Curtain Dyeing Disaster. Help please!

[Iffer1]

Hi all,
I attempted to dye my white linen curtains a shade of taupe/brown using 4 different colours of Jacquard Procion Dyes. I followed their instructions to the letter i.e. The curtains were washed in regular detergent and then Jacquard Synthapol. Dye and salt were mixed in a huge plastic tub of 40C water. The fabric was stirred in the water for 15 mins, removed and soda ash added. The fabric was stirred every few minutes for an hour. The fabric was rinsed in cold water (then warmer water), including with Jacquard iDye Fabric Dye Fixative and put through the machine rinse cycle (20 mins) before being dried. However the results are streaks of all kinds of shades of brown! Why has this happened and importantly, how can it now be rectified?

Thanks for your advice.

I don't know this dye brand but it feels like a question for their customer services department...

Sounds like a large item to dye in a pot and get an even finish. I should think you would practically need a bath to dye curtains so the dye could circulate.

Also could there have been any kind of flameproofing or surface finish on the curtains that affected how they took up the dye? As a veteran of several dye disasters you have my sympathy but try custome service as suggested. or Dr Google.

Linen is a natural fibre. It should be dyed with a basic Dylon machine day

Procion dyes are used mainly for wool and nylon, although I’ve looked at the Dylon ones and they say they can be used on natural fibres. But a basic dye should have been ok.

If they are blended with another non natural fibre (polyester) then they won’t dye smoothly, so that may be the cause if streaks. If they didn’t have enough space to allow the dye to be absorbed properly.

Fwiw, I’ve taught dye chemistry at A level for 12 years. Procion and Linen are not the two l would have put together. A procion would not be my first choice unless your linen was mixed with another fibre which would need procion dyes.

Not enough space to allow the dye to be absorbed properly so thereby causing streaks.

And as above they may have some sort of finish on them which prevents proper absorbtion.

The Jacquard website recommends their Procion MX for "cellulose" fibres like cotton and linen and the acid dye for wool and silk. It's really confusing.

Hi all,
Thanks so much for your advice so far. I have tried to inquire with the dye manufacturers but no joy so far. The tub I used was pretty huge. I was apprehensive about doing batches for fear that there would be slight variations in colour but in the end I got a streaky rainbow of brows! Oh the irony! I did also call the curtain manufacturer first and they said the fabric should take the dye. The problem isn’t that the curtains didn’t take the dye at all so much as they’ve not dyed evenly despite my Herculean efforts to keep them moving in the dye bath. I really did do SO much research ahead of time. I’m pretty crestfallen that it’s not gone to plan.

FYI, I went with Procion because while the front of the curtains is linen, the blackout backing on them is synthetic and the curtain manufacturers advised not using a very high temperature for that reason. As mentioned, Procion can work at just 40C. Hope that helps explain my approach. I’m open to suggestions on other the products though.

I think the backing may have prevented absorption. This may have caused some of the streaks.

Normal dye can work at 40 degrees. But l think the lining may be the problem. Can you remove it?

I would have used this in the machine with the linings removed. But if they are big you would be struggling to get perfect a results in a domestic machine or tub.

www.dylon.co.uk/en/home/products/machine-dye.html

Thanks for that. I had ruled out machine dyeing because I had wanted everything dyed in the same tub for consistency purposes; it’ll take 3 separate machine loads to get the curtains done. But given that that’s failed, I’ll have another look.

Could you offer any suggestions for how to remove the dye in cold water, please? All the colour strippers I’ve seen require hot water.

Bleach? Linen’s pretty strong.

The colour should be consistent if you use the same batch number.

I know lots about dyeing and textures. If it had been me, l would perhaps have looked into having them done professionally as there is a lot of it .

I don’t think I would have tried to dye the lining. Is it removable?

No the lining, is attached to the linen along the seams.

If it's just sewn in I would unpick it, dye the linen only, and then re-attach the linings. I appreciate that this is a faff, however!

But, when they are wet, the lining may stick to the curtains preventing the dye getting through. If the lining is polyester then it might act as a barrier to the dye getting through to the curtain.

That’s where your streakiness may be coming from!

Interesting theory re the backing sticking to the fabric. I’ll have a think and figure out how I can address that factor.

Again, THANKS ALL for your feedback!

Dyeing things needs a lot more stirring than you think, and I agree the linings might have been getting in the way of dye absorption.
Where you using 4 different colours? That probably won't have helped either.
[[http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/blog/]] is a great blog on dyeing

Thanks @RugsEverywhere. I’ll check it out!