The natural dye

Natural dyeing workshop

Summer is here, and we suddenly have the desire to wear bright color, or soft, or pastel, but in any case color! 

Whether you want to give a facelift to clothes you no longer wear, or dye a silly white cotton t-shirt to make it unique, DIY dyeing will be a great way to achieve this goal while having fun... and being environmentally responsible! Because most DIY vegetable dyes can simply be made from your food waste.

The Green Seagulls explain step by step how to renew your wardrobe without using chemicals!

1. Prepare the fabric

First step, choose and prepare your fabric. As you will be using natural dyes to color your clothes and textiles, it is better to choose natural fibers, which will better absorb the color: cotton, hemp, linen, or wool in balls will be ideal! However, be careful not to expose them to high temperatures for more than an hour during the process, so that they do not shrink or become deformed.

In addition, during the dyeing process, the color penetrates the fabric fibers and mixes with their original shade. If you wish to obtain a pure color, it is therefore better to dye on white or unbleached fabric. Otherwise, you will have to respect the rule of blending, and plan your color arrival well!

With successive washings and exposure to light, the color of a fabric can fade if it is not well fixed. This is why every natural dyeing workshop begins with fabric preparation, also known as mordanting. First, wash your fabric coupon, without drying it.

If you are using berries or fruit to dye your fabric, you will need to boil it for an hour with alum powder (10% of the weight of the fabric you wish to dye). If you are using leaves or roots, boil the fabric in a mixture of 4 parts water to 1 part white vinegar for one hour.

And now your fabric is ready to be dyed!

2. Dyeing

You may not have known it, but the solution to your clothing problems lies... in your kitchen! You can use leaves, roots and nuts, as well as spices and peelings, to achieve beautiful shades. Here's a quick overview of the materials you can work with:

• For orange and yellow tones: onion, carrot, pumpkin and pumpkin skins, or celery leaves and turmeric.
• For shades of brown and beige: tea or coffee, dandelion root, pine cone or birch leaves.
• For pretty purplish reds: hibiscus flowers, basil leaves, black grapes or red cabbage, avocado peels and black currants.
• For green tones: artichoke, mint leaves, ferns, spinach, or peach or fig leaves.
• For the color blue: indigo, blueberries, spirulina or lavender flowers.

To prepare your dye, chop up your base ingredient, boil it for an hour, then strain it once you have the desired color. Dip the fabric into the solution and stir, over medium heat, for another hour. You can also leave the fabric to soak overnight to help the color soak in!

Rinse the fabric, and put it to dry. It's ready to use!

3. Some tips and tricks

The first experiments in DIY dyeing are always a challenge... But rest assured, here are some tips to avoid unpleasant surprises!

To prevent your dye solution from staining your hands or clothes, consider wearing an apron and gloves. Even without boiling them, some ingredients, like turmeric, are indelible!

Once you have colored your garment, be sure to wash it at a low temperature, and separately from the rest of your wardrobe. This will prevent accidental color transfers!

And to become an expert? There are many guides to natural dyeing, including these few references that we really liked:

• Le Guide des teintures naturelles, by Marie Marquet (Belin, 2011) : to learn more about flowering plants and their dyeing properties.
• The Vegetable Dyeing Guide, by Abigail Booth (Dessain et Tolra, 2019): to learn about dyeing, while getting started on simple sewing projects!
• And finally, Teintures végétales by Aurélia Wolff (Eyrolles, 2018): with fascinating passages on the history of dyeing.

 

Conclusion: what about us?

Deeply attached to the protection of the environment, Les Mouettes Vertes use only environmentally friendly inks to dye and print their products, according to the specifications of the GOTS and OEKO-TEX labels.