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taeliac — Tutorial: How to use RIT Dye
Published: 2007-10-27 23:50:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 50730; Favourites: 294; Downloads: 1185
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Description
The actual tutorial for using RIT Dye.We do this via a stove top or hot plate, not in the washer. I don't know how the washer thing works out, but this is how we did it for school (doing the test strips, that were used to make this tutorial suppliment )
I hope everything was clear enough to follow, and as always, thank you to ~MedeaHiasobi for her help with this! Let me know if something is hard to follow or you need clarification.
And as always, DON'T EAT THE DYE!
Information on how different fibers dye with RIT Dye can be found here 2007 Sam Lemieux/Taeliac Studio Cosplay [link]
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Comments: 82
That sounds like it would be time for a thermometer. A Kanekalon wig takes heat to roughly 180 degrees, right? To keep the dye temperature high enough to work, but low enough to not kill the wig fibers seems almost like black magic or something.
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Definitely worth playing with, though - and, I always thought the fibers could take more than that; I've used our industrial garment steamer at school, with the metal top thinger, and I've touched the fiber with the metal part regularly,and haven't melted it before
Hah, I'll definitely keep a thermometer near when I do it, though, just to see
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Really? I had an experience this past May where I used the hot water method to straighten the bag waves out of a butt-length wig. I boiled the water, then let it cool, but not enough apparently. The first place I poured was just a little too hot and the fibers frizzed/kinked. It's not noticeable after styling, but it was there all the same.
Ah, cosplay black magic...
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Ooh noes! That's not cool
I don't know what it is - maybe a garment steamer allows the water to cool more,even though it's coming out as steam? All I know is, I gave myself some serious burns steaming my Yuuko petticoat before ACen
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You just HAVE to do the wig one <3<3<3
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sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet
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wow this is so helpful, even though i don't dye things much i know that it will be helpful to my friend she usally does the dyeing, XD
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Hehe, ya never know - you might want to brighten up or change the color a bit of a shirt or something like that
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ya, sometimes also color can fade so ya, its helpful ^^
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Thanks so much for posting this tutorial!! It really helps
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Were you making a swatch book in class? We had to do that...
Um, I usually do a stovetop method like this, where I get a giant menudo pot, fill it with as much water as you need and boil the dye in. The more organic the fabric, the faster and better it takes the dye. When I dyed organic cotton velour, it was the right color in 30 seconds. Others, I've done up to 30 minutes.
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Wow only 10 min? my black rit dye says 45-60min, I haven't tried it yet though, because it says to use 2 packs for every yard/pound of fabric but I only have one.
In your experience, What kind of dye dyes black the best?
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Well, I'm not sure if the 10 minutes was due to the size of what we were dying, but in my experience, we have never left anything more than approximately 30 minutes
I think black is a really hard color to dye. It all depends on the fiber you are using - so far, we've had the brightest results using PRO MX dye, but you will need to follow the instructions on it, including mixing in the soda ash to activate the dye and everything. Here is a link to them: [link]
They only work on cellulose fibers (cotton, linen, etc), and also silk, because everything seems to dye silk! And, they're really affordable, because you use significantly less than when mixing RIT Dye XP
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Oh man, if I had this way back when I first dyed fabric, I could've saved myself some major headaches ~_~;
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I know! I hate RIT Dye, and have so totally messed things up with it before X___X;;
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I have re-dyed black material once it has started to fade using RIT in the washer and it works fine as long as it it already black. have also been told that if you wash the fabic is a salt water bath after dying it will help set the colors so they don't fade as quickly..
Also if RIT is not the best to use where and how do you get a better dye?
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Hrm... well, the salt water bath shouldn't really matter - the salt is already mixed into the RIT dye mix.
There are quite a few better dyes out there, but they're all dependent on what type of material youre using (cellulouse versus protien fibers), and they have quite a bit more mixing involved (such as mixing the salt inot the water, soaking the fabric, adding the dye, and then adding the "fixative" - usually soda ash)
I'll try to keep track of how to use PRO MX dye, which seems to work on most fabrics (usually for cellulouse, but works on silk, too). The main reason I havan't done one yet is becuse I'm in the second painting and dying class, and we don't get to mix dyes, the first class does :\
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I did the washing machine method with Ellen last year--in essence the same, you cook up a batch of dye while you have your washer filling & your fabric soaking in it. When it's full TAKE OUT the fabric, toss in the hot dye liquid, let it agitate, and add the fabric back in. You have to keep checking it to make sure you aren't getting too dark during the process.
Then bleach out the machine when your done, or the next person to use it won't be happy...
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Oh, really? Wow, I think I need to try that some time, just for the heck fo it.
I love the emphasis on TAKE THE FABRIC OUT beofre adding the dye
And my typing just gets worse and worse as the day goes on, sorry about that!
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It was emphasized at me repeatedly, so I now feel the need to pass on the emphasis 
Your typing is as awesome as mine. It just took me 4 tries to type "awesome." *sigh*
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Oh man, I suck at this... last time i tried, it turned out quite odd...
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The water probably wasn't hot enough - we had to do a couple of trys before we got the color to attach right... iether that, or it was a weird fiber XP
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Yeah i had some total failure the first time i used RIT dyes. So this is pretty useful to those who are using it now.
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I know - I failed my first couple of times, too. So when it worked out in school, I freaked out and had to figure out why... still don't know, though XP
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Yup and that's where you experiment like mad.
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Totally helpful! I have always wondered about the different techniques people used for Rit dye, and how they effect the outcome. Thank you thank you!
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Not a problem!
There are always better options for dying, but you need to know your fabric type, and a copule of them require kind of expensive dyes with a complicated (ish) mixing process to dye, so... RIT is probably the only "overall works" dye out there *sigh*
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Yes, I know which ones your talking about. Have you ever shopped with Dharma Trading Co.? My sewing friend does alot of fabric and misc. dying and she says they have some of the best prices on those speciality dyes and I've seen the effects! Here's the site. [link] Also, the ones on there don't seem to have very complicated dying processes.
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