Two dicarboxylic acids (maleic acid and tartaric acid) were used in conjunction with DMDHEU as the crosslinking agents to treat cotton fabric samples. The treated fabrics then were dyed with direct red 81. The results show that the values of the dye absorption, equilibrium absorption, rate constants, and the pore index of structural diffusion resistance constant for the various crosslinking agents are ranked as DMDHEU-tartaric acid > DMDHEU, maleic acid > DMDHEU alone at the same dyeing temperature. The activation energies for the three crosslinked fabrics are in the rank of DMDHEU > DMDHEU-maleic acid > DMDHEU-tartaric acid. The CL length values for the various crosslinking agent systems are in the series of DMDHEU-tartaric acid > DMDHEU-maleic acid > DMDHEU alone for a given number of CL/AGU. The values of the pore index of structural diffusion resistance constant and dyeing rate constant are increased with the increase of CL length. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.