in the reported experiments, cotton fabric was crosslinked with dmdeu by applying the form d-process and form w-process. the cotton and crosslinked cotton were then treated with caustic soda solution of mercerizing strength. the ability of cotton and crosslinked cottons to dyeing with two reactive dyes, viz. procion blue mrb and procion red hb was examined. it was found that crosslinking reduces significantly the amenability of cotton to reactive dyes particularly when the form d-process was applied. mercerization enhances dyeability of all substrates, but the enhancement was much greater in the case of noncrosslinked cotton. based on dyeing and other properties such as tensile strength, elongation at break, and crease recovery, it was shown that crosslinking decreases considerably the affinity of cotton to caustic soda solution. it was further anticipated that different color designs with different patterns and properties can be conferred on a given cotton fabric by making use of local crosslinking and/or mercerizing followed by dyeing. 22 refs