Ayaiyaiy, hoity toity cotton isn't made for dyeing

[ecilA]

Customer insists on a lovely, expensive alternative to the standard tee.  That's fine, it's their dollar right?  But the shirts are made from this very thin fabric that feels akin to flannel (they call it lux).  When the blanks arrive the wash instructions are clear: no heat!  Gentle wash, tumble dry low.  So I'm dealing with unshrunk cotton right?  And while I'll process on gentle there's gonna be heat applied during washout.

Well my fear is that these lovely shirts will end up pilly as well as shrunk.

Dyeing these today/tomorrow...will report back.

[tiedyejudy]

Sounds like a definite pain!  However, my dirty little secret is I don't wash out in hot water!  Nor do I throw my tie-dye in the dryer.  I use warm or cold water to wash, and have had NO problem with bleeding, back-dyeing, etc.  I just make sure I use synthrapol to do the wash with.  So as long as your customer understands the temp. limitations, there should be no problem, but do keep us posted!

Judy

[ecilA]

Guess I'm just a hot water junky lol.  They have a less fuzzy feel after prep but are still quite soft even with soda ash on them.  I worry alot about getting the excess dye out, never had a problem with bleed but once and that was with a batch of shirts that didn't get a hot wash, just warm, they bled enough to blue you on a rainy day and I've been pretty much obsessive about washout since.

I read people's "3 washes" and shake my head...all I can say is that I wash repeatedly in cold until the water is clear and then go to hot and always get a noticeable bit more.  Pretty sure it's more than 3 washes, oh and I use the extra rinse cycle on them after the synthrapol cycle.  But it's just a personal obsession no doubt, one thing I can say for procion dyes is that washed out properly you will not have bleed and mixed loads are fine and to me this is fabulous (my teen kids just encountered several hesitant to mix colors with whites adults while visiting family--they were able to wow them all with the veracity of the claim that these shirts don't bleed!).

Anyway, I'll report back after the final washout of the dyed goods, I think the thing that gets me most is that while they are very nice soft shirts, they are just t-shirts and thin to boot.  Kinda wishing I'd purchased an extra to keep and see how they wear, but this is a sample order so this may be something I'm dyeing alot in the future.

[Sarah]

ecilA- I had always thought I needed to start out with a hot rinse, then a hot wash then cold washes.  My problem is I don't have the hot water capacity for two hot washes in a row.  When you do the cold water rinses do you use synthropol in each one, or do you just cold water rinse until the water is clear and then wash in hot water with synthrapol?  Life would be much easier with cold water rinses

[pburch]

It is best to start with a cool water rinse to remove the auxiliary chemicals, which otherwise can encourage a loose association between the unattached dye and the fabric. After that, hot water is the most effective for removing excess unattached dye. Hotter water is far more efficient for removing dye. Soaking in hot can save on how much hot water is needed.

I usually wash twice in hot water (first turning off the cold water tap to the washer so that the machine does not add cool water in a misguided attempt to save energy), but it would be a lot more efficient to soak it in nearly boiling water.

I can only sympathize with ecilA's situation. I don't like sending out clothes that can't be washed with white clothing in hot water without bleeding, but there is no way to achieve that without using water hotter than those sample tees can likely tolerate. Fussier laundry instructions than usual will have to be be attached.

Paula

[fiberartist219]

I agree that soaking is key in getting everything rinsed out. I find that if I leave my fabric alone in a bucket of water for awhile, it will use a lot less water to rinse. I would feel guilty if I washed out my fabric more than a couple times. I usually soak it a couple times in buckets with synthrapol and water, and then I throw it in the washer. After the first cycle, I reset it back to the rinse cycle again so I can add some fabric softener.

I have no idea if it rinses completely clean or not, but at that point it is safe to wash with the rest of my clothes without backstaining anything.

[ktaltre]

I personally like the thin cotton knit t-shirt, especially for women.
It's difficult in construction, however; but one can starch the fabric to sew.
And speaking of water usage in washout, I just read in the latest Natural History magazine (11-07, an issue on water) that it take 700+  gallons of water to grow the cotton to make one t-shirt. Gives one pause!
k. taltre

[ecilA]

oh wow, glad I looked, hadn't realized this thread got a bump.

First: Sarah, I only use synthrapol on the hot wash, all the rest in cold is without.

and K, they really dyed beautifully, I posted pictures last summer of them, the stars I had in the misc thread, you can see that they take the dye very nicely and in the end, held up to the heat/processing just fine.  The sample order turned into a nice big wholesale order, so the customer was very happy with the samples, they even ended up purchasing other designs on these same shirts.  It may be that their customers had to go up a size when purchasing but I had no complaints about pilling, shrinking, or wear.