Web www.pburch.net

Advertisements Retayne

Dye Fixative



Stops all-purpose dye from bleeding and fading in the laundry!





Rit Dye Powder Golden Yellow Rit Dye Powder Scarlet Rit Dye Powder Denim Blue

Turn your clothing into sun protection!

Rit® Sun Guard

long-lasting sunscreen for clothes...

Easy to apply in your washing machine.

Rit Dye Liquid 8 Ounce-Kelly Green Rit Liquid Dye gives old favorite wearables a "Good As New" look. Dye separates and accessories to match coordinate home decor hide laundry accidents and stains with a tie-dye technique and more. 8 oz.

Rit Liquid Dye Fixative Rit Dye Fixative, like Retayne, solves the problem of rapid fading otherwise inevitable with all-purpose dyes.

Advertisements

All Purpose Dyes

All-purpose dye is a hot water dye. It contains a mixture of dyes which will work on many different kinds of fabric and yarn, but not particularly well on any of them. It is often used in situations when another kind of dye would perform better, largely because many people are unaware that there are higher quality dyes that they could use.

What is All Purpose Dye?

"All purpose" dye is a mixture of Acid dye, of the leveling acid type, for dyeing wool and other animal (protein) fibers, as well as nylon, and Direct dye, for dyeing cellulose fibers such as cotton, rayon, linen, etc. In some cases it may contain an acid dye that also happens to work pretty well as a direct dye. All-purpose dye cannot be used to dye polyester or acrylic, and it cannot be used in cold water.

Note that company that produces Rit dye changed the formulas for their all-purpose dyes in 2010. This page has not yet been updated to reflect those changes. The new formulas will not work on acetate, although the old formulas did.

Great for Dyeing Fiber Blends

Wasteful for Single Fibers

In addition, the formulas for all-purpose dye generally contain a lot of salt. Salt is cheap, but it makes the package appear to contain more dye than it really does. Salt is useful in dyeing solid colors, but causes problems for specialized dyeing techniques in which the dye is painted on the material.

Popular Brands

Use the Correct Recipe!

I have received many, many sad e-mails from people who tie-dyed shirts with Rit® brand all-purpose dye, only to see the dye rinse out the first time they washed it. The reason for their failures is that they used the wrong recipe! If you apply all-purpose dye cold, with squirt bottles, you will not be dyeing your fabric, merely staining it. This is not the fault of the dye, but of the use of the wrong technique.

To dye cotton with all-purpose dye, you must use heat, and plenty of time. Submerging the garment to be dyed in Rit® brand dye and simmering hot water will produce pastels after five minutes, or deeper, more intense shades after half an hour. The ideal temperature is far hotter than tap water can reach, at least 190°F (or 87°C). (See How can I tie-dye with all-purpose dye?.)

Note that vinegar is neither necessary nor helpful for dyeing cotton with all-purpose dye, but should be used when dyeing nylon or dyeing animal fibers such as wool. The manufacturers of Tintex® High Temp all-purpose dye recommend the use of 100 ml (2/5 cup) of white vinegar per 4 liters of water when dyeing wool, silk, or nylon.

Do NOT bother to add soda ash when dyeing with all-purpose dye. Soda ash is used only when dyeing with fiber reactive dye. It will not act as a dye fixative for all-purpose dye.

Use enough Dye

Each packet of all-purpose dye contains only enough dye for 4 to 8 ounces of material (100 to 200 grams). Black requires two to four times as much dye as other colors. Weigh the garment you are dyeing, and be sure to use enough packets of dye! Smaller amounts of dye will result in paler colors. Trying to dye black with only one packet of dye usually results in gray, not black.

Beware of Bad Advice

Dissolving all-purpose dye in boiling water does nothing to make it stick to the fiber, if you let the dye cool before applying it. As an alternative, you may apply a concentrated mixture of water with Rit dye at room temperature, wrap up your fabric, yarn, or fiber in plastic wrap while it is still very wet with dye, and then steam it for at least half an hour, in much the same way that you would steam vegetables. The heat of an extended period of steaming will help the dye to attach to the fiber. Dry heat will not work; moisture must be present. Experiment to see how well this works on your materials.

Use an After-Treatment to Prevent Bleeding

Advantages of the Direct Dye in All-Purpose Dye

Disadvantages of the Direct Dye in All-Purpose Dye

Some people imagine that all purpose dye is safer than fiber reactive dye, simply because it is so readily available. There is no basis for this belief, however. Deborah Dryden, in her book Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre, revealed that all-purpose dyes have, in the past, contained a specific direct dye that was known to be carcinogenic; since the makers of all-purpose dye do not disclose their ingredients, however, there is no way to tell whether or not this is still true.

In fact, into the 1970s, all-purpose dyes for home use are known to have contained some quite dangerous direct dyes. The most hazardous dyes include derivatives of the chemicals benzidine or o-dianisidine, including direct black 1, direct red 28, direct black 38, direct blue 6, direct green 6, direct brown 95, direct brown 2, direct blue 2, and direct black 4. (See the government document "Benzidine and Dyes Metabolized to Benzidine" [PDF].) Some employees of dye manufacturers in the past suffered from bladder cancer that was caused by exposure to benzidine and benzidine-based dyes. (Employees of dye companies are exposed to much higher levels of dyes and their chemical precursors than anyone else.)

Claims that any art material is non-toxic are poorly regulated, and simply mean that it will not cause acute poisoning if accidentally consumed; they do not imply total safety. It is always important to avoid breathing powdered dye, of any sort. Always wear gloves when using dyes. Wear safety glasses when pouring dye liquids.

Some acid dyes are much safer than others. We do not know which are contained in all-purpose dyes, as this is a trade secret. I believe that all-purpose dyes are safer than some of the most dangerous acid dyes, and much safer than basic dyes or napthol dyes, but not safer than fiber reactive dyes.

Since no all-purpose dye has been tested for safety when consumed by humans or animals, you should not expect to reuse your dyeing pot for cooking food. Use a non-aluminum pot that you will not be using for cooking. If you want to be able to use an inexpensive plastic bucket, rather than a cooking pot, use a cool water fiber reactive dye, such as Procion MX dye.

Conclusions

Advertisements



Page created: May 4, 2003

Last updated: October 29, 2011

Downloaded: Wednesday, September 30, 2020