How can I use Paas tablets to dye fabric?

April 4, 2007 5:29 PM

Can you dye fabric with Paas tablets? How?

I'd like to dye some remnants, so I don't think the small size of the tablets will be an issue.

posted by izatchu to clothing, beauty, & fashion (3 comments total)

Knitters have been using them pretty successfully (scroll to the bottom here), so I don't see why it wouldn't work similarly on fabric (perhaps a knit fabric would work best, but I don't know anything about how specific fabrics work with dye, so I could be wrong about that).
posted by mewithoutyou at 5:52 PM on April 4, 2007

You can use food coloring to dye protein-based fabrics, basically anything made out of animal hair. Wool, cashmere, alpaca, silk, mohair, etc.

It won't do a thing to cotton, linen, or synthetics. I couldn't even get it to stain cotton at high concentration, which doesn't explain why it stains fabric so easily if you spill it accidentally.

I have used easter egg dye tablets, drink mix, and packaged food coloring to dye both fabric and yarn.
posted by padraigin at 6:13 PM on April 4, 2007

I'm assuming you either want to use up your old egg dye, or because it's cheap. But if by chance it's the second thing, then try kool-aid. Here's a good and simple tutorial for dyeing with kool-aid
posted by moonshine at 8:51 PM on April 4, 2007