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Do You Really Need to Let Tie Dye Sit for 24 Hours?

Everyone always says that you need to let tie die sit for about 24 hours before rinsing for the best colors, but I never was able to find any actual facts to back that up. How did they get that number? Did someone just pick an arbitrary number that sounded like it was probably good enough or did someone actually figure out the best cure time long ago and the data has just been lost to time?

There’s been a few times that I wanted or needed to rinse out my dyes before that magical number of 24 hours and I wondered if I was sacrificing vibrant color by rinsing early.

I’m a facts and evidence based person so I wanted to know for myself if I really needed to wait that long.

I set up an experiment using all the single pigment dyes I had on hand and tested them at various time points over 24 hours to see just how it actually took before each reached its peak color.

(As a side note, I buy my supplies from Dharma Trading so I used their color names throughout this article.)

Results:

I’d say the biggest surprise was how quickly most of the dyes took to the fabric. Check out the hot colors; by 30 minutes both Lemon Yellow and Deep Orange were already at full strength. And Fuchsia was pretty much immediate – there’s no visible difference in any of the swatches.

I found Grape interesting: it was much more prone to mottling than the rest of the colors, but by 30 minutes the swatches had reached full saturation.

The blue toned colors were about what I expected. There was a much more gradual change along these.

Turquoise was about what I expected. It had a really gradual change that continued to get darker throughout the full 24 hours. I actually find myself now wondering if Turquoise would benefit from even more time since there is still a noticeable difference between 12 hours and 24 hours. Should it sit for 36 hours? 48? I’ll have to look more into this. (Edit: Turquoise has been retested and should sit for 24 hours before rinsing.)

Although the most noticeable difference with Cobalt Blue is in the first 4 swatches, it did gradually get subtly darker throughout the rest of the time points. It’s hard to see this faint difference on a screen but it was visible in person.

And then we have Cerulean Blue.

I… I have no idea what happened here.

Yes, those swatches are in order. No, I did not mix up any of the labels. Yes, I’m absolutely sure.

So you might be wondering why I even bothered to include them in my post. Because unexpected results are an important part of science! A good scientist doesn’t hide results that didn’t match her expectations. She questions them and tries to learn from them.

Obviously something weird happened here. I have a few ideas, but that will have to wait until I have time to retest again. (Edit: Cerulean Blue has been retested. See the results here.)

Conclusion:

If you’re dying with Fuchsia, Lemon Yellow, Deep Orange, or Grape, you could rinse after just a couple hours without color loss.

When using Cobalt Blue you should wait at least 12 hours, but 24 is best.

Until I retest Cerulean Blue I’ll have to recommend waiting 24 hours. (Edit: 24 hours is recommended.)

Turquoise should absolutely be given 24 hours at a minimum – possibly longer. (More testing is needed.) (Edit: 24 hours has been verified.)

If you aren’t sure what colors are in a mix, such as when you buy a premixed color, then wait the 24 hours to ensure your color fully cures.

And this folks is probably where the 24 hour recommendation came from – better safe than sorry right?

So maybe you’re thinking “I ice dye, why do I need to know any of this?”

Knowing each color’s cure time allows you to manipulate them with better results.

I’ve done a lot of ice dye mixes with purple and blue and discovered that purple tends to overtake the blue on the fabric. The purple is quicker to bond with the fabric fibers so it basically beats blue to the punch. Knowing this, you can add less purple and more blue to better achieve the result you want.

This also explains why vibrant turquoise is such a hard color to get when you ice dye and why adding additional soda ash to the process helps. Turquoise needs more time to bond with the fabric, so adding more soda ash allows the chemical reaction to take place over a longer period of time.

Bottom line?

Wait 24 hours for full color if you can, but if you need to rinse a few hours early, you’ll probably be okay.

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Sydney
Sydney
January 5, 2020 12:54 pm

This information is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your results.

Erica
Erica
April 15, 2020 5:13 pm

What’s your recommended time for ice dyeing? It’s my first time and I’m trying 3 different blues together. Would love the feedback! Great site!

Bekah
Bekah
June 10, 2020 5:30 am

This was perfect information thank you for taking the time to write it out!!

Kass
Kass
June 24, 2020 10:13 am

If I want a pastel color, do you recommend diluting the dye with more water and leaving it on for 24 hours OR leaving the dye on for less hours?

Dan
Dan
July 12, 2020 5:22 am

I would love to see if there is a difference in yellow, orange, fuscia after like 20 washes…

Does the color fade more with the lesser times?

30min, 6hr,12hr,24hr
Is there a huge difference or any in the color over time?
That would be an interesting experiment.

Last edited 3 years ago by Dan
Sugar Magnolia Dye Works
Sugar Magnolia Dye Works
September 12, 2020 2:57 am
Reply to  Dan

Hey Dan… they will fade over time if you rinse before the 4 hour or 24 hour cure time. They are fiber reactive and it requires that time for the colors to ‘Lock-On’ to the fibers, then as they cure, the fibers slowly shrink down and lock in the colors.

Jax
Jax
September 1, 2020 4:47 pm

Love the info

Purple Diamond
Purple Diamond
February 5, 2021 4:33 pm

Can you send me the info on where to get the dye? Abigpurpediamond@yahoo.com

adrienne almeda
adrienne almeda
May 17, 2021 9:33 pm
Reply to  Purple Diamond

Can you pls send them to me too ? would love to get a better price for the dyes 🙂 pls send me email adriennealmeda@gmail.com

Sky
Sky
April 3, 2021 8:54 am

Have you double ice dyed with a long to cure color first (leaving plenty of white spaces) then later added more ice and a fast cure color? Like cobalt then after 24 hours fill in some white areas with more ice and fuchsia?

Melissa
Melissa
June 15, 2021 3:25 am
Reply to  Lindsey

Just wanted to mention that I have tried a double ice bath. When starting the second round. I added soda ash on top of the ice. That way I knew the chemical reaction would still remain. And then batched it for 24 hours before washing it out. 😉

Last edited 2 years ago by Lindsey
adrienne almeda
adrienne almeda
May 17, 2021 9:33 pm

Can you pls send them to me too ? would love to get a better price for the dyes 🙂 pls send me email adriennealmeda@gmail.com

Bent
Bent
June 19, 2021 7:49 am

this is amazing nice work

Brian
Brian
August 24, 2021 9:53 am

Amazing! Thank you!

Shelly F G
Shelly F G
August 27, 2021 6:07 am

This is my first ever comment on an article but I just HAVE to thank you for this. You really took one for the team and I seriously can’t thank you enough. This info in absolutely invaluable. Thank you thank you thank you!!

Kay
Kay
August 17, 2022 6:57 pm
Reply to  Shelly F G

Thanks . I have been trying to find out how to make my ice dyes more pastel.

Gloria
Gloria
September 18, 2021 4:35 pm

Very helpful – the follow up with the blues too!

Laura
Laura
May 14, 2022 6:22 pm

I’m not sure why it took me so long to find you, but I am ever so happy I did! Thank you so very much for taking the time to painstakingly test each color at each time interval to determine whether the full 24 hour time period was truly necessary. I had found similar results with swatches and had begun to wonder what, if anything, I was doing wrong with the turquoise to get such pale results, when lemon yellow, carmine red, and a few others had been so intense so quickly. As I have worked longer with it (much… Read more »

Laura
Laura
May 15, 2022 10:16 am
Reply to  Lindsey

Wow! Thank you so much! It honestly didn’t occur to me about the temps. I’ve read about people using heating pads and microwave ovens (I’ve tried the latter, but not with the EG). I will experiment with temperatures. Other than ice dyeing, however, I haven’t much chance of cooler temperatures as I live in South Florida. The coolest it will be is the coolest I set my thermostat. (No snow days here! 😭) The best heating pad is the ground outside—at least 340 days a year.

Many thanks for your quick response! Can’t wait to try it out.

Darbi Macy
Darbi Macy
July 15, 2022 1:00 pm

I just found this and just want to say I really appreciate it. I am a data person, and it’s very hard to find anything that has anything but “you should do this”. I should? Cool. What if I don’t? Why should I do this?

Thank you so much for the super useful data. I have been tie-dyeing with my son for years every summer and I haven’t been able to determine how to set things better.

Ellery
Ellery
August 22, 2022 3:57 pm

Do you know if dyeing in the muck would allow you to decrease the time? Or will it still take that time to be reactive with the fibers?

Tanisha
Tanisha
November 29, 2023 8:24 pm

Hi, do you remember the temperature it was when you did this?