Is Dharma Pigment Dye really as good for tie-dyeing as Procion MX dye?
No fabric paint can be as good as high quality dye, but it can still be quite good in itself. As Dharma Trading Company says, “It gives results completely different from the usual tie-dye.” Whether this is good or bad depends on what your aims are. Dharma Pigment Dye is actually not a dye at all. It is a fabric paint, which means that it is a combination of a pigment that has no affinity for the fabric, with a gluelike binder to stick it on. It has failed to attract the same degree of enthusiasm among serious dyers that fiber reactive dyes have – people who have used good fiber reactive dye on cotton tend to be fanatical about how wonderful it is, compared to other forms of dyeing! – but it has its uses. As a general rule, the people who like pigment ‘dyes’ best are those who have not yet used high quality fiber reactive dye. There is certainly a place for pigment ‘dyeing’, particularly if you are dyeing/painting tapestries, which do not need to feel as nice or last through as many was
