About Us
Fabric Dyeing - Professional Background
Dye recipes experience, dye lab and testing qualifications, mission and purpose
Spectrum Custom Fabric Dyeing and Recipes is a professional dye lab and dye house, established in 2001 and managed by Dafinka Marinova, Chemical Engineer and Colorist. Dafinka has extensive background in dyeing, studying and working with and all natural fabrics - Cotton, Linen, Wool, Silk and Rayon - and their blends.
Dafinka's experience spans over 34 years of working as a techologist, colorist, engineer and manager in a lab environment as well as industrial and small quanty operations. Dafinka has held positions as a Dye House Technologist and Dye House Manager for 10 years, as a colorist and Dye Lab Manager for 15 years and as an owner of Spectrum Fabric Dyeing for 9 years.
Spectrum has extensive experience by dyeing small amounts of fabrics, including lab dips and samples, for example ½-1 yard of fabric, ribbons, laces trims, ½ pound of wool yarn, small garments like a pair of fancy gloves, shawls, shirts, T-shirts, sashes and many others. We have dyed Cotton, Linen, Rayon, Tencell, Silk, Wool, Nylon and their blends. We do not dye Polyester, Acetate, Acrylic and their blends with all other fibers.
We use least toxic finest quality Reactive Dyes: Clariant’s Drimarene K, Dy Star’s Remazol and Levafix E. Such dyes ensure best colorfastness and permanent results even in hot water washing. We dye Wool with Clariant’s acid dyes Sandolan MF and Nylosan N. We use Nylosan N for Nylon and Silk.
Some Fabric samples shrink 2%-5% during the dyeing process.
Our sample dyeing services are sought after by designers, tailors, fashion advisors and customers who want a small piece of fabric dyed in a certain color. For better color matching we may require a larger fabric sample from the same fabric to allow us to do multiple lab dyeing tests. We do sample dyeing of any natural fabric - cotton, linen, wool, silk, hemp or blends of those fabrics - into any of the Pantone colors or a color swatch of your own choice. We also dye rayon. We do not dye polyester!
In order to select a specific color you want us to dye your sample into, you can send us a color swatch of your choice, or a printed color sample from a color printer, along with the actual fabric sample you wish to dye. The color swatch can be a small piece of fabric or paint swatch. Alternatively, you can communicate your choice of color by selecting a specific Pantone number from the Pantone catalogue for fabric colors.
If you are not interested in sample dyeing or dye recipes, but simply want to have a piece of clothing or a garment dyed in a certain color, we would be happy to do that for you. Please complete our estimate form and we will let you know the price.
Our mailing addresses are:
Spectrum Fabric Dyeing
165 North Point St, #218
San Francisco, CA 94133
Please do not send any items before getting our estimate for your work and acknowledging the order.
In addition to her passion for fabric dyeing, Dafinka enjoys reading, travelling and spending time with her family. She has two sons, Alex and Martin, and is proudly supporting them in their new project - Tennis Round - which connects tennis players and helps them find tennis courts anywhere in the United States.
