How Yarns, Fabrics, and Textiles are Dyed

Dyeing is the art and process of applying colours to a textile material through treatment with a dye. For thousands of years, nature has been the primary provider of dyes, which are extracted from animals or plants. But as humans developed, advances in technology and manufacturing enabled them to produce artificial dyes to obtain a wider range of colours. Today, different types of dyes are used for different types of fibres. Modern dyes also became more resistant to washing and general use.

In the dyeing industry, there are two ways to colour fabrics: direct dye application and yarn dyeing. In direct dye application, the dye treatment done when the final product such as a piece of garment or a sheet of cloth is finished. That means, the product is dipped into a vat of the pigment solution where it absorbs the colour of the dye.

Years before, mordants or polyvalent metal ions were used to fix the dye once it was applied. But mordants (substance used to set dyes on fabrics) are environmentally damaging, thus, they are in very limited use today. However, today's reactive and metal complex dyes do not need any mordants.

Yarn dyeing, on the other hand, involves applying dye into the raw fibre before it is spun and sewed into fabric. The yarn is first wound on a spring tube. Then the yarn-filled tube is then loaded onto a dyeing spindle. The entire assembly is then loaded into a dyeing machine where the yarn fibre is coloured. The coloured yarn is hydro-extracted so water from the treatment process is removed. Finally, the yarn is dried, packed, and delivered.

So you know now the lengthy process that the yarn you are using for your craft went through just to get its hues.