Dyed silk lost sheen...?

I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water. Then I dried the fabric in
the drier. It appears to have lost it's lustre and appears quite soft
and more suitable for a lovely pair of pajamas than a vest. Why did
it lose it's sheen. Is there anything I can do to bring it back?
Thanks, Joy

The extremely hot water and then the drier cost you the sheen. I don't know
of any way to return the 'body' short of some type of starch. I handwash
and hang to dry any of the Chinese silks that I have sewn. It would be like
trying to return an Angora sweater to the original state after someone has
washed and dried it....!
Cynthia
"Joy Hardie" wrote in message
...
I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water. Then I dried the fabric in
the drier. It appears to have lost it's lustre and appears quite soft
and more suitable for a lovely pair of pajamas than a vest. Why did
it lose it's sheen. Is there anything I can do to bring it back?
Thanks, Joy

Joy Hardie wrote:
I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water.

You can't restore the hand and sheen completely, but a rinse with vinegar
will help to bring back some of the "scroop". Silk likes things a bit acid.

If you want more body than you can get, you can back each pattern piece with
fusible interfacing.

And look on the bright side: at least you know that the vests will be
washable!

--
Sally Holmes
Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

Hmmm...? Well, this was the recommended dye they suggested for a
large batch of silk. But, if you say that silk likes things acidic,
then perhaps I shouldn't have added the 10 cups of SALT they told me
to add! Maybe that's waht did it in? Well, at least they will be the
right color eggplant purple. I will try the vinegar rinse, and
someone else suggested I iron them while still damp.
Thanks again, Joy


I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water.

You can't restore the hand and sheen completely, but a rinse with vinegar
will help to bring back some of the "scroop". Silk likes things a bit acid.

If you want more body than you can get, you can back each pattern piece with
fusible interfacing.

And look on the bright side: at least you know that the vests will be
washable!

Joy Hardie wrote:

Hmmm...? Well, this was the recommended dye they suggested for a
large batch of silk.

Acid dyes are the proper dyes to use for silk. It's just that
really is *no* way to change the color of silk without changing the
hand (hand means the sheen and crispness). Fabric producers use a
different kind of dye to dye silk fabric.

But, if you say that silk likes things acidic,
then perhaps I shouldn't have added the 10 cups of SALT they told me
to add! Maybe that's waht did it in?
Nope. It was the water. And then the dryer--if you had dried it about
halfway in the dryer and then hung it to dry (or pressed it), it
probably would have been a little 'crisper'.

And why *did* you add salt? Most 'recipes' for dying silk using acid
dyes don't say anything about adding salt. (Procion dyes use salt,
and while they do work on silk, they're not the preferred method.)

jenn
--
Jenn Ridley

Hi Joy,

The info sheet for Jacquard dyes is online if your store didn't have
it. Acid Dye requires vinegar and hot water (NOT necessarily
near-boiling). The hang it to drip dry--it's the dryer that made it
so soft. (makes great shirts, in case they want them...)

But if you want to keep all of the natural silk sizing, you should use
the kind of colour that silk scarf painters use. It can be sprayed
with a squirt bottle until the colour is what you want. The you let
it dry, wrap it in foil, and bake it until the heat sets the dye. Or
else steam it in an industrial silk steamer, but I think the baking
would set better and not need washing at all. I can't remember the
brand name of this but a book on painting scarves would have the best
options.

--Irene

Joy Hardie wrote in message . ..
I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water. Then I dried the fabric in
the drier. It appears to have lost it's lustre and appears quite soft
and more suitable for a lovely pair of pajamas than a vest. Why did
it lose it's sheen. Is there anything I can do to bring it back?
Thanks, Joy

Dharma Trading has excellent dyes for all types of fabrics, plus the info
for using the different techniques. No affiliation, etc. - just thought Joy
should know. They also have a website (Just plug "Dharma" into your
browser) and you might find the info there as well. Even though they are in
the States, I still find it worthwhile for me to order from their catalogue
because I get the dyes I want for the job at hand.
Cynthia
(If they don't have the right type of dye, then it probably can't be had!)

"Irene" wrote in message
om...
Hi Joy,

The info sheet for Jacquard dyes is online if your store didn't have
it. Acid Dye requires vinegar and hot water (NOT necessarily
near-boiling). The hang it to drip dry--it's the dryer that made it
so soft. (makes great shirts, in case they want them...)

But if you want to keep all of the natural silk sizing, you should use
the kind of colour that silk scarf painters use. It can be sprayed
with a squirt bottle until the colour is what you want. The you let
it dry, wrap it in foil, and bake it until the heat sets the dye. Or
else steam it in an industrial silk steamer, but I think the baking
would set better and not need washing at all. I can't remember the
brand name of this but a book on painting scarves would have the best
options.

--Irene

Joy Hardie wrote in message
. ..
I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water. Then I dried the fabric in
the drier. It appears to have lost it's lustre and appears quite soft
and more suitable for a lovely pair of pajamas than a vest. Why did
it lose it's sheen. Is there anything I can do to bring it back?
Thanks, Joy

I actually got my dye from Dharma. And usually I love them. BUT....
this time, every time I called them, a different person gave me
different directions for the same product. I didn't call Jacquard
untill I was totally frustrated. I can't complain to Dharma, because
they might simply choose to not offer any customer assistance. I
wouldn't want that. When I contacted Jacquard, the directions printed
on their bottle were totally, TOTALLY different from the directions
they gave me over the phone, and different again from the printed
directions they sent along with more dye I had to buy to re-do the
project for the umpteenth time. I think if I went into a purple dye
bath as many times as that fabric did, my texture would "prune" too.
I think they should ultimatly be responsible for the destruction of
the 15 yards of silk, based on their faulty instructions, but, the
question is, is there any recourse and would I have the energy to
pursue it?
Joy

Dharma Trading has excellent dyes for all types of fabrics, plus the info
for using the different techniques. No affiliation, etc. - just thought Joy
should know. They also have a website (Just plug "Dharma" into your
browser) and you might find the info there as well. Even though they are in
the States, I still find it worthwhile for me to order from their catalogue
because I get the dyes I want for the job at hand.
Cynthia
(If they don't have the right type of dye, then it probably can't be had!)

"Irene" wrote in message
. com...
Hi Joy,

The info sheet for Jacquard dyes is online if your store didn't have
it. Acid Dye requires vinegar and hot water (NOT necessarily
near-boiling). The hang it to drip dry--it's the dryer that made it
so soft. (makes great shirts, in case they want them...)

But if you want to keep all of the natural silk sizing, you should use
the kind of colour that silk scarf painters use. It can be sprayed
with a squirt bottle until the colour is what you want. The you let
it dry, wrap it in foil, and bake it until the heat sets the dye. Or
else steam it in an industrial silk steamer, but I think the baking
would set better and not need washing at all. I can't remember the
brand name of this but a book on painting scarves would have the best
options.

--Irene

Joy Hardie wrote in message
...
I am dying 15 yards of silk dupioni to make vests for my brothers tuba
ensemble (yes, you heard me right). I used Jacquard acid dye in the
washing machine with near boiling water. Then I dried the fabric in
the drier. It appears to have lost it's lustre and appears quite soft
and more suitable for a lovely pair of pajamas than a vest. Why did
it lose it's sheen. Is there anything I can do to bring it back?
Thanks, Joy

Joy, there is a little bad news...the dyes don't come with insurance.
You use them at your own risk.

But somebody did also give you the wrong instructions (you were doing
the Procion method with acid dye, they are not the same at all). Dyes
normally come with product sheets that can be mailed or faxed. I
would NEVER take advice over the phone. Look at a package of RIT to
see what good instructions look like.

Next time buy the acid dyes from Joan Moshimer in Maine (online but I
forget the site). They do huge amounts of wool dyeing for rugs, and
wool is as bad as silk for getting messed up in water. This place has
books as well as dyes.

I guess you would have wanted to test a small piece of any fabric with
any type of dye for the first time: to see how much you need, to see
if it takes, to see if the fabric does anything weird. If you ever
get conflicting instructions again that's really where you start--a
fat quarter is plenty to work with in a gallon bowl.

But then I'm used to testing small pieces of kits...learned the same
way you are...

Irene

Joy Hardie wrote in message . ..
I actually got my dye from Dharma. And usually I love them. BUT....
this time, every time I called them, a different person gave me
different directions for the same product. I didn't call Jacquard
untill I was totally frustrated. I can't complain to Dharma, because
they might simply choose to not offer any customer assistance. I
wouldn't want that. When I contacted Jacquard, the directions printed
on their bottle were totally, TOTALLY different from the directions
they gave me over the phone, and different again from the printed
directions they sent along with more dye I had to buy (snipped)

Hi Irene,
Yes, a small test would seem like a brilliant idea, but, I did one
and nothing weird happened.

The catch was, the Dharma catalogue and Jacquard Co. both said a
1/2 oz bottle would dye up to 2 pounds of fabric. I weighed my fabric
and had 2 oz over so bought 2 bottles just in case.

When I Followed all the instructions on the bottle, the fabric was
only a slight, light purple color....nothing like the dark eggplant it
was supposed to be.

After calling Dharma and repeating the process with the other bottle
of dye and salt and getting basically no improved results then they
gave me Jacquard phone #.

Then, Jacquard told me that the test sample color was done with 4
bottle per 1 yard of fabric! Based on this recipe I would have had to
buy $80 of dye to dye my 2 # that they advertised 1 bottle would dye.

So, I don't consider it operator error, since I DID get the proper
results on my test swatch. It was only after multiple and repeat
attempts that my fabric altered.

Hey,....there must be some "truth in advertising" claim here?

I appreciate the advice on the other place to get dye as I do do quite
alot of dying. It has always been small dye lots and I have never had
such rotton luck. My brother and his tuba players are "thrilled" with
their vests though. Only trouble is that now he wants 3 more.....oh
no!
Joy


Joy, there is a little bad news...the dyes don't come with insurance.
You use them at your own risk.

But somebody did also give you the wrong instructions (you were doing
the Procion method with acid dye, they are not the same at all). Dyes
normally come with product sheets that can be mailed or faxed. I
would NEVER take advice over the phone. Look at a package of RIT to
see what good instructions look like.

Next time buy the acid dyes from Joan Moshimer in Maine (online but I
forget the site). They do huge amounts of wool dyeing for rugs, and
wool is as bad as silk for getting messed up in water. This place has
books as well as dyes.

I guess you would have wanted to test a small piece of any fabric with
any type of dye for the first time: to see how much you need, to see
if it takes, to see if the fabric does anything weird. If you ever
get conflicting instructions again that's really where you start--a
fat quarter is plenty to work with in a gallon bowl.

But then I'm used to testing small pieces of kits...learned the same
way you are...

Irene