Dye Vat Capacity

Q: The kit indicates the vat can manage about 5 pounds of items. Can you tell me if that number changes if you are dipping items for longer or more times? So if you dipped 5 pounds of tea towels (for example) 3 times each, would you plan to dye 2 1/2 pounds of tea towels, if you were going to dip them 6 times each?

A:  You’ve got it. The darker you dye your items the less total weight the vat can accommodate. Also, the lighter weight your fabric, the less weight the vat can dye. Also, how well you treat your vat contributes to how much material you can push through it. Also, if you tie your pieces up into small bundles so only the surface gets dyed, you can dye more total weight (with the same amount of surface area). The 5lb measurement is really subjective!

Lightweight fabric has more surface area relative to the total weight of the fabric so actually absorbs more indigo per pound than a thick, heavy weight fabric (which has a much smaller surface area). Thin fabrics can be very taxing on a vat, so the yield per weight numbers don’t really apply to to them. The 5lb weight notation on the kit was initially tested using a medium shade of blue, dyed with shibori patterning that was about 50/50 indigo coverage to undyed fabric on medium weight cotton jersey.