Home dyeing

[Marianne]

Fascinating! I have painted on wet cottons, wadded up and put on a aluminum pan. Dripped watered down acrylic paint on the fabric and let it spread into interesting shapes. A spray of water helped spread it and added the the different shades of colors. NEVER even thought about using natural dyes. I would have aimed for beet juice, turmeric, onion skin. I wish I would have thought about it!
That Christmas, I gave all my quilting buddies a box of 'fat quarters' (18"" x 22") of all the different shades of my efforts. Although I loved the organic shapes and patterns, my friends were less than impressed. Keep us informed of your progress.

 

[creativetwinszoo]

If its cotton or animal fiber koolaid is pretty colorfast! I use vinegar as the mordant (I've only dyed sheep wool so far)
Turmeric has got to be one of my favorite natural dyes so far, hibiscus I've found can be blah, needs more material than I'm willing to use lol, for a reddish/rose tone try boiling I think its avocado pit with the item for an hour?

 

[Hinotori]

Using what you have is always good. The reindeer lichen that makes the pretty purple color grows on everything here. I just pick it off the ground when the wind blows it out of the trees.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

Turmeric is my most favorite natural dye. In my opinion, it is one of the strongest ones out there. Some natural dyes are too faint to give off a noticeable color pay-off. .

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@Hinotori, thanks! I like how you explained each part with pictures. This is really interesting! That Tumeric fabric is a great color. Does it leach out onto other things if you throw it in the wash?

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Are you rolling the fabric? I'm looking at the lines on the turmeric fabric. It looks rolled. We've dyed t-shirts before using Kool-ade. On those we grabbed a section and used rubber bands to hold it and then dunked each section in different dyes.

 

[Hinotori]

Woad is a nasty invasive. There are severe fines here. Which sucks as this climate is perfect.

Indigo won't grow here, unfortunately.

I wish there was a blue I could grow.

 

[Hinotori]

On the turmeric dyed fabric. More came out with the detergent. I went looking and it tends to fade for about the first three washes.

I think I'd wash it only with like colors for the first few.