Trying to tint a 100% polyester fabric a pink, lost all hope

Name: Gene

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Dye polyester and poly/cotton blends

Ann Milner's book
The Ashford Book of Dyeing

includes directions for dyeing with disperse dyes

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Holly Brackmann's book
The Surface Designer's Handbook

includes directions for dyeing with disperse dyes

Country or region: U.S

Message: Hello Paula,
I'm thinking of purchasing disperse dye for polyester from prochemicalanddye.com and I was wondering if you have any experience with their disperse dyes and have used it with polyester? I've always believed that to successfully dye polyester is impossible and to have the dye stay on the fabric or be washfast beyond impossible, from my experience. I've been simply trying to tint a 100% polyester fabric a pink and it's become a very difficult task. I've lost all hope in trying to dye and keep the dye on the fabric, and find a dye that will do the job and a company that won't give me issues while ordering said dye. Hopefully you can give me some advice from your years of wisdom in this area.

What kind of dye have you been using? It's no wonder you've had no success if you've only been using dyes intended for cotton and wool until now.

Successfully dyeing polyester is impossible only if you're using the wrong type of dyes. It's not difficult with the right type of dye. Polyester is so different from natural fibers such as cotton or wool that it's pointless to try to dye it with dyes that work on those fibers, but it is easily dyed with disperse dyes, as long as you use water that is hot enough (that is, boiling the dye with the polyester for half an hour or more, not merely using hot tap water), and assuming that the polyester fabric has not been treated with a surface finish that repels dyes. Disperse dye works very well on polyester. Of course, it doesn't work at all well on natural fibers. It's always absolutely essential to match your dye type to the fiber content of your fabric.

The disperse dyes that PRO Chemical & Dye sells will make your dyeing project easy. You will need a cooking pot, one that you don't plan to reuse for food, to boil your polyester in with the disperse dye. This dyeing pot should be made of stainless steel, or else coated with enamel; aluminum is not recommended because it reacts with the acidic ingredients used to protect the dye during boiling.

For dyeing polyester an intense dark color, it is important to also use a smelly and somewhat toxic chemical called a dye carrier or color intensifier; however, since pink is a pale shade of red, you should be able to get by without using the dye carrier additive. That's what I would choose to do. I don't like to use the dye carrier chemical indoors.

It's easy to redye something when you haven't dyed it dark enough. It's far more difficult to remove dye once you have applied it. This means that I would recommend that you aim for a very pale color first, and see what happens. First try using a small amount of dye, in addition to skipping the use of the color intensifier. If, after boiling your polyester with a small amount of red disperse dye, you find that the color is not a bright enough pink, then you can simply add more dye powder, and boil some more.

For any large dyeing project, or any project in which precise results are critical, you should start by running a small-scale test first. Weigh the total amount of fabric that you want to dye. Let's say that your fabric weighs 1000 grams, or 2.2 pounds. You can snip out a test piece that weighs just 10 grams, using a scale that can measure small quantities, like a postal scale does, and then, since your test piece weighs only one-one-hundredth as much as the total, make a miniature dyebath containing 1/100 as much dye powder as you plan to use for the large piece, and 1/100 as much water and any other added chemical. Follow the recipe supplied with your dye, using the same total amount of time boiling. By doing this, you can determine exactly how much of your dye you need to use to get the color you want.

On the other hand, for a reasonably small project in which you can always buy more fabric if it doesn't come out right the first time, you could try plunging right in without doing a test, knowing that the results may be somewhat unpredictable. This can work fine if you don't have to match a precise shade. When precise results are not critical, you can measure your dye by the spoonful, instead of having to weigh out a specific number of grams of dye powder.

When you look at the dyes ProChem sells, you can see that there is no pink dye. Not a problem at all, because pink is simply a dilute red. You can use less dye powder to get the paler color. My rule of thumb for pink is to start with one-tenth as much dye powder as would be required for a bright red. For their D360 Bright Red PROsperse dye, ProChem says to use 1.5% of the weight of the fabric (along with Dye Carrier NSC) to get a bright red hue. That means that, for each pound of fabric (weighed while dry), that is, 454 grams of fabric, you would need about 6.8 grams of dye powder, or, they say, approximately two and a quarter level teaspoons. (One standard teaspoon should contain 5 milliliters, though some kitchen measuring teaspoons can be significantly smaller or larger than this.) If you start by using one-tenth as much dye powder as this, you would need only a little less than one-quarter teaspoon of dye powder, for your first try. That's the amount I would start with if I were using the Dye Carrier NSC in the dyebath. Since colors always come out paler without the use of the Dye Carrier NSC, you might be able to use somewhat more than this without it, but it is impossible, without testing, to predict how MUCH less. That means it's best to start with the least amount you think you might need, and then use more later if the results turn out to be too pale.

For step-by-step instructions, see ProChem's page, "Dyeing Polyester using PROsperse Disperse Dyes" [it's a PDF document]. Carefully read through the directions to see what materials you will need: the disperse dye itself, but also, if your water is at all hard the water softener sodium hexametaphosphate, which ProChem sells under the brand name "Metaphos" (or you can use distilled water instead). You can order citric acid from ProChem, or you can use ordinary white distilled vinegar from the grocery store. Synthrapol is a good detergent to use when dyeing. Soda ash (also known as Dye Activator) can be ordered from ProChem or purchased as sodium carbonate at a swimming pool supply store or hardware store.

Most importantly, you will need a large pot for dyeing in, on the stovetop. You cannot dye polyester in the washing machine, because your water needs to be boiling, not just hot. You will need your dyeing pot pot to be large enough for your fabric to move in freely when you stir it in the water. If the fabric does not move freely enough when you dye it, you will get unevenly color results, lighter in some regions and darker in others, a little like tie-dyeing. If it's important to you to get a single smooth solid color, then you should have plenty of water. A thirty-three quart dyeing pot (a common size for enameled canning pots) is big enough for five gallons of water, which is sufficient for dyeing two pounds of fabric (dry weight). On the other hand, if you don't mind some variation in color intensity, then you can fit more fabric into the same size of pot, as long as there is enough room in the dyebath for the dye and water to penetrate all of the fabric easily.

You will see that dyeing polyester is completely different when you use polyester dye. Cotton dye, as you've seen, simply does not work on any polyester, but polyester dye will.

You asked about my experiences with ordering from PRO Chemical & Dye. I have ordered many dyes from them over the years, and they have consistently been exactly what I ordered and of high quality. As it happens, I think that all of the disperse dyes I've used have come from other sources, but many people I know and trust have done well with ProChem's disperse dyes. It's a good place to order your dyes from.

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Posted: Sunday - May 13, 2012 at 11:30 AM

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Trying to tint a 100% polyester fabric a pink, lost all hope

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