Then rinse fabric in cool water and hang up to dry. Place the rubber-banded fabric in the dye bath for 30- 60 minutes until the desired color is set. Finally, rinse and cool fabric to remove vinegar.įor a tie-dye project bind the fabric, usually a cotton tee, with string or rubber bands to achieve the desired designs keeping in mind the tied area blocks the dye. Bring vinegar water to a boil before adding presoaked fabric to simmer for an hour. Vinegar is easy to use with young children, one tablespoon of white vinegar to every two cups of water. Mordants like alum, a pickling spice, and vinegar are among the safest to use. Dyers use a mordant to bind the dye and fibers. Wool takes dyes the best, but for initial practice prepare cotton muslin to test and hold the dye. Cutting flowers like zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, and marigolds double as dye flowers.Įasy to grow marigolds create fabric dyes. Boil a batch of brown onionskins and watch a Colonial Williamsburg dye bath brew. Oak galls and walnut hulls make black.Ĭulinary and medicinal herbs including yarrow, Queen Anne’s lace, peppermint, chamomile, sorrel, onions and fennel release colorful dyes. Dock root, dandelion flowers, and willow leaves produce yellow.

Fruit of the Oregon grape and sweet gum bark give purple. Red comes from hibiscus flowers, pokeweed berries, and sycamore bark.

Sassafras leaves and bloodroot create orange. Dandelion roots and goldenrod shoots produce brown dye. Many common weeds, wildflowers, and trees yield parts for the rainbow of colors desirable for natural fabric dyes. In the first century Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder described plant sources of dyes: blues from indigo and woad, red from madder, yellow from saffron, golds and browns from acorns and walnut shells gathered or grown by alchemists. Home landscapes, vacant lots, roadsides, and school grounds have dye gardens waiting to be discovered, to stain your hands, the knees of your jeans, garden gloves, and to create colorful memories.

A Weaver's Garden by Rita Buchanan