i am making a 100% cotton shirt,and i'm using a DYLON all purpose dye,i can't find fiber reactive dyes here in my country.. so i am am using a direct application method to my shirt,in order to set the dye,steaming is a must.. how should i steam my shirt? in a plastic bag? or wrap it in a newspaper? or just the shirt? help me please,im a little bit confused.. which one is the best way?
What country are you in? If it's Indonesia, I know that you can get
Remazol-type fiber reactive dyes there, somewhere. I like to dye cotton with Remazol type dyes. Also, if you can get any other kind of Dylon dye, such as Dylon Hand Dye or Dylon Machine Dye, those are true fiber-reactive dyes, though the colors are not always ideal for tie-dyeing. Among the dyes sold by Dylon, only the all-purpose or Multi Purpose does not contain fiber reactive dye.
The key to steaming your all-purpose dye is that there must be moisture in the fabric, with the dye, when you heat-set it. Usually this is done by wrapping the fabric in unprinted newsprint paper, so that the moisture of the steam penetrates the paper. This is for fabric that has the dye in it but which has been allowed to dry. You don't want to use newspaper that has been printed with ink, unless you have saved it first to age the ink on the paper for six months or more, after which time, people say, the ink no longer smudges. Even then, it is best to use unprinted paper next to your fabric. Here is a link fro PRO ChemicaL & Dye for
instructions on how to steam dry fabric, wrapped in paper.
If your shirt is very wet, you can wrap it in plastic for steaming. The moisture already in the fabric can serve the purpose of assisting the bonding between dye and fiber, even though the moisture from the steam can't get in through the plastic. Of course the plastic must be one that will not melt or soften when exposed to steam. PRO Chemical & Dye has suitable instructions for steaming in plastic wrap as part of their
Lanaset rainbow dyeing page [PDF]. They use the sort of thin plastic wrap used for covering leftover food. Some dyes (the French silk dyes such as Sennelier Tinfex or Pebeo Soie) require steaming for three hours, but I think that half an hour (after the water starts boiling vigorously) should be sufficient for direct dyes.
Jaja wrote that pre-treating the fabric with salt helps to get more intense colors with direct dye.
-Paula
