DIY Natural Fabric Dyes Chart and How To Dye Fabric
The yellow powder is turmeric and the bottom purple leaves are lavender. These are the results that she got using 100% natural fabric liked undyed silk. For a how-to on dyeing natural fabrics go to the link (and also read the comments).
Step-by-Step How to Dye Fabric. Blog no longer exists except on the WayBack Machine:
Pre-wash and pre-soak your fabric. It is best to use 100% natural fabrics that are undyed. I have recently fallen in love with China silk habotai because it’s elegant and billowy without the price pitfall of crepe de chine.
Chop up your food source into little tiny bits (but not so tiny that they can’t be strained out). For onions and plums, use only the skins
Prepare the water base in a large pot: add the water in a 2:1 ratio of water to food source (so if you have 2 cups of chopped bits, add 4 cups of water)
Boil the mixture for approximately an hour
Strain out food source and return liquid dye to pot
Add salt or vinegar, depending on the food source, to the water and mix. For fruits and vegetables, add ½ cup of salt to every 8 cups of water. For plant material, add 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water). Salt and vinegar act as fixatives for the dye.
Add your pre-soaked fabric to the dye, stirring thoroughly, and bring up to a boil
Depending on how dark you would like the dyed fabric to be, boil your fabric in the dye for any length of time up to about an hour and a half. At that point, your dye is probably exhausted.
Hand wash your fabric in cold water and organic detergent at least twice to ensure that all of the dye and fixative are out of the fabric, rinse, and hang dry or lay flat.
Voila! You now have gorgeous, naturally dyed fabric to sew into sensational garments.
**if you would like a lighter color, either add less fixative (vinegar or salt) or boil for less time – or a little of both! You can also add some salt/vinegar to the pre-soak water, but I haven’t really seen a difference with doing so.
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