Almost any natural dye can easily be turned into a fabric paint with a few simple additions. The key to strong color is to start with a concentrated dye and mordanted fabric. For this tutorial, I’m working with avocado skins but dye extracts and powdered dyes also work well.
Step 1 – Extracting the Dye
If working with raw plant material, the dye will need to be slowly extracted with low heat so that it has time to become as concentrated as possible. Simply cover the plant material with water and heat on low for 2-3 hours – refilling the water as necessary. Keeping the water levels low throughout the heating process will allow you to create the strongest dye possible while also saving the energy and time that would be expended to cook the dye down. Once the dye has developed to its full potential, the plant material can be removed and, if necessary, the dye can be returned to the stove and cooked down to create a small amount of concentrated dye.
Step 2 – Thickening the Paint
I like to work with guar gum as a thickening agent for the paint. The guar gum can be added directly to your paint if the paint is hot. I like to predissolve my guar gum in some hot water or, to maximize the integrity of the paint, a small amount of the paint can be heated and used to predissolve the gum. The dissolved gum mixture can then be mixed directly into the paint. I explain exactly how in the video below.
I work with ~1/8 tsp of guar gum for 1/4 cup of paint
Step 3 – Painting
Before painting, the fabric should be scoured, mordanted, and dry. I have had the best results with colorfastness when I work with fabric that has been mordanted with method 3 from my online course ‘Printing with Flowers & Leaves’.
I like to apply paints with a brush or roller. The paint can be stenciled onto the fabric or applied free hand. I like to work with stiff paint brush for knitted fabric but rollers, stamps, and fingers work well too. In the video below, I show exactly how I stretch and paint socks.
Finishing & Care for Painted Cloth
The paint should be allowed to dry and rest on the fabric for a few days. Before washing, iron with a hot iron to help facilitate a bond between the mordant and dye.
The first wash should should be with cold water and a decent amount of enzyme free detergent. The surfactants in the detergent will bind to any dyes that wash off the sock and help them not rebind in places you might not want them. This will minimize the amount of bleeding or running on the white portion of the sock.
Dry out of direct sunlight to minimize chances to minimize the chances of fading from UV exposure.
Resources
If you’d like to learn more about natural dyes with one-on-one guidance, you can read more about my self-paced, online courses here. You can use code NEWFRIEND for 25% off today.
Here’s a link for the guar gum I use in this tutorial.
Eco printing is the process of transferring color directly from a flower or plant to a piece of cloth. It’s a simple and fun natural dye technique that gives truly stunning results. In this post, I will show you how to eco print with flowers.
Eco printing is similar to bundle dyeing. However, the outcome is what sets the two techniques apart. With eco printing, the goal is to be able to see the definite shape or outline of the plant that gave the color. Whereas, with bundle dyeing, the goal is usually more blended and fluid.
Click Here for my online, self-paced Eco Printing Course.
Terminology
There are many terms that go along with eco printing. Here are a few that I will be referencing throughout this tutorial:
Target fabric – this is the fabric that you want the color to transfer onto
Barrier – A piece of cloth, paper or plastic that minimizes the bleeding of the color
Dowel – A piece of wood that is used to roll the fabric
Supplies
Target fabric
Flowers or leaves
Dowel rod
Barrier of choice (see options below)
Ace bandage or cotton string
Heat source
Choosing Fabric
Like other natural dye techniques, eco printing will only work on natural fibers. Natural fibers are fibers can be either cellulose (cotton, linen, hemp, bamboo, etc) or protein (silk, wool, other animal hair). Many choose to use silk because it takes prints really well. However, I have found that cotton and bamboo silk also work very well.
Choosing a Barrier
Barriers are necessary for clear and clean prints. Many eco printers achieve beautiful results by using single use plastic but there are many other, more eco friendly, alternatives.
Here are a few of my favorite alternatives to single use plastic:
Kraft paper
Parchment paper
Packaging that comes on things ordered in the mail
Cereal bags
Thick cloth
Step 1
Dampen your target fabric then wring as much excess moisture out as possible. I like to give mine a spin in the washing machine. Then lay the fabric on a flat surface and smooth out any wrinkles.
Fabric should be pre-treated (scoured and mordanted) for best results. I like to keep the background of my eco prints as white as possible so I use the alternative mordanting process that I share in my online natural dye course.
Step 2
At this point, you have to decide if you want to lay flowers on the entire piece of target fabric or only on half the fabric.
If the flowers are laid on half of the fabric, the other half will be folded over to achieve a mirror print. I prefer this method, as it tends to give cleaner prints.
Step 3
Arrange flowers on the fabric face down. Some stems and leaves will give beautiful prints as well. There’s no wrong or right way to arrange your flowers. Play around and have some fun!
Step 4
If you choose to arrange flowers on the entire piece of fabric, skip to step 5.
If you chose to arrange flowers on half of the fabric, fold the other half over to make a fabric, flower, fabric sandwich.
Step 5
Cover your fabric with your barrier of choice.
Your pile should either look like
Target cloth, flowers, target cloth, barrier
Target cloth, flowers, barrier
Step 6
Starting at the bottom, roll your pile around the dowel as tightly as possible.
Bundles can also be rolled without a dowel but expect the prints to be a bit messier.
Step 7
Now it’s time to wrap your bundle! My secret to clean prints is to use an old ace bandage to wrap around the bundle. However, you can also use cotton string.
My secret to clean prints is to use an old ace bandage to wrap around the bundle.
Step 8
Now it’s time to steam your bundles! Place them in a steamer and heat for 5-15 minutes. I’ve found that flowers need a much shorter steam time than leaves.
Step 9
Allow the bundles to cool then unroll to reveal your magical eco printed fabric!
Step 10
Wash with a small amount of pH neutral soap.
At this point, the dye from the flowers has formed a bond with the mordant in the fabric so any dye that washes away is excess.
Click here if you’d like to learn more about natural dyeing!
Learning how to natural dye at home can feel pretty overwhelming. Especially when there is so much misinformation floating around out there. However, it doesn’t have to be intimidating or overly complicated.
Here are 5 Tips to Help You Begin Your Natural Dye Journey
1. You Don’t Need a Studio or a Large Space
Natural dyeing can easily take place in your kitchen or even outside. Good ventilation is the most important thing to consider when trying to decide where you’ll dye. This can be as easy as the vent hood above your stove or a fan and open windows.
I often use a small electric burner to heat my dye and mordant pots outdoors.
2. Supplies
You don’t need much to begin experimenting with natural dyes. When I first began, I kept all of my natural dye supplies in one tiny cabinet. I thrifted all of my dye pots and spoons and used my local facebook BuyNothing page to source many of the other supplies I needed.
Click here for a tip on finding second hand stainless steel pots.
These list may look a bit different for each person, depending on how experimental you choose to be in the beginning of your journey. For instance, if you want to follow specific recipes from the get-go you may feel that a scale and thermometer are necessary instead of optional.
Here are the necessities:
A stainless steel pot that will never be used to cook food again
A heat source
Dye stuff (the plants you will use for dye)
Mordants
A water source
Spoons that will never be used to cook food again
Fiber to dye (this can look like old bed sheets or thrifted clothes) – see my tips for using thrifted clothes here
Rags for cleaning
Rubber gloves
Face mask to wear while mixing fine powders
Optional Supplies (these can be added as you go):
Stainless steel sieve
Thermometer (I love my $3 candy thermometer)
pH testing strips
Scale that measures in grams
3. Embrace Mistakes as Learning Opportunities
This will look different for each person and depends greatly on what your immediate dyeing goal is. When you’re just beginning you can either, experiment and learn by trial and error or learn from mentors or teachers. If you’re able to take a solid natural dye course, you will be on a path for immediate success. However, I know this isn’t a realistic option for everyone.
In the beginning of my dye journey, I wasn’t able to afford natural dye workshops and courses so I did a lot of experimenting. It was a time that was often frustrating but also enlightening. I learned so much throughout those experiences.
It can be tempting to buy every dye book available but I recommend starting with one or two. It can be beneficial to learn from many sources but it can also be confusing when each recipe or technique slightly differs from teacher to teacher.
Regardless of what route you choose to take, I highly recommend documenting everything – even mistakes. I can’t tell you the amount of times I wish I had written something down.
Click here for a free printable natural dye journal.
4. Learning How to Properly Pre-treat Fibers
I can’t stress this one enough. It can be tempting to jump right into making dyes and dyeing – those are the really fun parts after all. However, learning how to scour and mordant right from the beginning will make all the difference in how well your fibers take color and how long the color lasts.
5. Save Money by Saving Food Scraps & Foraging
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already heard me talking all about the controversy over using food waste dyes.
Here’s the thing, there are some food waste dyes that make absolutely terrible dyes because they lack the molecular structure to bind onto the fiber. These types of foods will make stains, not dyes.
Some of these are:
Red cabbage
Beets
Edible berries
Edible parts of veggies
Turmeric
However, there are some food waste dyes that contain the proper phytochemicals for dyeing. Some make dyes that are quite colorfast while others are less so. I’ve listed some of my favorites in order from most to least colorfast.
Foraging for local dye plants is another great option for saving money on dye materials. It takes a bit of experimenting to figure out which of your local dye plants will make a good dye.
If you’d like to dive deeper into what chemical groups constitute a good dye plant and how to test for them in your local plants, check out my latest online course.
Many know or refer to mordants as natural dye fixatives.I’m here to tell you all a secret… mordanting doesn’t have to be difficult, confusing or scary.I am going to show you how to mordant in a few easy to follow steps.
When it comes to natural dyeing, mordanting is the key to stronger, longer lasting colors. However, it should be mentioned that some plants will not make dyes that are colorfast or lightfast regardless of how well the fiber is mordanted. Plants such as beets, cabbage and berries are not good plants to use for dyeing if you’re hoping to achieve long lasting colors.
In this post, I’m going to teach you how to mordant. I will share my favorite method for mordanting cellulose fibers. It is a two step, cold morndating process that uses tannin as an assist and an aluminum salt, aluminum acetate, as the mordant.
Why Mordanting is Important and How it Works
When dyeing fiber, the goal is that the dye particles will create a strong bond with the fiber. However, dye particles will not create a strong bond with cellulose fibers on there own. They need a little help from their friends, mordants and assists.
The way to create a strong bond between fiber and dye is to soak fibers in a tannin bath before soaking them in an aluminum salt bath. The tannin bath is an important step because aluminum salts don’t readily bond to cellulose fibers but tannins will.
First, the tannins form a weak bond with the cellulose fibers then the aluminum salts bind with the tannins. When the tannin and aluminum acetate form a bond they become stable and insoluble and are fixed into your fiber.
When a mordanted piece of fiber is placed into a dye bath, the dye particles bond with the mordant creating another stable, insoluble bond between the dye and mordant.
A note before beginning
Mordanting isn’t difficult but it does take around 5 hours to complete from start to finish. You will want to choose a day where you have time to complete the entire process. It may seem appealing to soak the fibers in tannin on one day and then finish the process with the aluminum acetate soak on another day. However, because tannin only forms a weak bond with cellulose fibers, the process of re-wetting the fiber before the aluminum acetate bath may damage some of the tannin bonds.
Supplies
Two buckets or stainless steel pots
Tannin (I use gallnut)
Aluminum Acetate (this is the aluminum salt)
Scale
Thermometer for liquids (a candy thermometer works well)
Long handled spoon
Small spoon
Jar or small bowl
Rubber Gloves
Water
Fiber
Note on choosing the size of the pot or bucket
You will want to choose the vessel depending on the amount of fiber you will be mordanting. Your fiber should have plenty of room to move freely. If the fiber is squished into the vessel, it is likely that you will have uneven results.
Step 1 – Preparing Fiber for Mordanting
The first step is to scour your fiber. Check out this blog post for instructions on how to scour.
If you’ve already scoured, skip ahead to step 2.
Step 2
Weigh your dried fiber to determine your weight of fiber (WOF). You may have already done this before scouring. However, if you’re going to mordant a different amount of fiber than you scoured, you will need to weigh it again to determine your new WOF.
Step 3
Wet out the fiber by placing it in water to soak. This can be done in a bowl, pot or sink.
Step 4
Measure out the amount of tannin you will be using based upon your WOF. When using gallnut, I use 10% WOF (e.g. if the WOF is 100 grams, you will need 10 grams of gallnut).
Here’s a simple formula to determine the amount of tannin to use: WOF x .10 = amount of tannin to use
Step 5
Completely dissolve tannin in warm water. I like to dissolve the tannin in a jar with of water before adding it to the large bucket I will be mordanting in. Mixing in the jar first allows me to really be able to see if the tannin is completely dissolved.
Step 6
Fill a bucket or pot with warm water. The ideal water temperature is between 110-120 degrees F. It’s okay if the water is a bit cooler than 110 degrees F but it shouldn’t be any hotter than 120 degrees F. If the water is cooler than 110 degrees F, the fiber will need to soak for a bit longer than the recommended 2 hours.
Step 7
Add pre-dissolved tannin to the vessel of warm water and stir well to incorporate. Now you have a tannin bath that is ready for fiber!
Step 8
Wring excess water out from fiber and add damp fiber to the tannin bath. Use a spoon to push the fibers into the bath and push air bubbles out until the fiber is completely submerged.
Allow the fibers to soak for 2 hours, stirring occasionally to ensure that the tannin will be evenly bonded onto the fiber.
The tannin bath will cool to room temperature during this process. That is completely okay and to be expected.
Note on Soaking Time
I’ve experimented with soaking fibers for much longer periods of time. I used to soak my fibers in tannin for 12-24 hours. However, I began soaking them for less and less time and found that the shorter soaks were more easy to attend to and gave better (more even) results.
Step 9
After the fibers have soaked in tannin for 2 hours, remove them and squeeze the excess water back into the tannin bath before giving them a gentle rinse.
Remember that the tannin does bond with cellulose fiber but the bonds are weak. Vigorous rinsing may damage some of the bonds.
Set the fibers aside while you prepare the aluminum acetate bath.
Step 10
The process for making the aluminum acetate bath is identical to making the tannin bath. However, aluminum acetate is an extremely fine powder that isn’t safe to inhale. To avoid breathing it in, you may want to wear a mask during the measuring and mixing.
It’s also best practice to wear rubber gloves while working with aluminum acetate to avoid skin exposure.
First, measure out the aluminum acetate based on your WOF. You will need 10% WOF. Then completely dissolve the aluminum acetate in a jar of warm water (no hotter than 120 degrees F). The aluminum acetate will be lumpy but keep stirring, it will eventually dissolve.
Fill your second bucket or pot with warm water (between 110-120 degrees F) and add the dissolved aluminum acetate. Stir well to incorporate.
Now you have a aluminum acetate bath that’s ready for fiber!
Step 11
Squeeze excess water from the fiber and add them to the aluminum acetate bath. Use a spoon to push out air bubbles until the fiber is completely submerged.
Allow the fiber to soak for 1-2 hours, stirring occasionally. This bath will also drop in temperature which is perfectly okay.
Step 12
When the fiber has soaked for 1-2 hours, remove from the aluminum acetate bath and squeeze excess water back into the bath.
Now the tannin and aluminum acetate have come together and formed that stable insoluble bond that I mentioned earlier. The mordant is now fixed into your fiber! Hurray!
Step 13
Now the mordanted fibers should be rinsed thoroughly to remove any excess aluminum acetate that is not bonded.
If the excess, unbonded aluminum acetate isn’t rinsed from the fiber, it will float off when the fiber is placed into a dye bath and attach with the dye particles before the dye particles are able to attach to the mordanted fiber. This will leave less available dye particles in the dye bath.
After rinsed, the fibers can be placed in a dye bath immediately or dried and saved to dye at a later time.
For more information, please check out my self-paced online Natural Dye Course:
