I don't know who needs to hear this but

Most non woven interfacing still has a grain line and you need to line your pieces up with it

All right, kids, I hope you're ready for this.

There are many types of nonwoven fabric. One that was popular for like 30 seconds in Covid times was melt-blown, because sometime in April 2020 there was a single study that showed that a melt-blown middle layer in a mask might catch virus-containing droplets better than other nonwoven fabrics, so a lot of masks (even today) will say, "with melt-blown center layer" on the box, even though we don't really think it matters anymore. Melt-blown nonwoven fabrics are made by heating up plastic pellets until they become stringy, and then sticking that in front of a fan pointed at a nonstick something so that the stringy bits all slap on top of each other until you basically have a fabric made of unaligned fibers.

Melt-blown fabrics aren't actually relevant when it comes to interfacing but textiles are cool so I'm making you learn it anyway.

Most nonwoven interfacing is a carded-web nonwoven fabric. Let's take a look at the two words there.

In this case, "web" means "pile of fibers that aren't woven together but that still resemble the properties of fabric."

And "carded" means, well, carded.

This is some fiber on an old-fashioned wool card. When we card the fibers, we run one brush against the other until the fibers all end up lined up in the same direction. Carding is the process of lining all the fibers up so that they face the same direction.

This is two different weights of a nonwoven interfacing. It's easier to see in one weight, but there is a consistent direction to all of the fibers. In most cases, the fibers are lined up to go in the lengtiwise direction.

What does this mean for your interfacing? Well, when you pull the interfacing in the direction of the threads, you're pulling on the threads themselves, and the fabric will be stronger. When you're pulling across the threads, you're pulling the threads apart. The interfacing will stretch, distort, and might even rip. This means that you can line up the interfacing grain to give the fabric you want the properties you want. Shirt cuffs, for example, are likely to have strain in the long direction (the direction that the cuff wraps around your wrist) but not as much strain in the short direction. You can get a better result from putting the lengthwise grain along the long direction. A waistband is also going to have more strain in the lengthwise direction, because you're not going to be pulling the waistband to be taller, so you can put the grain running along the length.

If you need the interfacing to provide strength in both lengthwise and crosswise, this is a great chance to use woven interfacing. You need to be aware that woven interfacing will still have stretch in the bias, but it will still add stiffness and reinforcement to a fabric. If you need stiffness in one direction but actual stretch in another, this is a good time for tricot interfacing.

And some interfacing, but not a whole lot of it, will have multiple layers of carded web laid in multiple directions, to deal with the fact that some directions of carded web are less strong. Some will be made of less oraginzed threads, so that there really isn't a direction with different properties. Embroidery stabilizer, for example, really doesn't have a difference in any direction.

But most new sewists are going to come in and get an inexpensive interfacing like Pellon Fusible Featherweight, and so it's not really ideal for a pattern for beginners to say that there's no grainline on interfacing. If you're not giving advice on how to find interfacing with no grain, don't tell people they can cut the pieces at any angle. It does actually matter if you cut them on grain, and it also matters if you're doing it lengthwise or crosswise. Does it always make a huge difference in final product? No, not at all. But is there a difference, and does it make a difference? Yes. Very yes.

People online: You know Splat hair dye is just fabric dye, right??

Me, who used splat for over five year and has studied textiled extensively: *deep breath*

Me, who in that breath convinced myself to save this for three days from now when I'm post-surgery and won't have anything better to do: I'll see y'all in a week.

Okay so the "splat is fabric dye" comment originates from Cassie Taylor on facebook, claiming that the ingredients are exactly the same. This post was made Jan 20, 2020. I have no doubt that Cassie Taylor is an experienced hair color professional.

I don't think she's ever actually seen fabric dye.

Because I've never seen fabric dye behave like Splat hair color.

Most importantly, right now I actually have some products to check out the ingredients on. I have Rit all purpose dye, iDye poly, Jacquard acid dye, Iro Iro hair dye, Manic Panic hair dye, Splat hair dye, some weird hair shit from the clearance aisle at Sally beauty, and probably some extra.

The write-up on this is going to be done after the surgery, but right now everything hurts and I"m not allowed the 1800mg of ibuprofin that I've been living on, so I'm going to provide everyone with the critical piece of analysis that I can assure you I will back up later:

Hair dye is not like fabric dye, because it's generally considered unethical and possibly dangerous to submerge a live human in boiling water.

Surgery went great, but I had a really hard time waking up from anesthesia, which meant that I couldn't properly communicate to my care team the importance of trying to write that post while still halfway sedated. Attempting to look out for my medical health, and also not having the context that a 20dollarlolita rant written while in David After Dentist mode was peak blog content, they did not give me my phone to allow me to explain that this myth is incredibly stupid.

I will still wrote this post, however, it will absolutely be more coherent than my original hopes

Okay, so my surgery went fine, but I can't walk to go get my visual aids, so this is going to be an exercise in visualizing things.

As far as I can tell, the original post that popularized the "splat is fabric dye" thing is this one from 2020. This post was written by a hair care professional, who I have reason to believe has never actually dyed fabric.

The specific quote: "Splat is sold at Walmart, Target, Walgreens etc as a “safe at home TEMPORARY” hair coloring system. What people fail to understand is that splat is not hair color, dye, or temporary at all. Splat is actually fabric dye, down to the EXACT ingredients."

So that's a very specific comment to make. We can get into that in a second.

But I do want to address the way that Splat works, for starters: A Splat hair color kit (the classic kits, not the Jet Black or Lightning Bleach or the ones for brunette hair) comes with three things in it. It has a vol30 developer in a little bottle, another bottle of semi-perm hair color, and a packet of hair bleach. Doing Splat is a two-part process. First, you mix the developer and bleach, and apply it onto all the hair you want bright colors on. This removes the pigment from your hair, giving you a pale colored base to apply color onto. This process of lightening your hair is non-reversible. It will never wash out. It can also damage your hair The second part of a Splat kit is a semi-perm dye. Now, when we're talking about hair color, the terms "semi-permanent", "demi-permanent," and "permanent," dyes don't actually indicate how long the dye will stay in your hair. Instead, they refer to the process by which they get the color into your hair. Permanent color uses that same developer you use to bleach your hair, but adds color as well. Generally, permanent dyes are, on their own, capable of the most radical hair color change. Demi-perm uses a gentle developer, which means that it does less damage to the hair, but is also less capable of color change. Semi-permanent dye has no developer in it. It's heavily pigmented, and sits on your hair until some of the pigment goes into your hair. On its own, semi-perm color won't actually change your hair too much, and will never make it lighter. You start your Splat process out with lightening it with bleach specifically because the semi-perm colors won't ever be able to lighten your hair enough to show.

When a box of dye says "lasts 30 washings," what they are saying is that, for 30 washings after you apply this onto your hair, you can expect it to be an acceptable color. After those 30 days, it will still be there, but it'll possibly be a color that you don't want. This is how all semi-perm dyes work, but Splat is sold at mass market retailers and therefore their audience is often people who don't already know this.

Here's an old picture from when I did Splat. This color was 5 weeks old at the time I took this picture.

But sometimes in the same 5-8 weeks, it'd be this pale before I dyed it again. (Water quality matters a lot. Top picture was in Oregon and bottom pictures are in San Diego).

And here's the color after bleaching out my roots for a new application of dye. That pale yellow color is what you get when you bleach Splat out of your hair.

The short version is 1) Splat semi-perm is NOT meant to wash out of your hair, and 2) if you've removed your natural color from your hair with bleach, there's no way in hell that it'll wash back in. Science doesn't work like that.

Now, the "Splat says they're temporary!" comment is actually referencing the comments about the Splat 10-day temporary dye. They're very specific on their original kits that it's "very long lasting."

Cassie Taylor's horror story goes on to say that a customer went to attempt to remove the Splat with a color remover kit:

the mother went down to Sally’s and after consulting with one of the employees there, she decided to purchase an at home color remover since the employee told the mother it was completely safe and wouldn’t hurt the daughters hair. Mom goes home, puts it on the daughter for 10 minutes, daughter starts screaming as her scalp is now severely chemically burned and her hair was damn near melted.

So here's another thing about semi-perm hair color. Color remover will remove permanent color, but not semi-permanent color. The short version of why is that you put permanent color into the hair by opening hair cuticle with developer, so when you go in with more developer and open the hair cuticle again, you can get that color out. Semi-perm dye doesn't have anything that makes it go IN the hair cuticle. The only Splat (or any other semi-perm dye) that goes into the hair goes in because you put it on right after bleach.

The only really good way I've found to remove semi-perm hair is to use a bleach bath or a Punky Colour Off kit. This will actually just bleach the color away, the same way you got rid of the pigment in your natural hair. You won't end up with your natural hair color, and it might be lighter than you started with, but you'll be in a place where you can then apply another color withut the previous one blending in. Sometimes I switch between hot pink and pastel pink, and I use these Colour Off kits when I do.

Summary: Splat semi-perm dye acts like pretty much every semi-perm dye out there. Before you put it in your hair, do some research on your own. It's not going to be gone in 30 days and your hair will never be its original color again unless you dye it back or wait for it to grow out. If you want bright hair and don't want to use Splat, I've had very good results with Iro Iro, Sally Beauty's Ion Brights Semi-perm, and Manic Panic. All of these are a little bit less liquid than Splat, and I find them much easier to apply. Just remember that in a Splat kit, you get the bleach, and you'll be on your own for buying that if you get some other semi-perm dye.

Also, for what it's worth, there's very little benefit to having semi-perm hair color last longer than about 60 days. Every eight weeks or so, most people with all-over color will have to get their roots topped up. If you're already in the salon/home bathroom every two months to do your roots, why would you pay more money for hair dye that can last 600 washings?

SO, now that we have that backstory, let's take a look at fabric dye:

For longer than we've had fabric, we've been looking for ways to color them. Generally, when you want to apply permanent color onto a fabric, you use extreme heat to bond the pigment into the fibers of the textile. As previously mentioned, it's really difficult to safely submerge a human's head in boiling chemicals for 30 minutes.

See, that's the thing about dyeing hair that you don't need to worrry about when dyeing non-human things: the process of dyeing hair has an inherent goal of not killing the human whose hair you're dyeing.

So, let's take a little look at the "down to the EXACT ingredients" claim. Literally anyone who can see a bottle of Splat and a jar of acid dye, both of which ARE for dyeing hair in their own way, and go, 'Oh yes. The exact same ingredients. These are the same thing." One is a creamy consistency and one is a powder. One is applied by putting it onto porous hair and then letting it sit in room temperature, and one is applied by activating it with acid and applying it to the hair fibers by submerging them in the boiling dye. If you put acid dye powder on your hair, or if you put Splat on a wool sweater, you'll see the difference.

So then what does "exact ingredients" mean here? Does Cassie actually mean "some of the ingredients"? I mean, bottled fabric dye and Splat both have...water. This just in, my fridge has a dispenser that gives you refreshing, crisp fabric dye in it. Are we talking about the pigment? That's entirely possible, but I'm pretty confident that pigments used in Splat are also used in other hair products. While there's a lot of pigments out there, the number of pigments that are skin safe is actually a lot less than you'd think. There's a big reason why you wear PPE when you dye stuff. I personally thing "down to the EXACT ingredients" was a statement with not only no scientific backing, but also made by someone who's never dyed fabric.

Splat isn't bad; it's just a first exploration that a lot of people getting into bright hair color find. If you know what you're getting and what you're doing, it's totally fine. Not my favorite, but totally fine. Once it's on there, assume it's staying on until you re-dye your hair.

Fabric dye is fabric dye, and you can't put it on people. You can use wool dye to dye human hair wigs and idye poly to dye synthetic wigs, though. It's ethical to boil wigs.

WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN HOBBY LOBBY

This link is just completely unrelated to anything else people are talking about in the comments.

It's just a link.

Any connections you make are just silly

WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN HOBBY LOBBY

HOBBY LOBBY IS CHEAPER WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS EVERYONE HATING ON HOBBY LOBBY

Mostly because they've done a huge amount of work to ensure that they don't have to pay for health insurance for their employees that disagrees with the owner's religious opinions, which is a really terrible precedent, and because they have funded wars in the Middle East by smuggling Antiquities out for their fictional Museum of the Bible

They got the Supreme Court to allow all corporations (not just themselves) to prevent their employees from getting birth control because they don't believe in sex outside of marriage.

Yeah. Thanks to Hobby Lobby, your boss can deny you essential healthcare if he doesn't approve of your sex life. Or if there is anything in your lifestyle that is incompatible with his religion. Fuck Hobby Lobby.

Also they funded terrorism to buy fake antiques, yeah. But they think your birth control is immoral.

WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN HOBBY LOBBY

HOBBY LOBBY IS CHEAPER WHAT THE FUCK WHY IS EVERYONE HATING ON HOBBY LOBBY

Mostly because they've done a huge amount of work to ensure that they don't have to pay for health insurance for their employees that disagrees with the owner's religious opinions, which is a really terrible precedent, and because they have funded wars in the Middle East by smuggling Antiquities out for their fictional Museum of the Bible

WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN HOBBY LOBBY

This is my dog

She has one brown eye and one blue eye

My boss told me to stop wasting time at work so I'm posting my dog.

I was talking to someone today about my dog and how she has one blue eye and one brown eye (my dog was not present)

And they said that all dogs with those eyes are either part husky or part Australian shepherd

Who needs to get their dogs DNA tested when a very very confident 70-year-old in the dentist waiting room exists

Unintentionally ominous sign a friend took a photo of at a JoAnn's that's closing.