Rit is not cheap! It costs a LOT more than Procion MX dyes! Beware of false economy here.
One box of Rit
all-purpose dye will dye
only one pound of fabric to a pale to medium shade (or half a pound if you want bright or dark colors, which most of us do). The box contains mostly salt and some detergent, with just a little dye. You need only 5 grams of Procion MX dye to dye that much cotton fabric to a medium shade, but the Procion MX dye costs only about $5 for
57 grams. You'd have to get twenty-two boxes of Rit dye, for a cost of about $66, to get enough dye to equal
one $5 two-ounce jar of Procion MX dye. To get Procion MX dye cheap, order by mail from Grateful Dyes in Colorado, or Dharma Trading Company in California, or PRO Chemical & Dye in Massachussetts, or Jacquard Products in California (the latter only for 8-ounce jars or larger). (See my list of
Sources for Dyeing Supplies Around the World for contact info for these and other dye suppliers.) Do not buy jars that contain less than two ounces of dye, because the tiny jars are more expensive per gram. You can order a big tie-dye kit from Dharma or ProChem that will cost far less than you'd have to spend on Rit dye. (See
"comparison of dye costs" on the
Dye Forum.)
Rit dye is also NOT safer than Procion MX dye! In fact, Rit dye through the 1980s contained dangerous dyes based on benzidine or o-dianisidine. No fiber reactive dyes anywhere are based on these dangerous chemicals. (See
Is all-purpose dye safe to use? Is it safer than fiber reactive dye?.) Rit dye does not reveal which
direct dyes and
acid dyes they include in their formulas now, so you really don't know how far to trust their MSDS pages. In contrast, we know exactly what Procion MX dyes are used by the major dye suppliers, and we know that they are all relatively non-toxic, though it would be stupid to use any dye (besides food coloring) without gloves, and without wearing a face mask or respirator while mixing up the dye powders. If your kids are too young to stay out of dye buckets even when adequately supervised, a safer project would be to dye wool yarn with
food coloring (which will not work on cotton).
Of course, Rit dye won't work in cold water, and scalding hot water is far too dangerous to use around children. Procion MX dyes are set with soda ash, instead of heat; soda ash is a mild irritant that you probably already use every week when you wash your clothes. (It's a major ingredient in most laundry powders.) Soda ash presoaks will do NOTHING to make Rit dye more permanent. To dye a multicolored shirt with Rit dye, you either have to hold the shirt partly submerged in nearly-boiling water for half an hour
for each color (see
How can I tie dye with RIT dye?), which poses obvious dangers of serious burns, or steam each of the shirts after applying the dye, which would take forever if you are doing more than a couple of shirts.
All-purpose dye is just a bad dye all around for tie-dyeing. The cost is high, the method of application dangerous, and the results are ugly. The results are not as bright as you get with fiber reactive dye, and they fade quickly, and they bleed forever in the laundry. To avoid ruining your other clothes, you are supposed to hand-wash Rit-dyed items in cold water, separately. I don't know about you, but my life is too busy for hand-washing. Why not use prettier dyes which are easier and safer to use and cost far less? That's what you get with Procion MX dyes.
Aren't you glad you asked us first?
I have gotten so many sad emails from people who tie-dyed with Rit dye in cool water, only to see most of the dye wash out the first time the shirts got wet.
Paula
