Yesterday I did a test on dying antron brown and got dark purple. Anyone have any ideas about what I did wrong? I soaked the antron, put it in very hot dye bath until it looked nice and brown. When I rinsed it in cold H2O the result was a medium purple, or rather burgundy color.I let the fabric dry thinking it would turn brown after it was dry. No such luck. So I thought I hadn't left it in the dye bath long enough and got the dye bath nice and hot once again. Put the same piece of antron back in the dye, left it longer and it looked very dark brown. When I rinsed it, it is now dark purple/burgundy. Thankfully I used only a 2 inch square of fabric for the test.

BTW, I was using RIT liquid Dark Brown dye. Does this stuff get old? I've had this bottle for a while and used it on cotton and gotten brown. Any ideas? I think I'll try again with a new bottle and see what happens.

Do I need to wash the antron before dying or is soaking in plain water sufficient? How long do I need to soak the antron?

Sue

Hello,
Ive had this problem with brown so I will be interested to see what responses you get.

Cheers,
Dan

You first have to determine what dye is best for your project............. Some Rit dye requires more dye to get a darker color. You also need a a fixative with some dyes, and the water needs to be quite warm and it needs to stay in the dye bath a longer time. I use vinegar sometimes in my dye bath

Dyeing just like baking has a science to it................. the recipes have to be right.

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/fixative.shtml

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/aboutdyes.shtml

The three primary colors (red, yellow & blue) will make brown.

Complimentary colors (colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel) red & green; yellow & purple; orange & blue, will also make brown.

Experiment with different combination's on sample pieces of the fabric you're going to use until you get the combination you are happy with as you may have to use different amounts of each color.

Red + Blue = Purple
Red + Blue + Orange = Brown
Red + Blue + Green (blue and yellow) = Brown

Add black to make it darker

So I would think if you used Rit dark brown and it came out purple you would need to adjust it by adding some other secondary colors like orange or green and a bit of black.

When I'm dyeing I keep primary colors mixed in glass gallon jars and then mix colors in a quart jar to dye test squares before dyeing a larger piece of cloth. This way I can adjust what colors I need. Using a disperse dye would solve your problem some what.

Just a thought    I'm not a expert in dyeing , but it does take some experimenting.

Billy D.

I have dyed Antron brown and other colors and have never had a problem.  Maybe the issue is with a liquid dye.  I always use the powered Rit Tint and Dye.  The Cocoa Brown 20 worked fine.  It may turn out a little lighter than the box color, but it still is a Dark Brown.

I dye using the washing machine.  Wet the antron first. Fill washing machine with HOT water.  Mix the dye in a glass jar with hot water then add to machine.  Add WET antron fleece to the washing machine dyed water.  Put on the longest cycle, and keep turning it back so that it will be in the first wash (agitation) cycle for 30 minutes. Then let it proceed as normal.  IF you have discoloration in your washing machine, just do an empty wash of HOT water and BLEACH.  It will then clean up.  If you want it a little darker/stronger, you may be able to just use 2 packets instead of 1.  Normally I dye 3 yards at a time.

I also then save the package and cut it flat and staple a swatch of the finished dyed fabric so that I can see what the color result is for future dying.  I attached a scanned photo of the swatch/box.

Hope this helps you.

I like the idea of attaching a swatch to the box. Do you also put on the other side the dye time and any other useful information.


Billy D.

I tried a test using the recipes Billy sent to me. I made up a peach tone and did a couple of tests. I used the same dye for the two peach tones. The darker one is made with a higher dye to H20 ratio, and the lighter has more H20.

The third sample is the dark brown I dyed last night. It is not even close to brown. It looks like purple. I'll have to try again with cocoa brown to see what I get.

If I do something different, then yes, I write it in Sharpie on the box.  As you can see with the Ecru sample, it is quite a bit lighter than the printed box color.  So, I doubled the color and added some Taupe.  I also attached the end label from the spool of thread if I need to match the thread color to the fabric.  Then, if I needed more thread I don't have to waste time in trying to figure it out again.  Normally I stick with 30 min. cycles.


Ray

Daryl mentioned the other night when he was talking about dyeing Antron that black actually ends up being dark brown and not black when you dye Antron.  You might want to try that.

I've had problems with the liquid dye......Half a pack of crystals have overpowered an entire bottle in my mixing experiments.

Wao! Way to learn!

Thanks guys for sharing your experince, so we can learn about