dyeing

LOW WATER IMMERSION DYEING

Cautions:
Do not inhale dye powder.
When you measure out the dye, use a face mask and leave the jars open as short
a time as possible.
Do not use dyeing utensils for food preparation.  Never use dyeing equipment again in the kitchen.

EQUIPMENT

gallon jugs to mix urea
gallon jugs to mix soda ash
plastic dishpan or cat litter pan
set of measuring spoons
1 cup measuring cup
gallon sized plastic zip lock bags(the old fashioned kind is more water-tight than the new zippered ones)
1 10 oz plastic cup for each color
stir sticks or plastic spoons
rubber gloves

SUPPLIES
Dye: The best dye to use on cotton is a good fiber reactive dye such as Procion MX.
Fabric: Use scoured or PFD cotton fabric.
Soda Ash
Urea
Synthrapol
(If using salt, use non-iodized, mixing 1 cup per gallon of water. According to Ann Johnson, salt is not necessary in low immersion dyeing.)

PROCEDURES

Prepare Soda Ash:
Mix 9 Tbs-1 cup soda ash per 1 gallon of warm to hot water.
Stir until completely dissolved. Use at room temperature. This mixture can be stored and used indefinitely.

Prepare urea:
Dissolve 2-4 tablespoon urea per cup of warm water. Urea is harmless, easy to measure, and dissolves easily.
Make enough at one time for every color you're going to prepare. Stir until completely dissolved. Use at room temperature.
This mixture can be stored and used indefinitely.
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Mixing the dye: Put on dust mask. In a plastic cup, make a paste using
a small amount of urea solution and about 2 Tbs of powdered dye. Stir gently and continue adding water until you have one cup of
dissolved dye solution.
If the dye is or contains turquoise, you must double the amount. Black, use 2x or 4x as much. This is because
you are dyeing by weight, not volume, and turquoise and black are very light in density.

Prepare Fabric: Wet fabric and scrunch, fold or roll differently for various effects.
(If you're planning to tie dye, tie the fabric while it's still dry. It will be easier to handle. )

Stand plastic bags upright in the dishpan and pour 1-2 cup(s) of
the sodium carbonate solution into each bag.

Add dye solution.

Add fabric.

Reaction time: For the reaction to take place, make sure the fabric stays in the dye solution no less than two hours, but preferably eight to twenty-four
hours.

Washing out the dye: Isolate very light colors (especially yellow/orange). Rinse fabric in cool running water until the water runs clear. Then rinse in hot water. Then wash in hot water and Synthrapol(use 1-2 T. Synthrapol per wash load. Dark colors need even more washing to remove excess dye. Test color fastness by ironing wet over white cotton.
(Optional) To a final rinse in cool water, add about 4 Tbs. of white vinegar to neutralize the sodium carbonate. Fabric softener may be added if desired.
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Dyeing FAQ:

Heat setting is NOT necessary with Procion MX dyes. The only reason to
use a hot water wash is to rid the cloth of the last bits of unreacted
dye. It is important to use cold water before using hot water, as hot
water may, in the presence of the sodium carbonate, encourage some
excess dye to become a little too closely associated with the fabric,
resulting in dye that gradually rinses out over the course of many
washings.


Procion MX dye will dye cotton, linen, rayon, silk and wool. It will not
dye man made fabrics such as polyester.  It will not dye fabrics with a
permanent press or drip dry finish, as the finish forms a barrier that
the dye cannot penetrate.

What is urea for? Is it necessary?
Urea is used in tie dyeing and other forms of direct application of
dyes. It is usually not used in vat dyeing or low water immersion
dyeing. Using urea, it is possible to dissolve more dye in
a given volume, for the strongest of colors, and it serves as a
humectant, or water-attractor, to help keep fabric damp long enough for
the reaction to occur. You can do without urea if your dye solutions
are strong enough for your needs without it, and you keep your fabric
damp in some other way, such as by covering with plastic. Too much urea can actually make it harder to dissolve some dyes. If
your dye (especially fuchsia) is not dissolving well, you may need to
reduce the amount of urea you are using.

What is soda ash, and what's it for?

Soda ash is the active ingredient in washing soda. The chemical name
for it is sodium carbonate, chemical formula Na2CO3. It is more basic,
that is, less acidic, than sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), whose
chemical formula is NaHCO3.
Some forms of soda ash (e.g. that labeled as 'washing soda') contain
more water molecules than others, which makes them weigh more and be
larger for a given number of sodium carbonate molecules - this means
that you need to measure out a larger quantity of the hydrated form in
order to get the same results. If you buy sodium carbonate without the
extra water molecules then store it for several years in humid
conditions, it will absorb the water and appear to lose strength, when
in fact it has merely 'bulked up' and needs to be used in larger
volumes.

Although you can buy washing soda in the grocery store, this is usually 
advised against.  Some US brands contain optical brighteners
which can interfere with dyeing by occupying the same space in the
cellulose fiber that the dyes should occupy.  The pH of the dye
reaction should be around 10.5 or 11, but baking soda will take it only up to around 8.   A better source is a
swimming pool supplies store which will carry pure sodium carbonate (a popular brand
is pH Up), sold for the purpose of increasing the pH of pool water.
This is typically cheaper than mail-ordering from a dye supplier.

The dye begins to react when the sodium carbonate is added. It will exhaust, (no longer be able to bond to fabric) about 4 - 5 hours later.

The exhausted dye may be poured down the drain, although the amount of
sodium carbonate is small it may be neutralized with one half

How do you use soda ash with Procion MX and similar fiber reactive dyes?
There are three choices, depending on what you're doing: add the soda
ash before the dye, add it with the dye, or add it afterwards.
Adding the soda ash before the dye is the usual method for tie-dye.
First tie the garments, or leave them loose. Make up a solution of 1/2
to 1 cup of soda ash per gallon of water (soda ash dissolves best in
warm water, 96 degrees F. or 35 degrees C.), and soak the material from
5 minutes to an hour, depending on your recipe and materials. Then,
wearing gloves, wring out the material, and prepare to apply the dye.
(Optionally, you may chose to line-dry your soda-ash-presoaked
garments, for some dyeing techniques. The soda ash stays in the fabric.
Be cautious, as the dust can be irritating to breathe or to the skin.)

Adding the soda ash with the dye is commonly used with dye painting. A
possible drawback is the fact that the dyes will retain their ability
to dye fabric for only a few hours after the soda ash is mixed into
them. (Procion MX dyes without soda ash will stay good for at least a
week after mixing, at normal room temperature.)

Adding the soda ash after the dye is the usual method for immersion
dyeing and low water immersion dyeing.