Rit Color Remover Remover (3-Step Maki-Age Trouble)

[zeppenwolf]

Is there an easy way to neutralize Rit(tm) Color Remover?

I have a tee which I dyed that came out rather lame, so I dyed it again, in a "scrunch/chaos" way, hoping to salvage it.  What I got was a lame tee with a chaos pattern superimposed, big surprise.

Not losing heart, I realized that what I have would make a pretty good "foreground" for the "3 Step Maki-Age" process that Karren Brito outlines here.

So I tied (rubber-banded) up some poofs, and dunked the tee in Rit Color Remover.  Two things are now clear to me:

1) Whatever "color remover" Karren is using, it blows Rit right out of the crock pot.

2) My next step is to dye the tee with a background color, but I have a tee filled with dye remover!!

#1 is interesting, but it's #2 that concerns me right now: Even if I completely dry the tee, the little Rit crystals are probably still going to be in there...  And since it's tied up with rubber bands, I really can't wring it out, physically, without endangering the exact placement of the bands, which actually does matter in this case.

Is it clear?  For the future, at least, is there any option other than dunking the tee and draining it a bazillion times?

[pburch]

Is there an easy way to neutralize Rit(tm) Color Remover?

Rinse it thoroughly in water and then expose it to air. The oxygen in the air reacts with the sodium dithionite (a.k.a. sodium hydrosulfite) that is in Rit Color Remover. You do not need to neutralize reductive discharges chemically, the way you do hypochlorite bleach. Just rinse it out. If you want to be careful not to disturb the bands, try soaking it, maybe for a couple of days, in a large container of water.

Whatever "color remover" Karren is using, it blows Rit right out of the crock pot.

What temperature did you use for the reaction of the Rit Color Remover? It's the same chemical Carter Smith uses, and nobody does more beautiful discharge than Carter Smith. You should use it at a simmer, which is 190°F or 87°C. Here's a link to post that includes a copy of the instructions. [That's Karren Brito, by the way, not Karren Hughes.]

Not all dyes will discharge well. Some will change color to white or a pale color, some to an unexpected different color, and some will not change at all. All reductive discharges produce the same colors as each other, because all of them work by producing sulfur dioxide. Oxidative bleaches such as hypochlorite (household chlorine bleach) may produce completely different results, since it works by breaking up the dye molecules. Bleach may work better or worse on a particular dye than reductive discharges, and it may produce entirely different colors. Here is a link to a chart summarizing discharge results for different Procion MX type dyes.

Paula

[zeppenwolf]

Thanks, Paula.

I don't know where I got "Hughes" from; I meant Karren Brito.

I've used heat before with Rit, and it seemed to me that the heat caused the remover to seep completely through the shirt, defeating the ties.  Perhaps I overdid it that time.   

I aslo thought that I was "cheating", after all the advisories against heat I've seen here in regards various similar subjects. 

> Rinse it thoroughly in water and then expose it to air.

    So... I can give it a nominal wringing and then let it sit on the windowsill... for a couple hours?  Or a day?  (Even though it's still damp?)  Since I'm dying over it, of course it doesn't need to be %100 neutralized, just enough that it won't visibly defeat the dying.