Dyeing, but no spinning or weaving

A Tight Job of Dyeing

updated Tuesday, 22 August, 2006

I dyed two pairs of white Capezio tights for Duncan's outfit today. They needed to be bright purple, and, of course, the men's tall tights come only in white, black, and grey. Since I've had such bad luck with dyeing before, I'm recording the steps in detail so that I can repeat this one!

The XXL Capezio tights fit him very well.

Steps we took:

Asked advice from all my more experienced sewing friends. ;-)
Ordered the tights, based on the size charts
Duncan tried them on, and they (and the dance belt, the "comfort" model with a full seat) fit.
Duncan washed the tights with some other white items (no bleach), and then with the RIT color remover, as advised on the package.
Today I dyed them, stovetop method. (recipe here)
After the dyeing, rinsing, gentle wash, and hang to dry, they are beautiful. Only one spot that looks a little uneven. Yeah!

Here are the pictures (Obsessive? Me? -- Nah.)

Recipe:

Ingredients

2 pairs XXL white tights
3 gals hot water (about 160^o F)
2 boxes RIT purple dye
3 packages Grape Kool-Aid
1 tsp liquid Tide-FREE
1 Cup Iodine-free salt
box of Bon-Ami cleanser

Utensils

12 qt. cooking pot, lined with Calphalon non-stick
Teflon whisk
Calphalon tongs, two pairs
China pasta bowl
2 qt. crock-pot crock
nylon spoon
paper towels
latex gloves
4-cup glass measuring cup

Steps

Wash the sink, make sure not to leave any cleanser in it
Wash the tights, then put in sink with hot water to soak in
Put on the gloves
Fill the pot with almost 3 gals hot water
Mix in the Kool-aid and the salt to make the dye-bath (Yuck to think of drinking!)
Pre-mix the 2 boxes of RIT with 3-cups of hot water (190^o F from the insta-hot tap)
Put the dye into the dye-bath
Stir well to make sure everything is well-mixed, turn on the heat under the pot
Wring out the tights well, slowly lower into the dye-bath one at a time
Stir with the wisk and one of the pairs of tongs, until all the fabric is moving freely in the pot and dye is distributed well
Bring the pot to a simmer
Stir for 3 minutes
Put the china bowl on top of the tights until the air bubbles have mostly escaped
put the crock-pot crock on top of the bowl to hold the tights under the liquid
Let the whole thing simmer for 5 minutes
Repeat stirring and simmering until you've been doing this for about 30 minutes
Rinse the utensils (washed the pot with Soft-scrub and a gentle cloth)
Pour off the dye slowly while adding clean medium-hot water
Let the water fill the pot and run off for 5-10 minutes
Pour out the tights into the sink, running warm water over them
Rinse with progressively cooler water until the water runs clear
Wring gently but thoroughly
Wash on gentle cycle with a Tbsp of liquid detergent
Hang to dry
Make a big glass of iced tea to celebrate

When I can get the pictures out of the camera, I'll put them here.

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