Procion dyes question... odd results

[caheinz]

Ooops... forgot to keep track of this one!

I did use the same container. But, it's white on the inside. Shouldn't I have been able to see something if there was enough red/orange to make them purple?

I also think the last scarves weren't even as blue as they should have been...

I think when I re-do them, and do the other set of 40" scarves, I'm going to use much more water (and that that measures with the water).

Unfortunately, Dharma has never returned my email...

[samwyatt]

Hi Cheryl,

It's not uncommon to get varied results with certain colors. I use procion dyes from dharma a lot and have been for a few years. Certain colors... in particular the blues are hard to mix just right all the time. It's because the actual dyes themselves are mixes of certain colors... if you look closely at the dry dye you can see the mixes of the colors. Periwinkle is another color that can be really varied... sometimes it's blue, sometimes more purple. Also, do you use urea when you mix the dye.

Good Luck!
Amber

[caheinz]

Thanks, Amber!

It's good to know that this could just be the way the dye was... At any rate, DH did the color remover for me (while I finished dying other colors!), and lo and behold, they were blue at the end of that! Not the shade I had been going for, but an acceptable shade, especially not knowing what re-dying them would actually do!

Here's a pic of the final rainbow:


http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/32020.jpg


And they were very well received as gifts! (The kids fell in love with them right away!)

[Mikesa3]

The scarves look beautiful. I've had a pile of Dharma scarves siting here for 2 months and I haven't gotten brave enough to dye them.Hopefully soon I'll try.(I didn't get any of the Dharma dyes so plan to buy some from Walmart or use koolAid)
Nancy-Mom to 6 great kids

[Saartje]

Cheryl, those look great. I'm really glad the dye remover had good results for you.

Just to add, I thought of this thread a few weeks ago when I was looking up something on the Dharma site, and saw that they noted that colors will break much more easily on silk than on cotton (that's the result you were getting — where it shifted to one end or the other of the spectrum, as a result of the dye being a mix of more than one chemical). So, it's nothing you did, just the result of that dye on that fabric.

[caheinz]

Oh, cool! That's good to know.

So, where does rayon fall? I ended up ordering a couple of blanks (skirt + shirt) with the dye remover, and still haven't decided what color to do. (Don't really have the time to play with it now, either!) If the blue might turn out more as expected...