I also have black problems....I seem to have alot of red or fuchsia dots which I think is from not mixing enough but it just doesn't go good on a 'manly' colored shirt to have weird fuchsia dots!
The infamous red dot problem. Consider switching where you buy your mixed colors from. Some suppliers are more careless than others in deciding whether a given batch of fuchsia is good enough for mixing different colors from.
Also no matter what I do my whites turn gray unless I separate the black stuff in the wash (and I use synthrapol) My only solution is...use less black or don blacks in one batch to wash separately but the the whites are still dingey gray...
This can be 100% solved by the correct washing procedure. I always wash my blacks with whites, and never have bleeding. My whites stay white. It's one of the things I love about fiber reactive dyes such as Procion MX dyes. I never have to sort my laundry by color!
First, something I consider important, but not all tie-dyers agree with, you have to have a single wash or rinse with cool water, to remove all auxilliary chemicals and salt before you use heat. I cut off the rubber bands or string with blunt-ended scissors right at the washing machine and drop them straight into an already-full washing machine of cool water, or you can hose them out thoroughly outside before you bring them in, or use the sink. You can use Synthrapol in this first wash, but no other detergent.
Then, you should wash your clothing two or three times, with detergent (preferably Synthrapol, but other detergents will do the job) in HOT water, 140°F (60° C) or higher. To save on hot water, you can leave them to soak for a while in the hot water. The True Tie Dye video actually recommends that you turn up your water heater to do this, though of course they also warn of the increased dangers of household scald injuries while the water heater's turned up. I have to actually turn off the cold wate faucet to my washing machine, because, inexplicably, it adds cool water in with the hot water when I do a hot water wash. Then I turn it back on for the rinse cycle.
Cool water is just too inefficient at washing out excess reactive dye. If you are dyeing fabric that cannot tolerate HOT water washing, then you may have to treat it differently for a long time, sorting your laundry carefully by color, because it takes so many more washes to get out all the unreacted excess dye. Another issue is that you should not dye fabric that has been sized with starch. The starch will react with the dye, then very gradually wash out, giving the appearance of non-washfast dye, even if the part of the dye that actually reacted with the fabric is perfectly fine. You can test for the presense of starch by putting a drop of iodine on the (undyed) fabric; if it turns blue, your fabric is full of starch. Not a problem with PFD clothing, nor with most t-shirts, though.
There's a test for whether you've washed the excess dye out well enough. This is very important for quilters! You can take a piece of your fabric that you want to test and get it wet, then use a hot iron to press it dry btween two white cotton cloths. If any dye transfers, you'd better wash the fabric again in hot water.
Is the procedure for using the liquid reactive 'Remazol' dye the same?
Yes, pretty much. It needs a high pH to react with the fabric, provided by soda ash. It cannot tolerate a cool studio and must be kept in a warm place to react. I'm still experimenting with it, but I really like it. Another thing about the Remazol dyes is that they are supposed to discharge to white. When you bleach Procion MX dyes, some refuse to change color at all, or turn a weird completely different color. Remazol dyes should bleach out beautifully, handy if you want to make white designs this way.
Paula
