Name: Michelle

Message: I searched, this situation not covered.

My deep, intense colors came out pastel in the wash-out!

I used procion dyes @ the correct temp, used soda ash, pH tested my soda ash, 100% cotton fabric, dye stayed on for 12 hours in a hot room (I live in AZ).  My urea is a few years old, but does not smell bad in its dry form.

However, I have been using a dye premix (mix up urea, kelp, and water, so you can just pour off & add dye later) and the premix I used for this batch was a few weeks old, and sat in a very hot room.  I noticed when I was washing out the shirts they smelled of amonia.  Do you think that's what did it?

I made a fresh batch of premix and it doesn't smell...I've never had this happen before and just did a dozen shirts that came out like this.  Do you think they'll be ok after they're washed?  I want to know if they are ok to sell, or if I should trash them.

Thank you so much! :)  Love the site :)

Yes, there was one case in which failure of fiber reactive dye turned out to be due to ammonia in the dye mixtures, from old urea. The reason for the problem is that ammonia increases the pH of the dye mixture, like soda ash does, and the Procion MX dye lasts for only an hour or so after it is added to a high-pH mixture. Unless you were working very quickly, it's likely that your dye was partially used up before you got it onto your fabric.

If that's the explanation, this last batch should have turned out all right. Did it? There are other possibilities, all of which are less likely, but which sometimes happen, almost as freak accidents. For example, in a couple of cases, people have thought they mixed up soda ash, but accidentally used urea instead, which, as you can imagine, does not do a great deal of good when used as a presoak. Obviously this was not the case for you, since you pH-tested your soda ash. (Good move!)

If the shirts come out pale, don't trash them, overdye them. Sometimes you can get much more interesting results than you would have with a single layer of dye.

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