A question about Dylon Permanent fabric dye

[ecologystudent]

Hi,

   I'm pretty new at this and I have a question. I've been reading around a lot (on here, and Paula's site), and I read that Dylon Permanent dye has the soda ash already in it. If this is true, could I apply the dye on to dry fabric? Would that help with sharpness, and help prevent colors running into each other? I was thinking I could wet the fabric to help with folding, and then let it dry, before applying the dye.

   Also, given the information that I have just the dylon dye at this moment (though in the future I want to try the procoin MX and soda ash), is there any way I could increase color intensity? Would having a hotter water temp, or dissolving the dye in less water make the colors brighter/darker?

Thanks for any responses!

[pburch]

Using less water, or twice as much dye powder, should make the colors brighter. At some point, however, the increased pH from the trisodium phosphate or soda ash in the dye powder mix will cause the resulting color to be kind of splotchy.

Using enough warmth will allow full development of the color, as compared to using temperatures lower than those recommended in the instructions on the back of the package, but additional heat won't make the colors any brighter than that. The instructions say to use hot tap water, 140°F, if I recall correctly. This is because Dylon Permanent Dyes contain Drimarene K and, in one case, Remazol dyes; these dyes are less reactive and require more warmth than Procion MX dye does.

You can apply the dye to dry fabric, after you've mixed the dye with the recommended amount of water, but I don't think you can get sharp colors, or completely prevent the colors from running together, if you use Dylon Permanent dye. It's not designed for color mixing or tie-dyeing.

Pay close attention to the instructions on the package! Each package is intended to dye only 8 ounces of fabric.

Also see earlier discussions, here and elsewhere:

• Dylon Permanent Fabric Dye
• multiple colors?
• This Dylon is chunky like vegetable soup
• Dylon dyes

Paula

[ecologystudent]

Thanks for the information. I didn't get to buy the dyes myself, I'm getting to use the leftovers from a tie dyeing event that I helped with. I'm practicing a bit with these, then will order some nice stuff from Dharma trading.

What I did for the tie dye event was this:  The package said to dissolve it in 4 cups of water with 4 teaspoons salt. Since I only had 1 cup squirt bottles, I dissolved 1/4 package (by weight, ~12.5 grams), 1 teaspoon for each cup.

   I will try decreasing the water.