How to keep tye-dye colors bright?

What are you using to dye? Rit? Tie dye kit from Walmart? Walnut husks and saffron?

Are you dyeing all natural fabrics? Plant or animal fibers? Are you using the proper mordant?

@seek_kolinahr I’ve been using the Tulip brand, and Rit. When I mix it in the bottle I use hot water, and don’t fill up all the way to the top. About the fabrics, no idea. My friends just give me socks and shirts and I paint them for them.

What’s a mordant?

A mordant binds the dye to the fiber. It’s usually salt or alum. If you’re not making your own dye, don’t worry about it too much.

Rit and Tulip bind well with plant fibers (cotton, linen), less well with animal fibers (wool), and not at all with synthetics (polyester, spandex).

If you’re dyeing a 100% cotton T-shirt, and following the directions, you should be fine (remember that Rit suggests adding salt to the dye bath. That’s your mordant there) . It’ll do ok for a poly/cotton blend, but the colors will be duller. The socks probably have a pretty high ratio of synthetic to cotton. I wouldn’t recommend dyeing them.

Use the right type of dye and presoak your fabric in a sodium carbonate, or soda ash bath. Check this out link

Dharma Trading is my all time favorite textile arts online store—if you need it, chances are high that they have it.

Their dyes generally cost more than RIT dyes, but Jacquard dyes do last longer, set better and are brighter. They also have instructions for all kinds of dye jobs and starter kits to practice on. They also have Poly dyes- Polyester is made up of plastic fibers with the color already “cooked in”- they’re not porous and do not absorb dye like cotton and linen (very porous, hollow fibers) or wool. Jacquard made the Poly dyes specifically for polyester fibers.

I bought their stuff when I was asked to teach textile arts for one semester. Every single thing I bought was perfect for the job.