, or less dye for a paler color. Scroll down to the second chart on that page to see approximately how much dye will be required per pound of fabric.

Using a top-loading washing machine is an easy way to dye fabric a solid color. See "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". Be sure to pre-wash the fabric thoroughly in very hot water with detergent, to remove finishes that may interfere with dyeing. You will need about two cups of sodium carbonate (soda ash or washing soda), to set the Procion MX dye; see "What is soda ash? What's it for, in dyeing?". For dyeing in the washing machine, you will also need a large quantity of ordinary salt; see "Do I need to use salt, in dyeing?". One washing machine load typically requires ten pounds of salt. 

I am always grateful to those who support this web site by buying their dyes and other materials from the affiliate links on the site, and Blick Art Materials does ship to Canada. However, in your area you may find it more practical to order from a Canadian art supplier, such as G and S Dyes in Toronto. Please see "About This Site" for more ways to lend your support. Thank you.

Name: Tres

Region: Florida

Message: My friend and I are starting a small tee shirt company, and we are going to try to create some cool shirts by dying them before having them printed.  What we would like to do is come up with something similar to the lava wash and tea stain effects used by Bare Apparel.  Do you have any tips you can offer us?  You can see the effects we're trying to achieve here and here. Thanks so much for your help!

The most important advice I can give you is don't buy bad dye. Don't use all-purpose dye (such as Tintex or Rit dye) for hand-dyeing; it's too expensive, and gives poor results on cotton.

As a small business, it'll be important for you to cut costs wherever practical. Buy Procion MX dyes, which are both the best dyes for hand-dyeing, and, at the same time, the cheapest of all good dyes, in bulk by mail-order from the least expensive suppliers: PRO Chemical & Dye or Dharma Trading Company for jars of two ounces, eight ounces, or greater, or Artist & Craftsmen Supply or directly from Jacquard Products for jars of eight ounces per color and up, or Standard Dye or Classic Dye for buckets of one pound or more per color. (For contact information and links, see "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World".)

Results with subtle and quiet color variation, as in your example from Bare Apparel shown at the left, can be obtained with fiber reactive dyes, such as the Procion MX dyes, by using the Low Water Immersion technique. See "How to Do Low Water Immersion Dyeing". You can control the amount of variation with greater or lesser amounts of stirring of the fabric during the dyeing process: more stirring = less variegation. Do not use salt, for these subtle results; in LWI, salt is used only to increase the contrast in the patterns. Using fiber reactive dyes, such as Procion MX dyes, will give you the longest-lasting permenent dye color possible.

The other way to achieve effects similar to your goals is by pigment dyeing, which is the use of fabric paints instead of true dyes to color fabric. Instead of bonding directly to the fiber as true dyes do, the pigment particles (often called pigment "dyes" although they are not dyes) are glued to the fabric by an acrylic binder. Since the pigments lie on the surface of each fiber, instead of penetrating through it like a dye, they wear off far more quickly.  Whenever you're interested in the appearance of instant age, pigment "dyeing" is for you. You can apply the fabric paints by painting or pouring them on, by diluting them (never more than recommended by the manufacturer of the pigment) and dipping the shirt in, or through a machine "dyeing" method. Unfortunately, unlike real dyes, pigment "dyes" will permanently color your washing machine, so we're talking about a considerable investment in equipment for anything above the hand-dyeing level.

The most economical source for appropriate quantities of pigment "dyes" for your purpose will be Dharma Trading Company, which sells their Dharma Pigment Dyeing system in the form of a concentrate that can be diluted with up to four times as much water. This makes it much more cost-efficient than using, for example, Dye-Na-Flow fabric paint, which can be diluted with only a small amount of water. For pigment dyeing on a somewhat larger scale, consider PRO Chemical & Dye's PROfab Color Concentrates; see their info sheets describing "Pigment Dyeing using PROfab Color Concentrates" [PDF] to see how to do this in a top-loading washing machine, but only assuming you don't mind permanent pigment stains in the machine.

Note that, if you are using real dye, you will need to buy 100% cotton shirts to dye. Buying by the case (72 shirts per size) from a wholesaler will reduce your per-shirt cost considerably. If you are doing pigment dyeing, then 50% cotton/50% polyester shirts will do. In any case, always avoid any shirt that is marketed as being stain-resistant or permanent press. The best shirts for dyeing are marked "PFD" and have cotton thread; if not marked as PFD, clothing almost invariably is sewn together with polyester thread which will not take dye, so shirts specifically marked as being sewn with cotton thread are better.

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Name: Timmy

Country: Malaysia

Message: I have hand-painted a piece of batik. The piece is supposed to be just hung on the wall without any contact with water, but I want to make it a step further, that is fixing the colours. I asked the person handling the batik-painting, and she told me it can be fixed using Sodium Carbonate, as mentioned on this website. But I want to know: what is the ratio of Sodium Carbonate to water that I need to use to effectively set the colours? 5ml (dissolved) to 250ml? Also, how much salt do I need to use to maximise colour retainment?

In batik, the dyes are usually fixed at the time that they are applied. Trying to fix the dyes after the wax has already been removed may result in dyes smudging into areas of the design where they are not wanted.

Sodium carbonate can be applied to the fabric (cotton, silk, or rayon) before the dye, as in the standard tie-dyeing recipe. It can also be mixed with the dyes immediately before they are applied. Unfortunately, when it is applied after the dyes, the dyes tend to run together a bit in the water the sodium carbonate is dissolved in. Would this ruin the effect of your batik's design?

Do you know for sure what kind of dyes were used in your batik? If not, it's difficult to tell whether trying to after-fix the dye will even work. Sodium carbonate is used with fiber reactive dyes , but not with direct dyes, acid dyes, or naphthol dyes. Some fiber reactive dyes can react with natural fibers at relatively cool temperatures; Procion MX dye, for example, works well at temperatures as low as 21°C (70°F), though warmer is better. Some other fiber reactive dyes will not work at room temperature and require steaming to set the dye, even in the presence of sodium carbonate; Procion H and Procion HE are among the dyes that have this requirement.

If having the colors run together will not be a problem for you, then you can soak your batik in warm water with sodium carbonate dissolved in it, or spray the sodium carbonate mixture on. Anywhere from 3 to 5 ml (one-half to one teaspoon) per cup (250 ml) is a good concentration. Salt is not needed for dye fixation, for dyes that are applied directly, as in batik. However, the fact that salt reduces dye solubility can be useful. If you add as much salt as can possibly dissolve in water to your sodium carbonate mixture, it will reduce the amount of dye that comes off of your batik into the sodium carbonate solution. You can dissolve almost 90 grams of sodium chloride in 250 ml of water. If your water supply is hard, that is, if it contains calcium and magnesium ions, it is best to use distilled water or chemically softened water, or to add a water softener, sodium hexametaphosphate, to the water you will be mixing your sodium carbonate in.

Alternatively, you can use sodium silicate solution as an after-fix treatment, instead of sodium carbonate. This is popular enough that one dye supplier in the US sells sodium silicate solution under the brand name 'AfterFix'. Common names for sodium silicate solution include Water Glass, Soluble Glass, Silicate of Soda, or Egg Preserver. If you can find sodium silicate solution, I'll be glad to share information on how to use it (or you can study the instruction sheets at ProChem [PDF] and Dharma).

I believe that sodium silicate would be preferable to sodium carbonate for your purposes.

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Name: Natalia
Country: England


Message: Hi, do you know how I can dye some ivory lace (nylon/cotton/rayon mix) to a bright red colour for a garment please? I'd like the colour to be as uniform and bright as possible, which method and which brand of dyes would you recommend? Thanks, Natalia

You can dye nylon with a kind of dye called acid dye (see How to Dye Nylon), and you can dye both cotton and viscose rayon with a different sort of dye, either direct dye or fiber reactive dye.

To dye both nylon and cotton the same color at the same time, the most convenient method is to buy a mix of dyes called all-purpose dye. All-purpose dye contains a mixture of acid dye with direct dye. Look for Rit All-Purpose Tint and Dye, or Tintex Easy Fabric Dye, or Dylon Multi Purpose Dye. 

(Dylon Multi Purpose Dye is the only type of Dylon dye that will work on your fiber blend; don't use Dylon Machine Dye, Dylon Hand Dye, Dylon Permanent Dye, or Dylon Cold Dye, all of which are fiber reactive dyes. You cannot dye nylon with Dylon Machine Dye, Dylon Hand Dye, or Dylon Permanent Dye.)

Nylon needs to be heated in the dyebath in order to take the acid dye. You will not be able to dye nylon with a cold dyeing process. Using a large non-aluminum cooking pot (which you shouldn't plan to reuse for food), dissolve the dye in water and heat the lace in the water. Add white vinegar or another acid to the dyebath after the dye has had plenty of time to penetrate the lace. A good amount of vinegar to use is 100 ml per 4 liters of water, assuming that the vinegar contains 5% acetic acid, which is the most common strength. You should aim for a top temperature of 185°F (85°C); do not boil nylon. 

The vinegar does not assist the dye in fixing to the cotton or the rayon, but it is essential for fixing the dye to the nylon. You will probably want to heat the lace in the dye water for about half an hour. To obtain paler colors, you can remove the lace from the dye after a shorter period of time, but it is better to use the full half hour, and obtain lighter colors by using a smaller amount of dye powder.

You should weigh your lace before dyeing it, and adjust the amount of dye powder you use accordingly. A kitchen scale should work well for weighing your lace. Add salt if the manufacturers' directions tell you to do so. Rit All-Purpose Tint and Dye, Tintex Easy Fabric Dye, and Dylon Multi Purpose Dye all contain salt and other ingredients, but if directed you should add more. Read and follow the instructions on the label in deciding how much dye to use. Typically, one packet of all-purpose dye contains only enough dye to color 4 to 8 ounces of material (100 to 200 grams) to a bright or dark color. For a very bright true red, use one packet of all-purpose dye for no more than about 100 grams of lace. For a very pale color, use as little as one-tenth as much of the dye packet. Keep any remaining dye powder sealed in an airproof container to protect it from air and moisture.

Unfortunately, all-purpose dye is not very wash-resistant, and the color may run in the laundry. To prevent this, order some Retayne or another commercial dye fixative. Neither salt nor vinegar will be sufficient. In the UK, a good source is Fibrecrafts, which sells Fixitol P. Treating your lace that you've dyed with Fixitol P is very important in preventing dye from bleeding, if you use all-purpose dye.

There are other ways to dye both cotton and nylon in the same piece, but this is the easiest way, and the results will be good if you use Retayne or Fixitol P. Alternatively, for maximum wash-resistance without Retayne or Fixatol, use premetalized acid dyes such as Lanaset dye for the nylon, and, in a separate step, use fiber reactive dye for the cotton and rayon in your fiber blend.

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Name: Adam

Region: California
Message: Does it matter how long you leave the dye on?

What kind of dye are you talking about? If it's the fiber reactive dye in a good tie-dye kit (not Rit!), then it's best to keep the dyed items wet overnight in a warm place. See "How to Dye with Fiber Reactive Dye". You should generally wash the dye out within a day or two, but it's okay to sometimes let it go longer; see "How long can I let a Procion dyed shirt sit without washing it out?".

Other dyeing recipes may be completed in as little as an hour, depending on the specific dye, the amount of water, the temperature, and other factors.

All-purpose dye, such as Rit or Tintex, works best when the fabric is simmered in the dye at 190°F for at least half an hour, but even then is not nearly as satisfactory on cotton as a good fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye.

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Name: Jennifer

Country: England

Message: I am a chemistry student whose project involves investigating the effect of temperature on dyeing with Reactive Dyes. I have experimented with temperatures from 30°C to 80° with Procion Red MX. I understand that the higher temperatures (80°C etc) cause the hydrolysis of the dye with water to become more frequent (due to your site), but I am having some trouble trying to explain WHY the higher temperatures cause this to happen? My results from the experiment showed that 80°C caused the Cotton material to have a very poor ability to be dyed. However, I hypothesised that the higher temperatures would cause Cotton material to absorb dye more, because of the molecules having more kinetic energy, thus more collisions would occur between dye molecule and fibre, increasing the chance of a reaction taking place and bond formation... Do you have any idea where I have gone wrong in my thinking? Thank you very much for your time.

As you were thinking, hotter temperatures in general increase the rate of any reaction. The same thing occurs with dye—but also with the water that the dye is dissolved in. The dyes can react with either the cellulose fiber or with the water, the latter reaction being known as hydrolysis. The effect of the added energy is much greater on the dye reaction rate than on the ability of the dye to soak into the fiber. Increasing temperature too much causes the dye to react with the water before it ever gets into the fiber. In fact, it's better to let the dye soak into the fiber for some time before beginning your dye reaction by adding soda ash (or other pH increaser) and any heat.

The cellulose molecules in cotton material can dye well at 80°C, if the dye is already located in the fiber, adjacent to the cellulose molecule, before it reaches that temperature. It works fine to heat the dye reaction up excessively warm, if the dye is in place already. To make sure that this is true for some of your dye molecules, you must have already soaked your swatch of fabric or bundle of yarn in the dye, using either a high dye concentration or added salt to encourage the dye to approach the fiber, and including the soda ash or other high-pH chemical to assist the fiber in reacting with the dye, before heating the dye reaction. 

The problem occurs when the dye is not in the fiber, but only in the water, when it gets hot. The dye will react more quickly with both the fiber and with water, depending on which it is close to, when it gets warmer. What you did not allow for was the idea of competition for the dye between the water and the cellulose molecule. If the dye reacts with water before it can react with the cellulose, then it will not be able to react with the cellulose. To see the reaction that occurs between a dichlorotriazine dye molecule and cellulose fiber, see this page, the May 19, 2005 entry in my "All About Hand Dyeing Q&A" blog: "Chemical reaction for a dichlorotriazine dye with cellulose". The reaction between dye and water is similar. In the presence of a high pH, the dye molecule is attacked by either an activated cellulose molecule or by a hydroxide ion. As quoted there, "The attacking neutrophile can be either a cellulosate anion or a hydroxide ion, the former leading to fixation on the fibre and the latter resulting in hydrolysis of the reactive dye." 

Salt is important in this situation, even though it is not involved in the chemical reaction. If you have dissolved your dye in water, if the volume of the water is relatively high, then you will need to add salt (such as sodium chloride or sodium sulfate) in order to reduce the electronegativity of both the dye and the fiber. Otherwise, the fact that both the dye and the cellulose or other fiber have negative charges makes it difficult for the dye to approach the fiber closely enough to permit a reaction. Salt is not required for direct dye application methods, such as tie-dyeing or dye painting, because the relatively low amount of water used makes it more likely that a dye molecule will encounter a cellulose molecule in time to react with it.

By the way, you must find and use the correct name for your specific dye. All of the Procion MX dyes are dichlorotriazine dyes, but the different dyes within the Procion MX dye line are not equivalent. There are about five different reds available (in addition, of course, to all of the many mixtures of different dye colors sold by some dye retailers). Procion red MX-8B is far more reactive than Procion red MX-5B, which means that it reacts with both textiles and water more quickly. It is important also to find the generic name for your dye. It is better to be able to specify, for example "Colour Index reactive red 2" versus "Colour Index Reactive Red 11". For a chart showing the generic names for each of the Procion MX dyes in common use, see my page "Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?". Another chart, this one showing the relative reactivity of a number of dichlorotriazine dyes, is located in the Dye Forum on my site. (The reactivity is expressed in the number of minutes required, at a specific temperature and pH, for the dye to hydrolyze, that is, to with water.) You can compare the chemical structures of various Procion MX type dyes, including several red ones, on my page "What is the chemical structure of Procion MX dye?". When describing your experiments, it is also important to specify not only the temperature of your dye reactions, but also the pH and the concentration of both dye and any salt that you may have added.

I hope that this will resolve the problem you've been having in understanding your dye's behavior.

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Country: Canada

Message: Hello Paula Burch...

I came across your website while searching for a method to dye cardboard or pulp egg flats.  An egg flat is the large rough textured 'cardboard or formed pulp' squares that hold up to 30 eggs on top of each other in an egg carton for shipping.

I want to colour these egg flats to use on a wall in my home as a cheap wall covering that will give me some sound dampening and to give the wall a relief of sorts.

My question to you is:  Do you have any thoughts of how this can be achieved using dye instead of paint?   I have thought of dipping the flat into a vat of dye; painting or spraying the dye onto the flat has been suggested also.

I am not sure if a hot water or cold water dye is required and certainly the amount of time the flat can be immersed in the dye mixture will be limited in order to maintain the structure of the square flat.

I would like to achieve a deep colour in the shortest period of time so, I suspect the dye solution may have to be quite concentrated.

I certainly am not a dye expert at all and I would appreciate any thoughts or direction on this matter that you can give me.

Thank you again for any assistance you or any of your associates can provide to me.


I don't like the idea of using a true dye on anything that will dissolve or come apart in water, because there's always a problem with the excess dye. Since dye molecules are attaching directly to the molecules in the substrate, in this case the cellulose in the cardboard or pulp, the dye chemistry dictates how you must use it. In the case of cellulose dyes (unlike wool dye), there is always a lot of excess dye that must be washed out after dyeing. Therefore, dyes are inappropriate for cellulose items that can't stand a lot of washing, unless you are going to coat them with polyurethane or some other sealer, to prevent the excess dye powder from dusting off into the room after your dyes have dried.

The right way to use dye in cardboard or pulp items, or in hand-made paper, is to add the dye before molding the paper or egg-holding forms, while the material is still in the form of wet mushy pulp. If you have the right sort of forms to shape egg flats from pulp, you could soak your egg flats or other paper pulp source in water, mush them up, add dye as in a good paper dyeing recipe, and then spread the pulp onto the forms in the usual manner for manufacturing these items. (For example, the excellent dye supplier PRO Chemical & Dye has a recipe for coloring paper pulp with Procion MX dyes, and another for using direct dyes, and a third for using pigments to color paper pulp. [All three of these links lead to PDF files.])

What I would recommend, assuming that you are not going to remanufacture your egg flats, and that you're not interested in a two-step coating with an added clear coat, is to use a very thin, dilute paint. Paint is different from dye in that it consists of particles of colored material that do not have to have any chemical affinity for the material on which they will be used; they are mixed with a binder (usually an acrylic binder) that, in effect, glues the pigments to the substrate.

It sounds as though you don't care for the idea of paint. I suspect this is because you are thinking of the thickness of paints used, for example, to paint the walls in houses. A thick paint will obscure the texture of the flats, and change the overall impression. Also, a thick paint will make the surface smoother and slicker, which might (at least in my imagination) reduce the sound-damping properties. However, thick paints are not your only choice.

There's a particular type of paint called fabric paint, which we like to use when we paint fabric because it produces far less change in the texture of the fabric. Cloth that has been painted with house paint or with ordinary artists' acrylics feels rough, hard, and scratchy. Fabric paint, in contrast, feels much softer. Some fabric paints are particularly thin, so that you can barely feel them at all on the material. Good examples of the thinnest of fabric paints include Jacquard Products' Dye-Na-Flow, and Dharma Trading Company's Dharma Pigment Dyes (which, in spite of their name, are paints rather than dyes). These two fabric paints produce results that are very similar to the results of dye, although the paints coat only the outside of each fiber, rather than penetrating within as dye does. The thinness of the paints allows them to flow and soak in like dye. 

Fabric paints would undoubtedly work well for you, but they do tend to be expensive. (If you order directly from Dharma Trading Company, in the US, you can find much larger and more economical bottles than are available in arts and crafts supply stores; Dharma Pigment Dye is among the most economical choice of fabric paints, because it is very concentrated and therefore can be diluted considerably.) However, since your egg flats will not be worn against the skin and do not need to flex very much, you could also choose to go with a less specialized paint. You could use any paint that is intended for use in airbrushing. Airbrushing paints are always very thin, if I'm not mistaken. In fact, airbrushing would be a simple way to apply your paint very smoothly, if you can rent or borrow the apparatus needed; please learn what precautions you need to take (such as using a spray booth and/or a properly fitting respirator face mask) so that you do not permanently gum up your lungs, causing emphysema, by breathing in the particles of paint.

If you don't want to bother with shipping internationally, G and S Dye, in Toronto, sells a fabric paint/pigment dye system that may also meet your needs. They sell in large volumes, as well as small, which makes them far more economical than the tiny jars of fabric paint you can sometimes find in an arts or crafts supply store. I recommend that you call them to ask what they recommend you use for your specific situation.

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Name: Vanessa
Country: Australia
Message: Hi,
I have been tye dying for quite some years now, but can never seem to get the bright vibrant colours. Could you suggest a brand of dye that I can use to obtain these bright colours?

The most popular dye among tie-dyers is Procion MX fiber reactive dye. No other dye gives more vibrant colors. There are other fiber reactive dyes which produce similarly brilliant long-lasting colors, but they tend to be more expensive, and they are not superior in brightness. Drimarene K, Remazol, and Novacron F (formerly Cibacron F) are all similar in quality to Procion MX dyes.

In Australia, you can mail order Procion MX type dye from Kraftkolour or from Batik Oetoro; see Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World, and scroll down to the section on Australia and New Zealand. You can also order it from either Dharma Trading Company or PRO Chemical & Dye, in the US; if you call and arrange for the least expensive form of overseas shipping, the prices can be surprisingly competitive.

There are other important points to follow in getting the most vibrant colors possible, with fiber reactive dyes:

1. Dye only natural fibers such as 100% cotton or 100% silk, or other cellulose fibers such as rayon. Avoid stain-resistant or water-resistant fabric.

   PFD (Prepared For Dyeing) fabric or clothing is the best, because it lacks surface treatments that can resist dye and will dim your ultimate colors. RTD (Ready To Dye) is also good. Rayon (the viscose rayon type) and mercerized cotton produce the most brilliant colors. 

2. Prewash your fabric in hot water, preferably 60°C (or 140°F), with detergent and extra soda ash.

3. Use soda ash (sodium carbonate or washing soda) to set fiber reactive dye.

4. Make sure your reaction temperature is warm enough: minimum 21°C (or 70°F) overnight for tie-dyeing with Procion MX, or warmer for the other fiber reactive dyes.

5. Choose colors that are close to the printers' primaries of cyan, magenta, and yellow for mixing the brightest colors. See "What colors should I buy to start out with?".

6. Use enough dye! Use 20 grams (about 8 teaspoons) of Procion MX dye powder per cup of urea water for black; use 10 grams per cup (about 4 teaspoons) for dark colors; use 5 grams per cup (about 2 teaspoons) for medium colors; and use 1 gram of dye powder (about half a teaspoon) per cup of urea water for pale pastel colors. Also use salt, when using high water ratio immersion to dye solid colors, but not for tie-dyeing.

7. Make sure your dyes are reasonably fresh (fiber reactive dye is expected to last for one to two years after purchase) and store it in a reasonably cool, dry place.

8. Leave the dye to react long enough that there is no longer any unreacted dye on your fiber remaining. If all of the dye has had time to react with either the fiber or the water, then all remaining unattached dye will be removable with hot water, but if you rinse out while the dye is still active, it's possible to get a permanent dulling effect due to the bleeding of excess dye.

9. Wash out all loose, unattached dye afterwards by rinsing first in cool water to remove the soda ash and any other auxiliary chemicals, then wash twice with hot water (60°C or 140°F) or once with boiling water.

The worst dyes for getting vibrantly bright colors on cotton are the all-purpose dyes (such as Rit Tint and Dye, Tintex Hot Water Dye, and Dylon Multi Purpose), because they contain direct dyes which bleed onto one another, dulling down the colors drastically. All-purpose dye is not suitable for tie-dyeing cotton.

Dylon Permanent Dyes contain good fiber reactive dyes, but they are not intended for mixing. The lack of good mixing primary colors in the Dylon dye lines means that colors tend to be dull when you mix them yourself. (This does not apply to the tie-dye kits made by Dylon.)

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Name: Jasmyn

Region: California

Message: Hi. I am Jasmyn and I am doing a science fair project about dyeing fabrics natural to see which one is going to be the brightest. I need to ask 2 people questions that know what my science fair project is:

1. What fabrics should I use?

2. What colors should I use?

3. Would this be a succesful project?

And, is there anything else I should do? Thank you for reading my letter. 

First, choose your fiber (the material your fabric or yarn is made of).

Use yarn that is 100% wool, or fabric that is 100% cotton. Make sure that it is not wrinkle-resistant or stain resistant.

Or, if you want to make your project a little more complicated, you can compare wool, cotton, and polyester fabric. Which one dyes best?

Another good choice would be to compare wool yarn, which dyes well, to acrylic yarn, which does not dye well. This would make a successful project.

Second, choose your dye.

What colors you should use depend on what dye you want to use. A good natural dye that is easy to find is turmeric. It's a bright yellow. You can buy a jar of turmeric powder in the spice section of the grocery store. A lot of other foods are very bad dyes; blueberries, beets, and any sort of leaves all dye very poorly.  

You can use a mixture of food coloring and vinegar instead of a natural dye, if you like. Use any color of food coloring that you like. You can find small bottles of food coloring in the baking section of the grocery store. Food coloring works well as a dye on wool but not on cotton, acrylic, or polyester. It would be good to try dyeing both wool and acrylic yarns with food coloring. One type of yarn will dye brightly, and the other will not.

Natural dyes and food coloring both require heat to bond to the fabric or yarn, so you will need to dissolve your turmeric in water, and then either heat it in a saucepan on the stove with the fibers you're dyeing, or heat them in the microwave. If you use food coloring, add vinegar (one tablespoon per quart), but you do not need vinegar with turmeric.

If you use a microwave to heat your fibers in the dye, be sure that all of your fabric swatches or yarns and completely covered with the water the whole time so that you can be sure they will not catch on fire.

Follow this link to see the other questions I've answered about doing science fair projects using dyes:
          All About Hand Dyeing Q&A > schoolwork
Be sure to scroll down. Each title, below the top article on that page, leads to another article about dye projects for school.

If you have more questions, you can write to me again.

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Name: Amber

Country: US

Message: I looked through your website but could not find the answer to this question and was hoping you could help me. I just recently dyed a cotton shirt using the Dylon permanent dye in the olive green. Before I dyed the shirt (which was orange) I used a color remover. The shirt came out great, however, it was lighter than I wanted to it be. Can I make it darker by repeating the dye and leaving it in longer? Do I need to remove the color again before I re-dye the shirt? Or can I just re-dye it, since I will be using the same color? Or, do you have any resources for custom color, using Dylon? The Dylon website doesn't provide much information. Any help would be great. Thanks in advance.

To get the same green, only darker, just apply the same kind of green dye that you used before. There is no need to remove the green dye that you have already applied. A second layer of dye will combine with the earlier color to make the color more intense. You don't need to change the recipe you used in adding the dye. If you exactly repeat what you did the first time, the shirt will be a darker green.

The only change I would recommend would be to warm your dyebath up, if it was colder than the instructions on the package specified. You can always place your dyeing bucket into a sink or bathtub with a few inches of very hot water in it, to warm it up. Don't worry about this if your dyeing temperature was already as warm as you were directed to use, however. If I recall correctly, the Dylon Permanent Dyes are labeled with instructions to use hot tap water, at 140°F (that's 60°C), which puts them in the category of warm water fiber reactive dyes. Not everyone keeps their tap water heater set this high; if you keep yours set to 120°F to reduce the risk of burns, you can heat some water on the stove before adding it to either your dyebath or the sinkful of water you're using to warm it up.

In order to obtain the darker green you're aiming on your first try, you should have used more dye powder, not more time. Use more dye powder for more intense colors, and use less dye powder for colors that are paler than the package. It's best to allow the reaction between the dye and the fiber go to completion, and change the color intensity by using more or less dye powder, because the results are more predictable that way. It's better to start, as you did, by applying too little dye, because it's a lot easier to add more dye, by repeating the dyeing, than it is to remove the dye with a color remover. Some dyes won't discharge with the color remover, and some other dyes turn funny colors. It's very nice that the color remover did just what you wanted to the original orange of your shirt.

This will work, by the way, only for a 100% cotton shirt (or other natural fiber or 100% viscose rayon); it won't work if the reason why your shirt is pale is because it is a cotton/polyester blend. Cotton/poly blends always come out lighter in color. There are also problems in trying to dye anything that is wrinkle-resistant or stain-resistant, even if it is 100% cotton, because the Teflon coatings used to provide stain- and wrinkle-resistance will also resist the dye.

Dylon Permanent Dye is a line of good fiber reactive dyes, mostly Drimarine K type dyes, with some Remazol dyes in one or two of the colors. They are high-quality, long lasting fiber reactive dyes.  The main drawback of Dylon Permanent Dyes is that they are more expensive per garment than Procion MX dyes, but that is made up for by the fact that they are a little easier to find in local stores. Joann's fabric stores carry Dylon Permanent dye in the US. Since they have the soda ash or TSP used as helper chemicals already mixed with the dye powder, Dylon Permanent Dyes are less versatile for other forms of dyeing such as tie-dyeing, but this does make them very convenient to use for changing the color of clothing.


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Name: Cindy

Country: US

Message: Hi Ms. Burch,
I have been so inspired by your site!  
I am having a problem mixing dyes.  Any color that I achieve by mixing in yellow will have a yellow halo around the color on the finished piece.  This halo has also appeared when I've mixed fuchsia and cobalt to get purple (the halo was blue).  Is there something I can do in the mixing process to avoid this?  I really can't spend more money to buy each shade but I'm getting quite frustrated with the mixing.  Thank you so much.

Yes, I can help you with this problem. It was one of the observations that first got me interested in the chemistry of textile dyes. 

As it happens, you been using a red (red MX-8B) that strikes very quickly and reacts almost instantly with the fabric, in the presence of soda ash. This means that it stays right where you put it, and it has no time to move at all on the fabric. Red MX-8B, or fuchsia, is the fastest-to-react of all the Procion MX-type dyes. 

In contrast, you've been using turquoise MX-G or blue MX-2G for your blues. Both are good colors, but neither reacts nearly as quickly as fuchsia red MX-8B. In fact, the lovely turquoise MX-G happens to be the slowest-to-react of all of the Procion MX dyes. Since it bonds to the fiber so slowly, it has plenty of time to creep along the fiber, spreading out in all directions. A purple or blue made by mixing red MX-8B with turquoise MX-G will tend to produce marked blue halos. It's an easy way to identify tie-dyes that have been made from a decent tie-dye kit, since fuchsia is almost always found in kits.

The third dye you've been using is yellow MX-8G. Like all the other dyes, it reacts more slowly than red MX-8B, so you get yellow halos around your true reds and your oranges.

There are a hundred different Procion MX dye colors, but all but a dozen or so are mixtures. Pre-mixed colors can be extremely useful, but at this point you want to buy primary colors that are good for mixing. Since only a dozen or so of the colors are unmixed, we're not talking about a huge investment here. You just have to know which of the dyes to buy.

The source for your choices is the top chart on my page of "Which Procion MX dyes are pure, and which are mixtures?". (This is from the FAQ on my site.) The names of the pure unmixed single-hue colors are shown along the left side, and the names of the major dye suppliers are shown along the top. In the body of the table are the names and in some cases catalog numbers under which the various suppliers sell the dyes. As you can see, the names can vary quite a bit from one supplier to another.

You will need a red that is less reactive than red MX-8B, so that it will have time to creep along the fabric a little before it bonds to it. This substitute red is red MX-5B. It's very similar in color to the fuchsia red MX-8B. This alternative, red MX-5B, is called "light red" by Dharma Trading Company, "mixing red" by PRO Chemical & Dye, and "magenta" by Jacquard Products. Each of these names applies to the exact same dye. 

It does not matter which supplier you buy it from. You will find that buying two-ounce jars of dye from Dharma or ProChem will save you a great deal of money compared to buying a small tie-dye kit, or compared to buying the two-thirds ounce jars of dye sold by Jacquard Products, although the eight-ounce jars of Procion MX dye from Jacquard Products are just as good a deal as the same eight-ounce jars from Dharma or ProChem. (Note that even the smallest and least economical jars of Procion MX dye are a far better buy than an all-purpose dye such as Rit, because you can dye many more pounds of fabric per dollar spent.)

For a blue that is faster-to-react than turquoise MX-G, try cerulean blue, blue MX-G. (Note that in spite of the fact that both have names ending in "MX-G, they are different dyes; the root color name is an important part of the code.) Blue MX-G is known as cerulean blue by Dharma and Jacquard, and as intense blue by ProChem. It's a gorgeous color. Alternatively, you can use the duller blue MX-R, though it reacts slowly and does not travel very far, but faster and farther than turquoise MX-G; it is known as sky blue, basic blue, or medium blue. (I prefer to have both on hand.) You will probably have no further problems with your blues once you switch your red, however.

To mix a true red without a halo, I recommend using orange MX-2R, which Dharma calls deep orange, ProChem calls strong orange, and Jacquard calls brilliant orange. Mixed with red MX-5B, it makes excellent halo-free reds, and can be used to make browns, or to dull down blues, as well.

If possible, I think you should also buy some violet MX-2R, which is called grape by Dharma and ProChem and violet by Jacquard. It is a lovely true purple that does not split apart at all, since it is a mixture, and it is useful for mixing a variety of shades, all sorts of purples and even a good blood red. I see that you already have some cobalt blue; having a navy blue like this is excellent for mixing deep, dark purples and greens, it can be mixed with orange to make brown, and by itself makes a nice dark contrast to brighter colors in a tie-dye.

So, to solve your problem, I recommend a shopping list of red MX-5B (this alone is the most important switch for avoiding haloes), orange MX-2R, violet MX-2R, and, less importantly, blue MX-G and/or blue MX-R. I would stick with the same yellow MX-8G that you already have, except for mixing with red (use orange then), and I would still use the other dyes you have, just not in cases in which haloing is a problem.

You can also mix your dyes with a thickener such as sodium alginate or Superclear so that they travel less on the fabric. This will have other effects on your tie-dyeing, as well; some people love the effects of thickened dye and never again use unthickened dye, while others prefer the color blending of  unthickened dye, and rarely use thickener. Give it a try and see how you feel.

Another way to change the differential migration of the different dye colors is to apply the dyes to the fabric without using soda ash, let them soak in, then after-fix the dyes with sodium silicate or by spraying on soda ash. This will obviously have other majors effects on your dye designs, of course, but, interestingly, it will also completely remove the behavior you normally see when using fuchsia (red MX-8B) dye. This is because the speed of reaction does not matter as much if the reaction is not allowed to occur at first.

For more information, see:
Which Procion MX colors are pure, and which mixtures?

Sodium alginate, Superclear, and other dye thickeners

What colors should I buy to start out with?

Reactivity of Procion MX type dyes

Frequently Asked Questions About Dyeing (and related issues)

Procion color personality quirks (Dharma dyes)


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Name: Natalie

Country: England

Message: Hi, I am trying to get hold of some Drimarene orange X-3LG, Rubinole X-3LR and Blue X-3LR. Where could I get hold of these dyes?

The Drimarene X dyes are high-temperature reactive dyes for cellulose fibers, such as cotton and rayon, which are based on a trichloropyrimidine structure. They are less popular among hand-dyers than dyes such as Drimarene K and Procion MX that don't require heat, but the slower dye-fiber reaction is helpful for level-dyeing solid colors.

What sort of quantities are you looking for? For large industrial quantities, you can get Drimarene dyes from their manufacturer, Clariant. As a general rule, large dye manufacturers will sell you containers with no less than five kilograms of each color. It's likely that you would not be writing me if you wanted those sorts of quantities, however. If you are a researcher or artist who wants to work with these dyes, you will need to find a supplier who will provide far smaller quantities, no more than a pound per color, and preferably smaller quantities than that.

Among scientific suppliers, it appears that at one time in the past Bio-Rad listed these Drimarene dyes among their dyes and stains, but they no longer do. Sigma-Aldritch carries a wide range of dyes, but they don't carry these.

In the US, Classic Dyes currently carries these three dyes, some of them additionally under other common names (always order by both brand name and Colour Index name, and be sure to specify that you are not willing to accept a dye mixture of a similar hue). Their minimum order is one pound per dye color, or was the last time I ordered from them.

Batik Oetoro in Australia sells Drimarene X dyes in quantities as small as 50 grams per color (for AUS$11), and they will ship their dyes overseas. You can contact them to determine whether they sell the specific Drimarene X dyes you require. Their Drimarene X dyes are listed at the bottom of the same page that lists their Drimarene K dyes; Drimarene K dyes are warm-water dyes that do not require the high dyeing temperatures required by the Drimarene X dyes.

You might be able to find a suitable retailer more local to you by calling Clariant.

The generic name of Drimarene orange X-3LG is Colour Index reactive orange 11; Drimarene Rubinol (or rubine) X-3LR is C.I. reactive red 55; and Drimarene blue X-3LR is reactive blue 52.  These three dyes, Drimarene orange X-3LG, Drimarene Rubine X-3LR, and Drimarene Blue X-3LR, are recommended by Clariant as 'ternary elements', that is, three primary colors for use in mixing colors:

For more information on fiber reactive dyes, see "About Fiber Reactive Dyes".

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Name: Nathan

Region: Portland, Oregon

Message: I'm looking to dye some 75 percent cotton, 25 percent polyester gray t-shirts black. Because I'm just trying to get a uniform black color, do I still need to lay out my fabric flat and drip the Procion MX over it (as dictated in your "How to Hand Dye with Fiber Reactive Dye" document) or can  I just soak the material in a bucket overnight containing the dye?

Thanks for your info - I've never dyed before, and I'm glad I came here before buying some junky dye at the grocery store!

Your instincts are good; the best method for a solid color is not directly painting or dripping the dye on. It's better, for a uniform color, to use a 5-gallon bucket, or a washing machine. The recipes for this method take only an hour or so, however, because it's a faster technique. You should stir the shirt a lot with the dye to get the color even, and use a lot of salt, which is not needed at all in the recipe you have already been looking at, plus soda ash to fix the dye, as in the other recipe.

The washing machine makes solid-color dyeing easy, especially if you're dyeing more than one. You can dye a full five to eight pounds of fabric at once (weigh the shirts while they're dry) in a single top-loading washing machine load. Or, you can use the washing machine recipe, in smaller quantities, to dye just a couple of shirts in a large plastic bucket. See my page, "How can I dye clothing or fabric in the washing machine?". (There's a link on that page to Dharma Trading Company's recipe for dyeing in a bucket or a washing machine.)

I'm afraid that you won't be able to conveniently dye those shirts black, though. If you use any dye that works on cotton, you will be able to get only a 75% color intensity, since polyester will never accept a cotton dye. The polyester in the blend will remain unchanged in color. That means you won't be able to get darker than a medium-dark gray, using the best dyes in a single-step process.

You can either accept this medium-dark gray, or you can also dye the polyester in the fiber blend, by using an entirely different type of dye, which does not work on cotton. The two different fibers require two different types of dye, there's no getting around that fact. Even so-called "all purpose" dye will not color the polyester at all. All-purpose dyes such as Rit or Tintex will just wash out of the polyester, and of course they will not last as long on the cotton as Procion MX dye will. 

Unfortunately, polyester is much more difficult and annoying to dye than cotton is. The only kind of dye that works on it is called disperse dye, and this dye has to be cooked on the stovetop with the shirts, in a huge cooking pot, in order to get the dye to take on the polyester. I would be happy to tell you about where to buy disperse dye, and how to use it on polyester, and even how to use it at the same time as a cotton dye (and how to make this other cotton dye not wash out too quickly), but I'm not at all sure it would be worth the trouble for you. See "Dyeing Polyester with Disperse Dyes".

It would be so much easier to either find 100% cotton shirts to dye black, or to accept the medium-dark grey you can get by dyeing only the cotton part of the cotton/poly blend. It's also a lot cheaper to stick to cool-water dyes such as Procion MX dye, because they don't require you to invest in a large cooking pot to use for dyeing (especially since you should not plan to reuse a dyeing pot for food preparation). There's no such thing as a cool-water dye for polyester, and five-gallon non-aluminum cooking pots are expensive.

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Name: Vanessa

Country: UK
Message: Hi Paula,

Wow If I had found this site BEFORE my issue I could have asked if this would have worked.

I have been dyeing things for years, but I never tried it on a pattern. I tried to add yellow to a swirly pattern tee shirt so that instead of the original  bright green, white, grey, black, It would affect just the yellow (or so I hoped! ) This did not work out well!! The black and green are still reasonably fine, the white areas are definitely yellow, I did not realize the grey areas would be a pea soup / disgusting green color. 

Now instead of looking bright and fresh color palette, it looks murky and horrid. Is there anything I can do to rid the grey of the pea soup green or remove all the Dylon dye and just start over with a fresh tshirt? They don't sell this anymore! 

If I use a color stripper, Im sure it will remove the original black, grey, and green. Or a color  run remover may not fix this. Is there any possibly way I can remove the dye I added without stripping the original colors and patterns from this garment? It is viscose / elastane, and feels like a t-shirt.

Thanks so much for any help! As of now, it is soaking in very hot water with washing powder before I let dye set after removing from the wash.

Thank you
Vanessa


You're right that using a color stripper risks removing the colors you want, and yet it might be possible. Are the colors printed on? If so, can you, perhaps, detect a tiny, tiny amount of roughness where the print is? If you can feel the printed colors at all. then, it may very well have been printed with pigments (essentially fabric paint), instead of with dyes. Pigments tend to be resistant to color removing. However, sometimes prints are made with reactive dyes, in which case your printed design may be susceptible to the same treatments that will remove your unwanted dye color.

Which kind of Dylon dye did you use? There is one type of Dylon dye which is susceptible to washing powder and hot water; this is the line known as Dylon Multi Purpose dye. The other lines of Dylon dye are far more permanent, though, including Dylon Hand Dye, Dylon Machine Dye, Dylon Cold Dye, and Dylon Permanent Dye, all of which contain fiber reactive dyes. Fiber reactive dyes are very good dyes on cotton, so they won't wash out in hot water.

You might want to try painting a dye-remover onto the fabric just over the gray parts of the pattern, so that you can remove your yellow dye without risking the rest of the design. Since the fiber blend includes elastane (also known as spandex), you must avoid using chlorine bleach, which will destroy elastane, leaving holes in the fabric. That leaves the sulfur-based dye removers. In the UK, a good source for discharging agents is Fibrecrafts/George Weil. They sell Jacquard Discharge Paste, which is thick enough to paint on the fabric where you want it. I don't know how complex the design is; if it's simple, this won't be too bad, but if it's very complex, it will take more time than the shirt is worth to you. Apply the discharge paste with a short stiff brush or whatever tool seems to work best, let it dry, then steam it to activate it, using a steam iron, or by wrapping it up in unprinted newsprint paper and steaming it over boiling water, as you might steam vegetables, for ten minutes. One worry is that heat is not good for elastane. Take a look at the care instructions for the shirt: it may tell you to use only cool water to wash it.

Another option is to add yet another color. You could use a fabric paint just where you want it (again, only if the design is simple enough for this to not take forever), or you could overdye the t-shirt as a whole. Yellow plus grey made a pea green for you. Overdye the entire garment with blue, and it will become a different shade of green, which you might like better. Of course, the more color you add, the more muted the black pattern will become, against the parts of the shirt that started out being green, white, and grey. It's better than having a shirt of a color you hate, though.

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Name: Dorcas

Country: Nigeria

Message: Here in Nigeria, we are used to tie-dye with caustic soda and hydro-sulphite among others. Please how safe are these chemicals or what are the precaution I should take as a fabric designer? I will appreciate your answer. Thanks 

The chemicals you're concerned about are used with vat dyes. The caustic soda and sodium hydrosulfite are used to reduce and solubilize vat dyes in order to apply them to textiles; the solubilized dyes in the fibers are then oxidized by exposure to air, so that they become insoluble and fixed in place inside the fiber. Dark colors are obtained by repeated applications, rather than by strong dye solutions, because heavy application of vat dyes can result in dyes that are deposited on the outside of the fibers, resulting in the problem of dry-rubbing, which is called crocking. For more information on these dyes, see my page, "About Vat Dyes".

With care, these chemicals can be used safely. You will need protective gear to prevent the chemicals from contacting your skin or eyes, and you will need excellent ventilation (such as a fume hood, or working out-of-doors, preferably with a large electric fan blowing air away from you, in case there is no breeze). You will need a dust mask for use when working with chemical powders, and you should consider a cartridge respirator to keep out fumes. I'll describe the safety considerations for caustic soda, sodium hydrosulfite, and the vat dyes themselves, below.
 
Caustic Soda (sodium hydroxide)

Caustic soda, also known as lye, is known to chemists as sodium hydroxide, which is abbreviated in every language by the letters NaOH. Sodium hydroxide is used to increase the pH of the dyebath. As the common name implies, it is very caustic to your skin and eyes. If it contacts your skin or hair, it reacts with the natural oils to create soap. Major exposures can cause severe burns. Minor exposures can cause the skin to become very dry, reddened, and sore. If caustic soda is splashed into the eyes, it can cause permanent blindness.

A very important thing to know about sodium hydroxide is that you should never add water to it. Instead, add the sodium hydroxide to water. The first few drops of water poured into sodium hydroxide become very hot and may boil, causing dangerous splashing. If sodium hydroxide is added to a container of water, instead of the other way around, it is much safer, because the first drops of sodium hydroxide are immediately diluted.  Use cold water to start with, because dissolving sodium hydroxide produces heat. Also, be sure to replace the cap on the bottle of sodium hydroxide immediately, to reduce the risk of spills. Do not use aluminum containers, because sodium hydroxide will react badly with aluminum.

When working with sodium hydroxide, it is important to wear safety glasses or goggles to prevent an accidental splash from endangering your sight. A plastic face mask, similar in shape to a welder's mask, will protect your whole face from burns. You should wear protective clothing (such as a lab coat plus an apron), which, if penetrated by a solution of caustic soda, should be immediately removed and the skin flushed with water. Water must be available at all times for pouring over any burns produced by caustic soda. You'll want to cover your hair to protect it from fumes, and wear proper gloves, not flimsy disposable gloves that tend to develop holes. Good ventilation is important, too, of course. It goes without saying that there must be no children in the area where sodium hydroxide is being used, because someone who foolishly eats sodium hydroxide will suffer severe and sometimes fatal damage to the esophagus, and it is important not to breathe dust from the powdered chemical.

The Materials Safety Data Sheet for each chemical, required by law in the US for potentially dangerous chemicals, gives more information on the precautions to be taken with sodium hydroxide. Here's a link to an MSDS for sodium hydroxide provided by the J.T.Baker chemical company.

Hydro-sulphite (sodium hydrosulfite or sodium dithionite)

Sodium hydrosulfite or sodium hydrosulphite is an older name of a chemical which chemists now prefer to name as sodium dithionite. It is a sulfur-containing reducing agent; sometimes another reducing chemical, thiourea dioxide, is used instead. These and other chemicals suitable for reducing vat dyes are listed on my page of "What chemicals can be used to remove dye?", because they will also remove the color from many dyes in other classes, such as direct dyes, acid dyes, or reactive dyes. (The most traditional methods for dyeing with indigo, a natural vat dye, do not use these chemicals, but instead a fermenting dyebath, in which microbes produce the chemicals that reduce the dye.)

Sodium hydrosulfite is not as hazardous as sodium hydroxide, but it is far from innocuous if appropriate precautions are not taken. It can trigger serious breathing difficulties, ranging, depending on the level of exposure, from triggering an asthma attack to potentially deadly pulmonary edema, in which fluid builds up in the lungs. It is important not to breathe this chemical. Sulfur-containing reducing agents such as sodium hydrosulfite and thiourea dioxide can produce gaseous sulfur dioxide, which is damaging to the lungs. The fire hazard from sodium dithionite can be serious; stored sodium hydrosulfite will ignite on contact with small amounts of moisture and air, so it is unsafe to store any significant quantity. Substituting thiourea dioxide is the simplest way to reduce this fire hazard; you can use one-fifth as much thiourea dioxide as you would use of sodium hydrosulfite. Here are links to MSDS pages for sodium hydrosulfite (=sodium dithionite) and for thiourea dioxide [PDF], which is also known as aminoiminomethanesulfinic acid or formamidinesulfinic acid.

Side effects of vat dyeing

An interesting interview with an American tie-dyer of 1970, before the fiber reactive dyes preferred by most American dyers became widely available, described the ill effects of working with sodium hydroxide, sodium hydrosulfite, and vat dyes without proper protection, fortunately without accidents resulting in serious burns:

It is to be hoped that the heavy chest congestion she reported does not indicate permanent cumulative damage to the lungs. You should do everything you can to avoid the development of this symptom, because in the long run it may be very dangerous. If you experience this lung congestion yourself after using vat dyes, you must improve your ventilation and use a cartridge respirator to protect your lungs against gases.

Vat Dyes

The dyes themselves are relatively non-toxic. The  original vat dye, indigo, has been approved in the US for use as a food additive, whether it is synthetic or natural in origin. It is always important to avoid breathing any dye powder, as this may result in the development of severe respiratory allergies. Wearing a dust mask while working with dye powder (before it is dissolved), wearing safety glasses and reliable gloves, avoiding and quickly cleaning up any spills, and practicing good cleanliness should be sufficient for safety when working with vat dyes. The main concern is not the dyes themselves, but the caustic soda and sodium hydrosulfite that are used with them. Here is a page from PRO Chemical & Dye that has links to a great many different MSDS pages; scroll down to the section on the vat dyes they carry.

If you have other questions about how to apply these safety precautions with the resources you have available, please write again.

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Country: USA

Message: Six drapery panels; 65% polyester/35% cotton; fuchsia (color change due to sun exposure).  Can these panels be redyed (fuchsia/deep purple) successfully?


No, this is not likely to work.

Dyeing polyester requires high heat and special dyes. You'd need an impossibly large cooking pot to boil large drapery panels with polyester dye, so you can't do this at home, and I've never heard of any professionals who would be willing to do this. The only professional dyers I know of who will custom-dye polyester in small jobs like this are the Manhattan Dyeing Service, but the only polyester they will dye is undyed white polyester. 

Cotton is easy to dye in the washing machine, but, as only 35% of the fiber in your drapes is dyeable cotton, you will not be able to get an intense color.


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Name: Janet

Country or region: Marshall Islands
Message: Hi Ms. Burch, I am writing from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. I have been trying to purchase dye supplies online. I have able to follow the links to the suppliers. However, due to the mode of payment which requires credit card and similar payments, I could not able to place order on-line. Please could you advice me on any possible supplier that could accept Cashier's Check since this is the form of payment that is readily available and is in use in our country. I really learn a lot from the techniques and methods for dye in your website.

Most companies that will ship internationally will accept checks, or, if not, will accept wire transfers, but the order cannot be sent until after the check is received by mail, after the order has been placed. You can place your order by phone if the website does not allow methods of payment other than credit cards.

Dharma Trading Company will ship any of their products to the Marshall Islands, and they will accept a wire transfer as payment. 

PRO Chemical & Dye will ship their products internationally, and they will accept a check that is mailed to them; you should contact them and ask them for more details.

Contact information for these and other dye suppliers may be found on my page, "Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World". You may also wish to consider suppliers in Australia, though their prices tend to be higher than those at the US companies.

You may want to order by phone and specify a slower and less expensive form of shipping than the those indicated in the order forms on your dye supplier's web site. They tend to list only those forms of shipping that, while very fast, for international orders will end up costing more than the cost of your order. Ask about what forms of Economy shipping may be available.

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