:: March 12, 2008
Dyeing Lessons
For my baby shower my friend Christie gave me some hand-dyed/stamped cloth diapers (to be used as burp cloths). I love them and ever since I have wanted to try my hand at dyeing. After what seemed like a long time gathering all the supplies and finding a some time this past weekend, I got my chance. Here's how it went.

I bought three colors of procion MX dye from my local art store: chocolate brown, avocado green, and pearl gray. You also need soda ash, but the art store was out so I went by the pool store for some. When I asked the guy there for some, he asked me immediately if I was doing some dyeing, so they are familiar with this request.
I gathered a bunch of cotton onesies, new big ones and old small ones, and bought three yards of Robert Kaufman kona PFD. All together it weighed 2 1/2 pounds. Each 2/3 oz bottle dyes one pound of fabric so I figured I was good. You also need salt -- a lot of salt -- two cups per three gallons of water. We had a big box of coarse Kosher salt on hand and a container of regular table salt. Now that I (duh) read the instructions on the Jacquard site, I see you're supposed to use non-iodized salt. I knew the coarse salt would probably not dissolve well, and thus cause problems, but I forged ahead anyway.
I'm not too into the mottled, variegated hand-dyed look; I was after more solid colors. Apparently the mottled look is best achieved by the low-water immersion technique, so I opted for tub dyeing and pretty much just followed the directions on the bottle of dye. However along the way I referenced pburch.net and Lisa Call's great series of posts on her process.

I got the fabric wet, then filled three buckets full of hot tap water and dumped in the salt. I didn't pre-mix my dyes or use urea, just (carefully) dumped each jar into the salt water mixture. You have to use a mask and gloves as you do this, as the dyes are very toxic in powder form. Then I put the fabric and some of the onesies in and stirred. The soda ash goes in next. I realized I was supposed to have already dissolved the soda ash in water. I decided to just dump it straight into the dye solution. It is coarse, about like laundry detergent, so it probably didn't dissolve all that well.
However, the brown and green looked great immediately, rich and deep. The gray looked bad from the get-go, more purple than gray and with lots of spots all over.



(yuck)
I let it sit for a little while then added more onesies, so that they would come out a shade or two lighter than the first fabrics I put in. (They did.)
I let it all sit, stirring occasionally, for a few hours more. The dye jars say 50 minutes but I let it go longer. Then I removed the clothes and fabric from one bucket and ran them under the faucet a little bit. I squeezed them out, put them aside, and dumped the bucket of dye solution down the drain. I was worried about staining but there was none. Then I transported the fabrics in the empty bucket to the washer, which was filling with cold water. I repeated the steps for the other two colors. You can wash them all together without worrying about color transfer.
Last, I ran two more cycles on hot. Lisa Call recommends turning your water heater up to max before you do this so the wash water is as hot as possible. The heat is what removes the leftover dye at this stage, so you want it as hot as possible. I didn't bother with synthrapol, a special detergent that dyers use that bonds with the remaining dye molecules and wisks them away.
The results:



The gray was all but disastrous. Clearly the dye powder didn't dissolve very well before I put the fabric in. I think there was a layer of powder still on top of the water that hadn't busted through the surface tension before I added the fabrics. Although, the second round of onesies turned out great! (Oops - no picture of those.) The brown and green turn out lighter than I thought they were and far less than solid. Turns out I didn't stir the mixture enough. Still, Otto wears it well.

I want to try again, if only to do it right! I bet the washing machine method would yield more solid colors.
Now to think of something good to do with the fabric.
posted by in Other Crafts
It looks like you had fun while dyeing. I've always been too worried about staining tubs or other things to try it. But your experiment looks like it was successful so perhaps I'll give it a try in the future. :-)
Posted by Tami on March 12, 2008 2:10 PM ..................
I've had the best luck dissolving the soda ash by adding it to a bucket of water in small amounts at a time and wisking until each small amount is dissolved.
The reasons that the grey dye appears purple-y in spots is because the component colors making up the grey struck at different times. Could be chemicals in your water, the temperature, the undissolved chunks of soda ash hitting it or a lot of random things.
I like to wash my fabrics with synthrapol before dyeing, to help get anything that might be on the fabrics off.
Posted by TheBon on March 12, 2008 3:30 PM ..................
Thanks for all the tips! I had never thought about dyeing before, but this looks like fun!
Posted by Rebekah on March 12, 2008 5:09 PM ..................
You need to also go visit Mrs Mel and read her no frills methods. they work a treat for me. No hot water there. the more you stir the more you get even colours. Here's the link....
http://www.fibermania.blogspot.com/
look on the right at her "lazy dyer" post. that's the kind of dying a busy mummy needs to do. Yes, the fabrics are colour fast.
Have fun, I love the baby pic.
Posted by pixie on March 13, 2008 1:48 AM ..................
I like the results, even though the gray reminds me of Poptart frosting (you know with sprinkles) and now I'm hungry :) Dyeing looks like fun!
Posted by Sil on March 13, 2008 10:13 PM ..................
I dyed onesies and t-shirts for my daughter and all her little friends one year. I used the cheapo Rit dye from WalMart and did it in the sink with excellent results. The colors were a bit light (didn't soak them long enough) but it was super easy and didn't require a trip to the pool store ;)
Since then I tried the washing machine method and Rit dye to dye a sheet and it came out splotchy (not enough dye) but I would recommend the washing machine method if you are doing smaller items and don't have a front loader.
Posted by Melissa H on March 14, 2008 11:45 AM ..................
Posted by Amy on March 15, 2008 6:19 PM ..................
I've always wanted to do that... Otto looks great in his onezie.
Posted by Liz on March 15, 2008 6:43 PM ..................
Thanks for all the pics. I've totally got the dying bug. You just put me one step closer. Otto is stylin' in that fabulous green onesie.
Posted by kathy on March 17, 2008 12:11 AM ..................
this is a fantastic post! I'm sure I'll reference it in the future. The green turned out really well--avocado is my favorite shade.
Posted by meg on March 19, 2008 7:34 PM ..................
I don't know how I missed your blog all this time, but I am glad I found it. You made the dying process look easy. I think I will give it a try soon. good to know you can dye things in a bucket and not a washing machine.
Posted by linda on March 21, 2008 8:35 AM ..................
You can get a lot of great advice on dyeing from http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/
I bought a blender from the thrift shop for mixing soda ash and any dyes that don't like to disolve.
Posted by joyce on April 14, 2008 4:00 PM ..................
I have always wanted to try this! I have tye dyed with my boys before but that it it.
I love the greens that you did turned out beautiful! I just came across your blog, I love finding new great blogs!
Posted by linnea on April 14, 2008 6:03 PM ..................
It all looks good to me! I tried to buy Procion dyes at Jerrys recently and they told me they didn't have them.
Posted by Ann on April 18, 2008 11:44 AM ..................
I just had to jump in and comment. I teach dyeing with procion dyes at a local art center. You will probably get better results if you:
1. Dissolve the dye in a small amount of _room temperature_ water before you pour it in to the large container. It will dissolve MUCH better in a small amount of water first. Use a wire whisk (but don't use it for food again) or recycle a plastic juice container - put the lid on tight and shake it up.
2. Dissolve the soda ash in _hot_ water, using the same method.
3. The key to even colors is stirring your dye vat. Often.
4. The salt is totally optional. It helps if you are trying to get really dark colors, by letting the fibers soak up more of the dye, but it is not necessary to the reaction.
5. I have never heard of heat taking away the extra dye. After about an hour, the chemical reaction between the dye-fiber-soda ash is complete and all you really need to do is wash away the extra dye molecules that are floating free.
Posted by becka on April 21, 2008 8:13 AM ..................
Wish I had more time to read your blog but thankful I've found it. I love the colors. Very modern. Will be back!
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