DecoArt PMX-1069 Jacquard Procion Mx Dye, 2/3-Ounce, Aqua Marine

I bought this kit to dye a few white t-shirts that I've been using as undershirts for the last few years. The t-shirts had perspiration stains under the arms, but I love the fabric and fit so much that I wanted to see if I could rescue them. Now, all the dyeing websites will tell you not to work on old, stained clothing. That is probably prudent advice, as I'll discuss later! I was willing to take the risk, especially as practice learning how to dye in case I decide on a larger project down the road. What I love about this set is that it contains the printer's primaries -- cyan, magenta, and yellow, plus black -- so that you can mix your own colors. With just three shirts to dye, I could have bought three premixed colors instead of four primaries. But I find that a bit limiting, and wanted to have fun mixing my own. This kit also includes enough soda ash to do about 5-6 dye baths (bucket method), but if you run out, Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda is 100% soda ash and readily available for a few bucks at the grocery store or drugstore. I dyed my shirts using the immersion method in a 5-gallon bucket (actually, mine was a 4-gallon kitty litter bucket). You can do this in the washing machine, but you have to use a lot more dye, soda ash, and salt, and you still have to babysit the machine to make sure it doesn't start the rinse cycle before you're ready. I find it more economical and not that much more labor-intensive to just do it in a bucket. For the first shirt, I was trying for sort of an indigo color, a deep blue-purple. I mixed 3/4 tsp. of the fuchsia dye and 1 1/4 tsp. of the turquoise in a mason jar and added a little bit of water to make a paste, then a little more water to get a pourable dye. I filled my bucket a little over halfway with water, added two cups of non-iodized table salt, stirred to dissolve, and then added the dye. Finally, I added my t-shirt, which I had dampened. After stirring off and on for about 20 minutes, I mixed 1/3 cup of soda ash into warm water in the mason jar and added a third of it to the bucket, stirred for 5 minutes, added another third, stirred for 5 minutes, then the last third and another 5 minutes of stirring. Finally, I gave the shirt another 45 minutes in the dye bath, stirring periodically. I put it in the washing machine, ran a rinse cycle, then washed it with detergent in hot water and tumbled dry. (This technique came from pburch.net, an incredibly thorough site on dyeing.) You can see the result in the far left of the customer image I uploaded. It's hardly the indigo I was going for! In fact, it was a happy accident, because I was planning to turn one of the t-shirts into a raspberry color, and that's exactly what I got. But what went wrong? Well, I did a little research and learned that turquoise is a particularly finicky dye. On the Procion dye jars, it says to mix the dye into cold water, and that's where I went wrong. My research revealed that the water should in fact be at *least* room temperature, if not warmer for turquoise. I even saw some suggestions to put the dye-soaked fabric in the microwave to accelerate the process! I wasn't brave enough to do that, but I was happy to try warmer water with my second shirt. This time, I placed my bucket in a bathtub and filled it with warm-to-hot water, about 110 degrees. I also filled the bathtub with hot water to try to maintain the warm temperature in the bucket. I used much, much more turquoise in the second batch: 2 tsp. of turquoise and only 1/4 tsp. of fuchsia. Otherwise, I followed the procedure exactly as I had for the first shirt. The result was a very pretty periwinkle, not quite the rich indigo I had aimed for, but again, a lovely color I'm thrilled with. (I should note here that the amount of dye you use determines how light or dark the final result. It's suggested to use about 1 tablespoon of dye for a medium color or 2 tablespoons for a dark color, per pound of fabric. You scale up or down based on fabric weight. My t-shirts each weighed just 1/4 pound, so this suggests 1/4 tablespoon for medium or 1/2 tablespoon -- 1 1/2 teaspoons -- for dark. In fact I used more than this, yet got medium colors.) For my final shirt, I wanted to crack open the jar of yellow dye, so I decided to go green. I had definitely learned from the first two rounds that color mixing is an imprecise science. I wanted to err on the side of more turquoise rather than too much yellow (I love lime green but it doesn't suit my complexion at all), so I mixed 2 tsp. turquoise with 1/2 tsp. yellow. This gave a very pretty emerald, pretty much exactly the hue I was aiming for! However, this shirt ended up with blotches in spots and I can only conclude that there were some invisible marks or stains on the t-shirt that only became evident when I dyed it. This is one of the dangers of working with old fabric! Incidentally, I was most worried about the perspiration marks on the shirts, but in all cases those were nearly completely hidden by the dye. I would absolutely recommend this kit if you are willing to roll the dice a bit with respect to color. It's definitely a matter of guesswork, and I found that even testing the dye mix first on a small piece of paper towel or just observing the fabric while it was in the dye bath didn't really give a good indication of what the final result would look like. It's as much about how well the fabric takes the dye (and what technique you use, etc.) as it is about what proportions of colors you use. But it was great fun, and I still have enough dye for many more projects, especially if I replenish my turquoise supply.

Best dye on the market. Following the instructions is very important to achieve the results wanted. The clothing I dyed is still dark, no bleeding out when wet, dyed very easily. The color has lasted 4 months now and still goin strong. Most important thing is to follow directions, read carefully and throughly and have fun! I mixed in a 5gal bucket and dyed 3-4 items of the same material at a time, made a day project out of it and still have so much dye left over.

Like many others who have left lower or negative reviews, I also did not have the greatest results at first. After trying twice on a set of linen clothes the best I got was a darker blue-grey tint; both times stirring and leaving it in the dye bath for several hours. I didn't have any soda ash, but the instructions suggested that salt could be used as an alternative. I didn't have any luck with that. I decided to give it one more try and picked up soda ash, and also white vinegar (for setting the color in natural fabrics) which had been suggested by another reviewer. I soaked and aggitated the clothes in warm water with some soda ash. I boiled a large pot of water and added a cup of soda, poured that into the dye bath, added the wetted clothes, and stirred for 15 minutes. I let it sit for 1 hour (I don't know if it was necessary), then stirred again for 15 minutes. After the second stir I pulled the cloth out of the bath and squeezed out as much dye water as possible before putting them in another 5-gal bucket filled with 2 gal of white vinegar. I stirred that for another 15 minutes, then put them into the wash machine. This was the magic formula - I could tell immediately that they had finally been dyed a rich, deep solid black. After drying, the color remained rich and my clothes look amazing! I've worn this outfit several times, and there has been no color bleeding or dye rubbing off onto my body. For anyone struggling with this dye, the soda ash/sodium carbonate is imperative (I used Arm and Hammer picked up at the local grocery store), and I would also suggest vinegar (for natural fabrics) to make sure the color sets. After my experience I will certainly buy this dye again. It would be nice if the instructions on the container were clearer, and in larger print, but it is an excellent product and I highly recommend it.

I used the black dye. It was high quality. The color was accurate however, if you are something ombré you have to keep practicing as the dye bleeds up it will bleed but in the hue of blue. The blue is the dyes base which is normal. I like how other colors are included in the kit as well as ash. Which is great I am planning on painting some fabric with the other colors. So the price and value is great.

I bought this to do multiple solid color dyes on cut pattern pieces for a colorblock hoodie. I chose this item because it had a good assortment of the colors I needed, and a few extras for future projects-- cheaper than if I tried to buy only the colors I needed individually. The item itself was generally as expected-- the only thing that caught me off guard was that the yellow included was Lemon Yellow instead of Golden Yellow. The description only stated "Yellow" with no specification... so I leaned towards assuming it would be as pictured. I needed both Lemon and Golden-- so thinking I wasn't getting Lemon here, I ordered it separately. Now I have MANY jars of Lemon Yellow! I ended up mixing the Lemon Yellow with a little of the Brilliant Orange to get a more golden color-- not perfect, but it worked. Things to note: Visually, the amount of product in each jar varied. As I used and learned more, I realized that this *might* be because different colors have different weights & the product is sold by weight. So there isn't exactly a set teaspoon amount in each jar. Since this was a solid color project instead of tie-dye, I measured the dye out by weight instead of dry measurements to be sure I matched Jacquard's color card of what I wanted to achieve. All colors came out as expected, EXCEPT for the Medium Blue. For me it imparted more of a light blue. Come to find out that Medium Blue is actually a standardized Procion color (MX-R) and other brands actually market it as a "Sky Blue". So Jacquard's swatch and name is misleading there. This was my first time using Procion MX Dye, and it was generally an easy process. I followed the directions from Jacquard's website, and also referenced Dharma. I highly recommend that everyone check it out for resources and understanding what the best dye for your project & fabric is! Lastly, I found using a digital thermometer incredibly useful. I used my kitchen meat thermometer, and kept it submerged the entire time. Among varying amounts of salt and soda ash, water temp is also a significant factor.

I am incredibly disappointed. The colors came damp! Paints should be dry and crumbly, but I saw something completely different. The paints are wet, and there are large and small lumps. They are not crumbly, but in lumps! I decided to dye the clothes first, and only then draw conclusions. And what happened ? The only permanent color is pink. All pink colors prevail, they are very bright. The rest of the colors are almost completely gone! My T-shirt was supposed to be purple. I also added a lot of blue, green, and a little (a few grains) of pink. Look at the photos! The t-shirt has bright pink spots. Purple, blue and green are almost gone! Despite the fact that it was these flowers that were the most! I was shocked when I saw the result ... Look also at socks. The colors used on the socks are purple, green, and one grain of pink. Are the socks purple and green? No ! They are bright pink! Why?! Of the entire set, only pink works! the rest of the colors just wash off, they are almost invisible! I follow the rules. I have also been dyeing clothes for several years, but I used different dyes. I am horrified and very disappointed. Most likely, the quality of the dyes has suffered greatly due to the fact that they are damp! I didn't expect this. I just threw money in the trash.

Bought the chocolate brown to overdye some bright orange sheets to make them more of a burnt orange, worked like a charm!

firstly, i ordered medium & bright blue- medium blue looked less full but actually weighed a gram heavier than the more full bright blue for all the people thinking they were jipped- it is in fact weighted properly! and with realistic expectations this is a decent dye. i wanted to try something different hoping for better results and reviews sounded promising with this brand over my usual rit liquid, but as with most of my experiences sometimes it works well, and other times not so much- which i blame user error for as i'm sure it's my fault for flubbing something in the process, or the fabric properties itself- dye can only do what it's made to do. bright blue- my tanks tops were 95% cotton/spandex, they came out a dull light blue, and to my surprise after all the reviews stating it will not dye synthetics the lace/trim (likely nylon) dyed a slightly lighter blue- but it did dye! the 100% cotton shirt and bath towel came out a brighter blue but light/pale in color as i placed in dye last. wanting a dark color i added entire bottle of dye in bucket with water and salt dissolved in boiled water, added items one at a time dry, constantly stirred with gloved hands about 15 minutes, then added the soda ash dissolved in boiled water after as stated with more constant stirring about 15 minutes and let sit about 30 minutes. squeezed items out and added to top load washer with warm water for small load plus one pump of blue dawn and 1/2 bottle of dye fixative, agitated and let soak an hour. then filled cold water for large load and ran through entire long wash cycle. most things came out blotchy, some more than others of exact item, the two 100% items i put in last did not blotch, but one 100% item did blotch, perhaps letting it sit or maybe dye powder was not mixed good at first, i'm no expert and i've had similar results with liquid dye & hot water, and i did not take water temp so perhaps it was too cold. nothing came out dark or deep in color but perhaps i needed more dye to achieve that. medium blue is a more neutral blue and not deep, i dyed items that were turquoise/light blue and it only slightly darkened them. no blotches though, used same process and items were 95% cotton/spandex leggings and shorts. maybe i will have to try midnight blue for a deeper color, and/or maybe increase the amount of dye used, i was shooting for a royal blue and did not achieve with either color. disappointed mostly because bright blue dye water was a beautiful brilliant blue color and items looked that color when wet but not anywhere close after rinsing and drying. i do not have the greatest luck in dying yet i keep doing it and the quest is still on...