The only way to be sure that they'll discharge is to dye them yourself. Nobody sells reliably dischargable blacks, except for the t-shirts alone at Dharma. You might find one pair of pants somewhere that discharges, but the very next pair from the same source, with the same size, color, and style number, identical in every apparent respect, can fail to discharge at all. (It would be really great if someone would contradict me here with news of a great new
reliable source! Not very likely, though.)
It would be most convenient to dye a whole
washing machine load at once. My favorite black for discharge—well, really, my favorite black for anything—is the Remazol Liquid Reactive Black from ProChem, or Dylon Washing Machine Dye in Black (we cannot buy Dylon Washing Machine dye in the US). The Liquid Reactive Dye
immersion dye instructions from ProChem call for a pint of the liquid reactive black for five pounds of clothing, in a volume of 12.5 gallons of water. (For other colors you don't need nearly as much dye.) That costs $14, which isn't bad for enough really black dye of any variety to dye five pounds of fabric. The lowest water setting on my washing machine contains more like 16 gallons of water, but it would probably do. You'll also need ten pounds of salt, five teaspoons of metaphos, and almost four cups of soda ash. Use hot water (140°F) in the washing machine for dyeing with Remazol dyes.
Paula
