iDye experiment

[firecat]

In this entry I was asking people for opinions about dyeing sheets in the washing machine. I haven't dyed sheets yet. I ended up buying some "iDye" prepackaged dye + fixative and dyeing some of my T-shirts to see whether the iDye is colorfast enough.

I dyed three cotton T-shirts. Two of them were white with some dye stains from a previous dyeing project. One was pink and had some black ink stains on it. I used iDye for Natural Fabrics-True Red.

I agitated them in the washing machine on hot for 40 minutes (the package said to agitate for 30 minutes, the web site said more time would be better for bright colors and colorfastness).

The white shirts came out not quite red but richer than pink. The pink shirt came out bright red. The stains on all the shirts are still visible although not as obvious as they were before.

I washed and dried two more loads of laundry after the experiment and no dye got onto that laundry.

The big test still to come is whether the color will bleed when I wash these shirts with other items.

Comments

[daze39.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you're having fun!

(FWIW, I'm not familiar with the "iDye" product, but I once knew some folks who had good results - bright, stable colors - with the other brand ("Procion") that you mentioned... this was at a farm commune where I once lived,; some of us were making tie-dyed t-shirts to sell at rock festivals...)

[firecat]

Yeah, I've used Procion before and gotten bright stable colors. But it involves some extra chemicals that I didn't want to buy in large quantities just for one project, so I thought I'd see if this stuff worked well enough.

[daze39.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ISTR that in our case the quantities of t-shirts, and the number of different dye colors involved, were such that the package quantities for the auxiliary chemicals were more reasonable than they would be where you're just doing one or a few individual batches.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Mine don't seem to bleed -- but since all my clothes are blue and I have only dyed non-blue things blue, it really wouldn't show much.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I wish I were there to get some help dyeing a pair of pants. I just bought them, and somehow they got what may be bleach stains on them. Grrrr.

[firecat]

Using this iDye stuff is really easy...

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Maybe I'll be able to take the time to use it. Thanks!

[flarenut.livejournal.com]

You may find (bitter experience) that even with dye, fixing bleach stains only goes so far. The texture of the fabric is also changed, and the border always seems to be visible. (Unless you were to bleach the whole thing and start over)