Where to buy Soda Ash for Tie Dye?

FionnK86

I’ve bought some acrylic liquid fabric paint, rubber bands and cheap Penney’s vest.

Has anyone tie dyed before?? Do you need to buy Soda Ash for it to set and if so, where did you get it?

New Home

I'm not sure about soda ash, I usually use acrylic paints to paint directly onto the fabric, then I let it dry well and iron it on the reverse with a hot iron (temperature 3 dots, like for cotton). It might work with tie-dyed cloths, but I wouldn't be sure. You could try with washing soda (NOT caustic soda) and see what happens, but if you want to make your life easier, use the acrylic paints for something else, get some Dylon (or similar brand) fabric dye. They make it both for dying by hand and for dying in the washing machine, the latter kind only needs 2 kilos of salt (Actual salt, with no iodine added, and not the stuff with anti-caking additives like Saxa) to fix the colours. I've used this lots of times before, and the results are always great.

You can (kind of) make that soda yourself using ashes from wood (ONLY from wood, NOT from turf or coal or other solid fuel) but you'll need a fair amount of it; you put the fabric in a tub and you cover it with the ash, then pour over it lots of boiling water and leave it there. The only thing is, though, that both this kind of soda and the washing soda I mentioned earlier are supposed to remove stains, I'm not sure what chemical process would make it fix the colours.

FionnK86

New Home wrote: »

I'm not sure about soda ash, I usually use acrylic paints to paint directly onto the fabric, then I let it dry well and iron it on the reverse with a hot iron (temperature 3 dots, like for cotton). It might work with tie-dyed cloths, but I wouldn't be sure. You could try with washing soda (NOT caustic soda) and see what happens, but if you want to make your life easier, use the acrylic paints for something else, get some Dylon (or similar brand) fabric dye. They make it both for dying by hand and for dying in the washing machine, the latter kind only needs 2 kilos of salt (Actual salt, with no iodine added, and not the stuff with anti-caking additives like Saxa) to fix the colours. I've used this lots of times before, and the results are always great.

You can (kind of) make that soda yourself using ashes from wood (ONLY from wood, NOT from turf or coal or other solid fuel) but you'll need a fair amount of it; you put the fabric in a tub and you cover it with the ash, then pour over it lots of boiling water and leave it there. The only thing is, though, that both this kind of soda and the washing soda I mentioned earlier are supposed to remove stains, I'm not sure what chemical process would make it fix the colours.

Hi New Home,

When you say paint directly, do you mean a particular design? I'm looking for a random effect but not sure if it'll work? I've a spray bottle to mix the paint.

Might try to avoid using the ash if I can.

New Home

Apologies, I wasn't clear - yes, I meant painting a specific design on the fabric. I know what you mean about the random tie-dye effect, you could try and dilute the acrylic paint in some water (figuring out how much exactly might prove a tad difficult, the shade might turn out lighter or darker than you want it to), submerge the tied item into the coloured liquid and leave it there for a while (wouldn't be sure about the length of time, maybe an hour could be enough), then you can take it out and let it drain without wringing it or without removing the ties, and when it's dry you could iron it on the back like I mentioned before; if you want to, you could repeat the process with more colours, or you could use the spray bottle to add another layer of coloured "mist", but don't forget to fix the previous "layer" by ironing it before adding the next, be it sprayed on or by submersion.

With fabric painted with acrylics or with fabric paints (also acrylic based), after you've fixed the colour, you can wash the item of clothing inside out at no more than a 40 degrees cycle. The only thing is, I don't know if the diluted acrylic colours would react in the same way when used in tie-dye, whereas if you used the Dylon-like fabric dyes you'd almost have the guarantee that it'd work out.

I'm probably not making much sense, sorry.

Could I ask, where did you get the idea to use acrylics and soda ash? Genuinely curious!

Millypenny

You definitely don't need soda ash with acrylic paints. Soda ash is needed when you're using procion dyes for dyeing (as it fixes the dyes to the fabric).
The only thing with acrylic paints is that they made not be suitable for painting onto fabrics as they can fade or change the hand of the fabric (i.e. make it hard). You can buy fabric paints or you could buy a fabric medium/extender from craft shops, which you mix with acrylic paints to turn it into a fabric paint. The fabric paint would be more permanent on the fabric and has a softer hand.