Adventures in Natural Dyeing: Part I

We've been having so much fun trying out different techniques for making our own fabrics! We've tried printing, Inkodye, fabric fun pens, photo transfers and home dyeing. Recently we tried out natural dyeing for the first time! Natural dyeing is using items found in nature (fruits, vegetables, insects, etc.) to color fabrics. It can be a lot of fun but the results are often quite inconsistent. We consulted our friend Missy about what items to try first and she suggested onions—so we did along with beets. Here's how it all went down:1. Choose items that are made of natural fibers (like cotton, wool, bamboo). I used a thrifted denim skirt and a homemade jersey scarf. 2. Pre-treat the garment(s) in a mordant. There are different kinds of mordant treatments but I mixed hot water (enough for my fabrics to move freely in) with 2 teaspoons alum and 1 teaspoon cream of tartar for 1 hour. 3. Chop up your vegetables and simmer them in hot water for 1 hour. Strain out most of the veggies and add your fabric. I let mine soak in the hot water (as it cooled) for about 5 hours. 4. Rinse garment(s) and then soak in a vinegar wash; using 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water for 20-30 minutes. Hand wash and dry. While the yellow onion skirt turned out really pretty our beet jersey scarf was a fail. Bummer! Since we used the exact same method for both this was very surprising. It may be that brighter/deeper colors need to soak in the dye bath longer. Also, since we had made the jersey scarf from scratch we had not washed the fabric prior to dying (while the thrifted skirt had been washed many times before). So that may have also contributed to how to the color didn't take well. Live and learn!Thanks for letting us share our first adventures with natural dyeing. We are hoping to try out some different techniques and natural dyeing materials soon—it's fun learning something new! If you have done your own natural dyeing experiments and have any tips or suggestions you'd like to share let us know. xo. emma and elsie

Comments

[LARY@ Inspiration Nook]

How cool! I've never heard of that before. I hope the skirt didn't smell like onions afterwards haha :)

[catherine]

That's a sweet yellow! I just used a strawberry dye for a customized headpiece I'm constructing for a client. She wanted a blush pink and I couldn't, for the life of me, nail down the right pink with any other dyes. The strawberry worked beautifully. Let me know if you'd like me to lay out the directions for this.
P.s. Of course, it also smells awesome!

[Kaytee]

Hi! Not to be a spelling stickler, but please note that it is spelled "dyeing."

Dying quite literally means "to die."

Seeing a headline called "Adventures in Natural Dying" sounded a little terrifying!

Love your blog.

xo

[Emma]

Chantal Hanna- Yes, it sure did! You should totally wash the garment before wearing it. Maybe even twice if you need. We hope to do an article soon about removing smells from garments (for thrifting or natural dying). Thanks!

[E]

It's "dyeing" not "dying." Wow, was I a bit confused...

[call me debbie]

Well yes it's known that onions are a very good way to dye naturally.
We dye the eggs for the Easter every year with onion! :)

(New blog needing some love: In Whirl of Inspiration )

[jillian&hannah]

I wonder what other fruits and veggies can do, this is a great summer afternoon project!

Thanks for sharing!

http://hitherandthitherblog.blogspot.co.uk/

[lindsay]

That is so cute! What a fun way to turn something drab into something fun and fab! You'll have to share any more natural dying experiments you ladies have, especially the beet one. I bet that color would be gorgeous!

http://dlezr.blogspot.com

[Kelsey]

That skirt looks cute! Is it just the photo or is the color kind of inconsistent?

I'm a journalist, and I recently wrote a feature on a woman who spins and dyes her own yarn. She's been doing it for 18 years and walked me through the natural dying process and listed some of the variations she used:

Marigolds (the yarn varied in color from a mustard to sunny yellow)
Black walnuts make rich browns
Cherries
Violets
Beets
Strawberries
Lavendar

Hint: Use a copper pot! It creates a chemical reaction with the mordent and you get different colors...

lettherebenews.tumblr.com

[Jenny]

Question- Did you use the onion skins or the actual onions?

[Lisa Wieczorek]

The skirt is so cute! I'd have to try this sometime.

lisaintheevening.blogspot.com

[beth baker]

who knew you could dye something with onions?? cute skirt!

[ashley]

http://getoffmyinternets.net/gomi-forum/lifestyle-bloggers/a-beautiful-mess-1/page-32/

[Adeola Naomi]

Beautiful!!!

[Votre Amie]

That is a seriously cool method - the color of the skirt came out great!!
x
www.iloveublank.blogspot.com

[Essie]

Super pretty!
http://pinkscriptblog.blogspot.com/

[Tamber]

I'm glad you had the part about the mordant in there. A lot of people forget that. I have yet to have any luck with food..I've tried beets, onions, paprika, etc. You can order some natural dyes (madder is a popular one) from various places on the internet. I actually even got whole madder root from someone on etsy. I just planted a dye garden for a project for school and am looking forward to keeping track of what I learn on my blog. Happy dyeing!

[Sierra]

Onions, huh? That is just about the craziest thing, but the skirt turned out great! Did dyeing the fabric with onions make the skirt smell funny?

http://viennawaitsblog.blogspot.com/

[Stephanie]

Just the other day I dyed t-shirts for my shop using coffee. I needed them a bit aged-looking, and the coffee worked perfectly.

[Sofia]

Wow! Did you use the whole onion or just the skins?

My cousin and I used natural dyes (beet and blueberry) to dye easter eggs, and we had the same problem with beets. The eggs in the blueberry dye came out a fantastic purple-blue, but the eggs in the beet dye barely tinted!