white (undyed) fuzzies on surface of shirts

[Marg]

I have recently been experimenting with unthickened dyes and I have found that often I get white fuzzies on the surface of the shirts in some places. Now I don't mean piling, I mean that it looks like the outermost part of the fabric did not get dyed. Does anyone know what I'm talking about, and know how to avoid it. I'm guessing that thickening the dye again as I used to will resolve the problem since I never had this happen before but am just wondering if anyone else has observed this undesirable effect when dying with unthickened dyes. Thanks and Peace-Marg

[pburch]

I've had this happen a few times with low water immersion dyeing. It looks like a frosted appearance, as the dyes have not crept out to the surface ends of the fibers, in just a few small spots. It looks almost like a small smear of something white, like toothpaste, on the surface of the cotton knit fabric.

It might be caused by some sort of contaminant from the manufacturing process which did not wash out when I pre-scoured the shirts, or it could be that I just failed to fully wet the fiber. This happened on one American Apparel shirt (which has a separate problem with pilling) and on a Hanes brand shirt.

I've been thinking I should do a better job of prewetting the fabric, maybe put a little synthrapol or other wetting agent in the water. For tie-dyeing this would be in the soda ash presoak, but I'm not sure I've seen this problem in tie-dyeing. Perhaps I need to use hotter water and more soda ash in the prescouring step.

Paula

[Marg]

Hi Paula! I have only one theory. This has happened with LWI for me, when I did not bother to pre-scour. Lately it's been happening with regular tie-dying but with shirts that I dried in the dryer after the pre-scour, tied and dyed. Usually I tie wet fabric and then wait several days for the fabric to dry out but this time due to time constraints, I dried the fabric, tied it dried and dyed. I wonder if the drying somehow encouraged the fabric to puff up or something like that. I'll keep my eye out for more clues....Marg

[pburch]

I never noticed this happening before the last year or so. Maybe it's just more obvious because I'm dyeing very deep, intense colors these days.

Paula

[ecilA]

I don't think it is related to thickener, I rarely use it (I only use thickener for specific effect, my everyday dyeing is without).

I haven't encountered this problem and dry stuff in the dryer (after the ash soak) often...

Now I do find that some fabrics take the dye better than others and there are some that you really have to work to get it to start soaking in (speaking mostly of dry dying fwiw) but once you get it wicking it works out fine.

Can you post a picture?

[mustdye]

Is it a different brand of shirt or produced in a different country ?

I had some longsleeves that I bought at Mallwart that had almost a hazy fuzz over them...kinda like fiber that didn't dye.
I didn't care for it all that much but they all sold.

[Marg]

It's not the shirts because it is happening with different brands. It's not the lack of a pre-scour because I always do that. It is happening with shirts I pre-scour then dry in the dryer before I tie them and dye, and with which I am using unthickened dye. I think it's a combination of drying the fabric in the dryer and then using unthickened dye. It looks like what Paula describes-a frosted appearance as if the topmost layer of the fabric did not take the dye. And it's happening mostly with purples, wierd huh? I'm going to go back to thickening my chem water and see if that works to resolve the issue. Will let you know. Peace-Marg

[Marg]

well, I did some shirts with thickened dye, shirts that had been dried in the dryer before tying and there are areas with the dreaded white fuzz. So, my conclusion is that this undesirable result has something to do, not with the dye, but rather with fabric that has been dried in the dryer before tying as opposed to tying wet and allowing it to dry. Marg

[pburch]

I almost always dry my clothing in the dryer before tying it, but I have done so for many years, so I think this is something new. I suspect that it's the result of a blob of some finish that was applied in manufacture and did not wash off completely during the scouring step. Maybe it was a bit of contamination from the manufacture of a batch of stain-resistant shirts on the same equipment. One was an American Apparel brand t-shirt, and the other was a Hanes Beefy-T brand hoodie.

Paula

[Marg]

I'd of course tend to agree with you Paula since you are the Dye Goddess but the white fuzz follows the folding patterns, it's not a spot here or there, it's the outermost layer of the fabric that has the fuzz on it...which gives the impression that it is not a scouring issue. Marg

[pburch]

I'm just making guesses here, I don't really know the cause. What I'm picturing is that there could be a drip of stain-resistant finish or something on the equipment at the factory, maybe, and a shirt brushes it and gets it only on its outside layer of fuzz.

But it could just be coincidence. It just seems funny that you and I both have noticed it in the last year, but I never noticed it happening before that. All of the white spots I noticed on my fabric, before these two shirts, went all the way through to the bottom layer of the fabric. In both of the white fuzz cases I observed, I was using LWI, and not tie-dyeing. With LWI, the dye could be wicking out through most of the fabric, but an air bubble might be protecting the bits that end up staying white. In that case, working with clothing that has not been dried since it was washed would help to prevent the problem.

If we keep watching for this, we might observe something more that will make it clear which of our guesses is more correct. Or maybe not.

Paula