Hand Dyeing

Aim:- To dye a fabric using Procion MX dye.

Ingredients: fabric swatch(cotton, rayon, linen, tencel, or hemp); water; urea, Procion MX dyes; sodium carbonate,  Plastic bottles with to hold the dye (250 ml),face mask and hand gloves.

Method :- Always use a facemask and hand gloves for this experiment

Wash the fabric well at least a day in advance to remove all the impurities in it. Pre soak the fabric  in washing soda,  wrung it out. Dissolve around 15 ml of urea in 250 ml of water. Then put about 4 teaspoons Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dye  in this solution. But the proportion may vary upon dark or light shade required. Then soak the swatch of fabric  in the dye solution. Remove the fabric and spread it on the table. Care should be taken that the fabric stays wet, for the reaction to take place for at least 4 hours. Urea will absorb moisture and help the fabric to remain wet.

Wash the fabric first in cold water and then in hot water using Synthrapol in each wash. It is first washed with cold water to wash away sodium carbonate which in presence of hot water encourage some untreated dye to become a little too closely associated with the fabric, resulting in dye that gradually rinses out over the course of many washings. The hot water wash will get rid of all the untreated dye.

Result :- This is how cold water dyeing is done