Hey, I recently started tie-dyeing black shirts using bleach. The problem is that the bleach doesn't get the light parts all the way light. It ends up a pale browny orange and then I toss it in the vinegar 'cause it doesn't go any further and I don't want to ruin the fabric. But all the pictures have really bright colors on black shirts...does anyone have any idea how that works?
neutralizes the bleach. The first time I did a black shirt, I didn't know about the vinegar, and the dye didn't stick, and the shirt got about a thousand little holes in it. It was kinda cool, but not something I'd wear in public.
Wouldn't it be better to tye dye white clothes black? I would have a problem with buying pre-bleached clothes, as it destroys the integrety of the fabric. By the time it has removed the color, the damage to the structure of the cotton is already done. Maybe you don't remember the "acid washed" 80's craze. Just my two cents worth.
Ok, you are describing discharge dyeing with an over dye. certain shirts turn certain shades because of how the industrial black is mixed. Your shirts have a brown base. Those will be difficult to overdye. I've seen green discharge. Use as weak a bleach as you can and the neutralization sounds like a great idea. My buddy who did this had a water vat, more like a "stop bath." use really good dyes (Procion) as the overdye.
I recently tried discharge dyeing for the first time, and also found that the bleached area did not get any whiter than tan. Even so, the procion dyes I used came out very vibrant. BTW, I used Dharma's 'Bleach Stop' to neutralize the bleach. Here are the results: Judy
Judy, we did find it weakens the fibers considerably. We decided not to put discharge in our sales lines. Instead we simply did a black background with some flash in the center. Didn't do that long. wish I'd documented them more carefully!
I have been disappointed in the past with trying to get a good black solid color on shirts. That was why I finally tried discharge dyeing. Here is one where I dyed the black, and as you can see, it just doesn't have the same look: Have you tried using Dylon cold dyes? I have seen a lot of posts about it on one of my other forums, but haven't tried yet. Judy
don't know much about Dylon. REALLLLLLLY loyal to Procion, mostly because we have 45+ colors on the table at one time. is Dylon aniline?
It does not appear to be. I did a little research and found their fact sheet at http://www.dylon.com.au/factsheets/Dylon-CompositionOfDyes.pdf if you are interested. I'm very fond of Procion dyes myself, but have heard a lot of good things about Dylon's cold water black. It apparently dyes very solid black, whereas the Procion I used for my last example streaks and doesn't come out a deep black. That was why I tried discharge dyeing in the first place. Judy
That's the one I was using. Do you mind telling me how much dye powder you use per 8 oz of water? I have mostly used 2 tsp per cup of Procion MX dyes, except when the label indicates by * a need to increase the quantity. So for #44 Better Black **, that would translate to 8 tsp per cup. Is that what you use?
we mix in babyfood jars, so 4 oz., (roughly) I think it's three-four spoons. I'll check. HEAVY mix. Esp compared to mint!
Hey tyedyejudy! I was wondering if you could tell me how you did the shirt on the right, it looks AMAZING! I'd really appreciate it if you could
Not Judy but I know my stuff. She was discharging, so she took a black shirt and did an accordion fold and then applied a bleach mixture, stopped it with vinegar (acidic neutralizes basic) and applied dyes as usual.
thank you! yes, i've been experimenting with using just bleach because that's all i have, and have been fascinated with the results. next i'll try incorporating vinegar.... why is it called discharging? because you're washing out the bleach or dye?
Exactly. You are discharging the color from the cloth. Watch out that the bleach doesn't eat holes in the fabric. That what the stop is for. (Just like in photo development.)
