Etsy's Handmade Blog
How-To Make Natural Dye with the Etsy Labs
Story by daniellexo, EtsyStore, Iheartmoustaches, objecked
Published on August 29, 2008 in How-To 		Photo by jschubertdesigns

This week Kim Hall, a teacher here at the Etsy Labs and an Etsy seller (nottene), came by to show us her technique for dying natural fabric with organic ingredients. Kim has worked with many different dying and printing methods, and we're honored to have her as an instructor! If you've always wanted to dye your own fabrics or yarn, this is a great video to get you started. If you try out this technique, make sure you take some pics and post them in our Show and Tell Flickr Pool.

 


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Here is the basic recipe for this method:

1 tablespoon Turmeric OR the crispy skins from 5 yellow onions OR 1/2 red cabbage
4 cups water
2 tablespoons salt

Boil 1 of the dyestuffs with the water and salt for 15-30 minutes (15 for tumeric; 30 for cabbage; and until the water is reddish for the onion skins, it's variable depending on your onions).

Meanwhile, presoak a few small pieces (6"x6") of natural fabric or a small skein of natural fiber yarn in warm water to remove starch/detergent/soiling.

Strain the vegetable matter out of the dye and return the dye to the pot. Add the presoaked material and bring to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes. Your material is finished when it is one or two shades darker than you think it should be. Cool, rinse thoroughly, and dry the fabric or yarn!

Natural dyeing tips:

  • Chop up your dyestuffs smaller for a stronger dye.
  • When you prepare the yarn for presoaking and then dying, unwind it from the skein and loop it around your thumb and elbow to form loops and tie off in at least 3 or 4 places to keep it from tangling in the dye bath. Make sure the ties are not too tight or you will have tie-dyed yarn!
  • After you've boiled and strained the dye, try adding some cold water to reduce the temperature before you add your presoaked fabric or yarn. This lower temperature can help the pickup of the dye into the fabric.
  • Cotton and silk can be boiled thoroughly when dying, but wool should be gently simmered to prevent felting.
  • When your dye time is finished, you can leave the material to cool in the pot for stronger color. Remember the material will dry one or two shades lighter than what you see at the end of the dye time.
There are so many organic ingredients that you can use to dye, have fun and experiment! Perhaps you have another recipe to share? Go ahead and post it in the comments below!
Tags dying, Etsy Labs, fiber arts, HOW-TO, instructional, Kim Hall, natural dye, nottene, organic, video
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31 comments     Login to add your own!

Aug. 29, 2008 at 2:18 p.m. JMCdesigns

What stops the dye from washing out?

Aug. 29, 2008 at 2:26 p.m. KnitANDPearl

great article! I would love to try this someday!

Aug. 29, 2008 at 2:35 p.m. keenconfections

Terrific article. Very clear and easy to follow steps. I've been wanting to do some of my own dyeing and this is a great place to start. Thanks.

Aug. 29, 2008 at 2:48 p.m. thatpinksack

Amazing! I need to give this a try! I'm wondering if this will work with plan white cotton flannel :D

Aug. 29, 2008 at 3:41 p.m. cassandrarose

Roses and Lavender, with a little mint and some lemon juice to activate the alkaloids can make both a brilliant pink dye and a very tasty pink lemonade.

Red onion (skin) (a medium green, lighter than
forest green)

Turmeric dyed cloth will turn orange or red if it is dipped in lye. But lye is caustic so use extreme caution!!

Aug. 29, 2008 at 4:06 p.m. peoplescouture

this is all very enlightening.
thank you.

Aug. 29, 2008 at 4:47 p.m. freakylittlethings

Wow, that's amazing, I must try this soon, thanks for sharing. :o)

Aug. 29, 2008 at 6:55 p.m. elliettebaby

Oh I am totally going to do this!

Aug. 29, 2008 at 8:56 p.m. shiningspur

I think I have all of those ingredients and must try this in the morning, but I am wondering what happens to the garment when it is washed. Will it stay true to color or does it fade? Should you wash in warm or cold? just curious.

Aug. 29, 2008 at 9:36 p.m. Thinkoutsidethebox

This is soooo cool! I buy a lot of wool roving for needle felting and have often wondered how the supplies are hand dyed naturally. I have a good amount of natural merino and alpaca roving that I'm going to experiment with now..just hope hubby doesn't stick his head in the pot to take a taste thinking it's my simmering gravy (spaghetti sauce)!!! Thanks so much for this, you have taken away the question and mystery behind this...

Aug. 29, 2008 at 10:33 p.m. SapphireChild

Be careful with your wool products. Boiling them causes fulling or felting (unless its superwash wool), so just warm it slowly and keep it below a simmer, then let it cool before removing it. You might also use another mordant, such as Alum or acid. There's lots of great resources on the subject of dying wool.

Whether the color fades or remains true varies depending on the pigment compound. Some do, some don't. You have to experiment and/or read up on other people's experiences with different plant sources.

The reason it doesn't wash out is because the action of the dye plus mordant is to "fix" or bind the pigment compound to the fibers. This is why you often use different mordants with wool (protein fiber) vs cotton (cellulose fiber), because the fibers themselves are chemically different and have different types of reactive sites.

Aug. 30, 2008 at 9:22 a.m. Chesterella

how do you wash your fabric after dying it? hand wash cold? dry clean?

Aug. 30, 2008 at 9:33 a.m. cherylavenue

Awsome! Nice to see fiber related storques:)

Aug. 30, 2008 at 9:39 a.m. cherylavenue

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?... is cool! We are adding an addition on...hum....

Aug. 30, 2008 at 2:38 p.m. JPGemJewels

Thank you, great info

Aug. 30, 2008 at 10:43 p.m. paintingfun

Thank you! Love it :)

Aug. 31, 2008 at 1:33 p.m. raghousenternational

I so have to do this. As a fiber artist I will go dyeing crazy!! Thanks for this. I can wait to try it!

Aug. 31, 2008 at 5:53 p.m. larimeloom

wow, I love how dyes work, thanks for the gerat article

Aug. 31, 2008 at 7:17 p.m. mykonos

Oh, now I know how to dye!! Thank you and will have a try!!

Aug. 31, 2008 at 8:13 p.m. pamglew

thanks for this, just had a look for other veg dyes and found that plum skins work too: http://craftingagreenworld.com/2008/0...

for a purple color

Aug. 31, 2008 at 11:41 p.m. my7kids

Plant fibers need an alkaline mordant, like salt plus baking soda (mild), ammonia (medium) or lye (harsh). Wool and animal fibers need an acidic mordant like vinegar, lemon juice, or citric acid. That is why Kool-aid works so well on wool yarn.

Poke berries in an acidic environment will turn wool deep maroon to purple but will turn cotton fabric sage green!

Walnut bark or nut shells make a deep brown to black dye.

Paprika plus an alkaline makes peach!

Great info for getting started with natural dyes. Thanks!

Sept. 1, 2008 at 11:24 a.m. ModFarmgirl

Wow! Great How-to!!! Thank you, Kim!!!

Sept. 1, 2008 at 12:14 p.m. Sharilyn24

WOW! I had no idea that this was possible. Great article and clear instructions, but I would like to know what keeps the dye in the yarn when it is washed if possible. Thank you!

Sept. 1, 2008 at 2:37 p.m. slowCOLOR

All the wool in my shop has been dyed with natural dyes if you'd like to see the potential of these dyes. I've been doing this for many years, and can guarantee it is worth the effort! Read the slowCOLOR shop profile for more about natural dyeing. Keep in mind, though, that the color and light fastness of natural dyes varies A LOT, and usually requires a mordant (alum, tin, copper, etc which binds to the fiber, and to which the dye attaches itself) for good and long lasting color. Experimenting is really fun, but results can often be what is called "fugitive" with weaker dyes. I will be putting natural dyeing kits together soon to offer in my shop, please convo me if you'd like to be notified when they are available. I'm so happy to see Etsy give natural dyeing attention like this! Watch out, it can so become addictive - I started hacking up every plant I could get my hands on when I discovered this beautiful tradition.

Sept. 1, 2008 at 3:34 p.m. Down2EarthDesigns

I've used blueberries that I got at the market for free because they were molding! Dyed on hemp/silk I found that the colour started out a beautiful vibrant purple, and turned to a beautiful soft blue colour after washing.
I definately recommend handwashing in cold water.
The mordant, do you boil the fabric in that + water before dying? I know I have done this based on internet research. I would like to know more about how that works.

Sept. 1, 2008 at 4:16 p.m. slowCOLOR

Best results come from mordanting (the mordant in water, yes) first, then dyeing, although they can be combined in the same bath at the risk of wasting dye molecules that'll stick to the mordant molecules in the solution instead of the fibers. The mordanting methods and dyeing recipes are different for protein fibers (wool & silk) and cellulose fibers (cotton, hemp, etc) and I am only experienced with wool and silk which are easiest to dye. For these fibers, the mordant bath is gradually brought to a simmer and held at that for about an hour, then allowed to cool overnight before removing. Mordanted fibers can be stored for future dyeing, too. Then the fiber is put into the dye pot (where the dye has already been extracted from the source material) and simmered again. Indigo dye is altogether different process and an entire tutorial is in order for that one.

Sept. 2, 2008 at 5:14 a.m. daniellexo

OH, you guys are good! Thanks for all the great tips and general dyeing knowledge. I want to try out blueberries and plum skins now!

Sept. 2, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. crazyjaneknits

awesome!!! I just went huckleberry picking yesterday!!! I will make an apple cozy with my huckleberry yarn and post it.. Thanks!!!

Sept. 2, 2008 at 10:08 p.m. nottene

JMCdesigns, Sharilyn24: Mordant keeps the dye from washing out. In the recipe I gave, salt works as the mordant. Actually tumeric doesn't even need a mordant. You can read more here: http://www.griffindyeworks.com/unders...

thatpinksack: cotton can be difficult to dye without using more harmful mordants, but it will work!

shiningspur, Chesterella: natural dyes fade faster than synthetic ones, but hand washing and air drying as well aas storing out of sunlight will help a lot.

slowCOLOR, my7kids: great info, you guys are awesome!

Down2EarthDesigns: there's tons of different methods for natural dyes (and there's so many different ones!). Some sites I'd recommend to start to get into it are above & also http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/naturald...

thanks for reading/watching! I'd love to see pictures of other people's projects from this....

Oct. 5, 2008 at 3:06 a.m. MonasMane

I love dyeing my own yarns, I try to only use natural dyes though (I don't like chemicals too much!). Lovely article(-:

Aug. 6, 2009 at 11 a.m. GrayFlannelDesign

Great article...I'd like to find a red dye.

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