Procion  Dyes- Fibre Reactive Dyes

Cold water dyes for-cotton, silk & rayon- This includes hemp, linen & calico

**Note- does not dye polyester or polycotton**

The Procion Dyes do require extra additives- common cooking salt (not iodised)  & Soda Ash

Dye Bath  - Quick Recipe

5 grams (1 teaspoon) Procion dye per 100 g dry fabric or approx 1 m fabric

60 grams common cooking salt ( 3 tablespoons) per litre of water

10 grams Soda Ash  (2 teaspoons) per litre of water

What does the salt & the soda do?

The salt pushes the dye on to the fabric

The Soda Ash fixes the dye- hence the name – fibre reactive dyes

The two chemicals create a bonding process with the dye and the fabric.

Measure out how much water you will require to cover your fabric- Place in a bucket, plastic trough etc

Paste down the dye, salt & soda ash in warm to hot water

(The salt and soda ash you will have measured out according to how much water you are using)

Add to your bucket of cold to warm tap water

Pre wet your fabric – this will ensure a more even dyeing result

Add wet fabric to dye bath 

At this stage you can decide whether you are doing an even dyeing (this will require you to keep stirring the dye bath)– Tie Dyeing, pole wrapping, scrunching and other resist dyeing methods 

After 30- 40 mins take fabric out of the dye bath 

Rinse fabric in hot soapy water until water runs clear.

If you require more than one colour – you can re-use the same dye bath – keeping in mind most of the original dye should have exhausted itself on to the fabric and you will have quite bright looking dye water but a very weak dye solution.

CRAM JAR DYEING

This recipe will dye between ½ to 1 m of fabric

Materials

1 teaspoon of Procion dye powder

2 tablespoons of cooking salt (not iodised)

1 teaspoon Soda Ash

500 ml jar or container (plastic or glass)

200 ml warm tap water

*Place dye, salt & soda ash in the bottom of a measuring jug

*Paste down dye salt & soda ash in a small amount of warm to hot water

*To this mixture add 150 ml –200 ml of warm tap water (ensure all dry ingredients are mixed well)

This process can be repeated depending on the number of colours you are using- (keeping in mind colour mixing)

*Pre wet cotton fabric

*Place a small amount of dye /chemical solution into the bottom of the jar or container

*Start to feed some fabric into the jar

• Pour over another small amount of dye solution over the wet fabric
• Using the end of a paint brush- push fabric down to ensure all the fabric is covered
• Add more dye plus feed more fabric into the jar– you can change colours at any stage
• Once all the fabric has been placed into the jar –leave for approx. 30- 60 minutes depending on the strength of colour you wish to achieve.
• When you are happy with the colour – Hot soapy rinse until the water runs clean 

Copyright 2006 Zart Art