vegetable fibers
Whether cotton yarns or fabrics made from other plant fibers, dyeing is very easy with the help of soda and time.
For this you need Reactive Dyes from Dharma Trading Co. or the MX colors from
ProChemical and Dye
A dyeing guide for vegetable fibers
First things first! Think of your personal protective equipment, which means you need:
- Rubber gloves
- dust mask
- Eye protection
- A way to color your pets and food out of the reach of children
There are countless ways to dye yarn and fabrics.
We describe here how we dye and how we achieve the best results from our point of view.
Soak the yarn in water to which you have added soda.
(about 2 tablespoons of washing soda for 5 liters)
Leave the yarn in the water-soda solution for an hour
Squeeze the yarn out slightly
Now there are different possibilities:
We spread the yarn on a surface covered with foil and put our prepared dye liquor directly onto the yarn.
It is also possible to dye in the pot, but the colors are not as intense as with the laying out method.
I mix the colors in a 500 ml jam jar.
The color pigments dissolve best in hot water. Please note the dosing aid that states how much pigment is required for how many grams of yarn. However, I dose according to feeling and am looking forward to the result :)
If you are satisfied with the result, cover the yarn and leave it for at least 3 hours.
Then rinse the yarn cold - warm - cold. Respectively always until no more pigments are washed out.
Then let it dry and marvel at your dyeing result.
Instructions for dyeing a t-shirt
What you need:
1 shirt (cotton)
4 colors 2 g each (red, yellow, blue, orange) 4 staining bottles 100 ml each
50 grams of soda
1 pair of gloves 5 rubbers
What else do you need :
a wipeable work surface, a foil with which you can cover the surface. A bowl for soaking the t-shirt in soda. A mouth and nose protection (mask) is recommended, which protects you from the pigments. A sharp knife and kitchen roll to absorb liquid.
1. Soak T-shirt in soda solution
Pour the soda into a bowl or small bucket. Now fill the vessel with about 4 liters of warm water. After the soda has dissolved, you can place the t-shirt in the soda-water solution. Make sure that every area of the t-shirt is soaked with the solution and leave it in the solution for about 30 minutes.
2. Prepare your workspace and paints
Cover your work surface with the foil so that the work surface does not get dirty. The area laid out should be slightly larger than the t-shirt. Get the gummies ready. Put on your respirator and unscrew the tip of the dye bottle and set the dye bottle aside. Now you can carefully cut off the syringe attachment with a sharp knife approx. 1 mm below the tip.
Now fill the coloring bottles with warm water up to just below the screw cap and screw the spray attachment back on.
3. Preparation of the T-shirt on the dyeing area
Remove the t-shirt from the soda water solution and wring it out. Then lay the t-shirt flat on the prepared dyeing surface. After doing this, you determine the center of the swirl to be colored. We recommend the middle of the sides and the height at the end of the upper third of the t-shirt. (see image)
Otherwise, let your creativity run free. Now twist the t-shirt. Make sure that the folds lie evenly and that you always have approximately the same height of the folds. (see image)
After the t-shirt is completely twisted, you fix the rolled-up t-shirt with 3 rubber bands so that 6 equal pieces are created like a cake. (see image)
4. Dyeing the T-shirt
You now have the T-shirt with the rubber bands fixed in front of you? - Congratulations - the hardest part is done. Now that you've put on the rubber gloves, grab your dye bottles and be creative. There are different ways. For starters, it is recommended to color the individual separated “pieces of cake”. To do this, carefully take a squirt bottle and gently let the staining solution run onto the spot. This is how you edit the individual "compartments" of the t-shirt. After you have completely colored the front side, carefully turn it over and place it on a clean area of your coloring area. If some dye solution has spread on the table, you can wipe it up with the kitchen roll. Now work the back in the same way as the front.
5. Fixing the color in the t-shirt
The color reacts with the cotton fibers soaked in the soda solution and becomes firmly attached. This takes time. Therefore, simply leave the dyed t-shirt for 6 hours, preferably overnight.
6. Washing the t-shirt
After the t-shirt has rested, you can wash it. The best way to do this is in a bath or shower. Put on gloves again and put the t-shirt in the tub. Now remove the rubber bands that hold the t-shirt in place. You now start rinsing the t-shirt with cold water. As soon as no more pigments come out of the t-shirt (the water is clear), switch to warm to hot water. Here you rinse out other pigments again. After you have briefly rinsed the t-shirt out with cold water, wring it out and hang it on the line to dry.
7. Washing Instruction
So that you can enjoy your self-colored T-shirt for a long time, we recommend hand washing at 30 °C.