Why Dye? And How to Dye With Rit.

Why would you want to dye things?  Well, a lot of reasons...you love the fit, hate the color.  Something's faded.  Want a change... Your towels are boring.  It's that or Paris and you have no passport.

There are lots of reasons to dye stuff, and dye is cheap and easily available.   There are lots of blogs and instructions out there on how to do so, but it quickly gets intimidating and scary and obnoxious and...yeah.

(Side note.  I loathe buying towels, and so I rarely do.  They often get bleach stained and gross around here, so I sloshed some of the scariest into a purple dye bath recently.  Now they're cheerful.  Yay!)

Additional caveats--polyester will not dye with Rit.  Cotton and cotton blends will, as will rayon, wool, and silk.   Natural fibers come out closer to the bottle color, but nothing will come out exactly like you expect. Ever.

How to dye with Rit Dye:






I am including pot instructions and washing machine instructions.

Pot:

Fill pot with water.  Empty in your RIT packet, or if liquid, the bottle.  Add 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of vinegar.  Add a dash of whatever detergent you have on hand--cheap shampoo (dollar-store-this-should-not-touch-my-hair-shampoo, dishwasher detergent, dish soap, whatever).  Stir until all is dissolved.

Wash your garment.  While still wet, dump into the pot.  Stir periodically.  When it's been there for about an hour, dump into the sink.  Rinse until the water runs clear, or you're bored.  Wash in the washer, run through the dryer.  You're done.

Top-loading Washing machine:

Wash your garment/fabric first.  Then with the lid open, let the washer fill again.  Dump in your dye--powder or liquid.  Add 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of vinegar.  Add a dash of whatever detergent you have on hand--cheap shampoo (dollar-store-this-should-not-touch-my-hair-shampoo, dishwasher detergent, dish soap, whatever).  Drop the lid and let it agitate for a minute or two until all is uniform in color.  Open the lid to let it soak in.

Pop back to the washer occasionally and shut the lid to let it agitate for a minute at a time to stir your fabric/garment around.   When you've hit about an hour of this, let the cycle run through.  Then heave everything into the dryer, and you're done.

If you want splotchier results, add your fabric or garments dry to the water.  If you want them more even, add them wet.   If you need anything to match, do it ALL AT ONCE.  You will never get the same results twice.   Do not expect anything to come out like the dye label.  And have fun!