Tuesday, July 8, 2008

dyeing fabrics...

Ok, here is a question for you expert fabric colorists out there: Can you use vegetable dyes to color fabrics? Here is the story. I made a dish with purple cabbage tonight for dinner, trying to increase the vegie intake. I was left with the most beautiful purple water. So, I stuck a scrap of fabric into it...the fabric turned a lovely lavender. I had read somewhere that vinegar would cause the dye to stay and not wash out, so dumped some vinegar into the pan. Wow! Bright pink now! PH, right? a PH difference? The fabric is in the dryer, then I will wash it to see if the "dye" stays. Any ideas? Or am I just nutty? :)

Have a most wonderful night!

JulieK

17 comments:

Vicki W said...

Check out this site - she does a lot of natural dyeing. I know you need mordant - like alum - to set the dye.

http://www.prairiefibers.blogspot.com/

Libby said...

Sounds like a fun experiment *s*

Kristie said...

I don't have a clue about this stuff, but it will be interesting to hear what you find out!
Kristie

Unknown said...

Hmm , not sure but whenever I tea dye I pop it into a bucket of cold water with either vinegar or salt. That holds the colour. Worth trying on a scrap to see if it works.

Amelia said...

Do let us know the results...who knows we might want to try it some day.

meggie said...

Never tried vegetable dyes, so cannot advise. Sounds fun though!

Unknown said...

Sounds like fun to me - I'd always heard that salt was good for fixing dyes

Darcie said...

Glad that Vicki W is on top of things...Kimberly Baxter Packwood is exactly the person that I thought of first.

Good luck!!! You may have opened the door -- not only to good health -- to a whole new hobby, Julie! Enjoy!

Finn said...

Sounds like fun to me. I know that in Colonial days natural dyes are all that they had to dye fibers with. Onion skins are one that comes to mind, and summac I think.
I'm not sure but I do think you need salt to set the color, not just vinegar. Vickis suggestion is a good one.
Have fun! Hugs, Finn

*karendianne. said...

I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with. It could be magic. Then we'll know for sure you aren't nutty! You'll be an Alchemist.

Magical Love, *karendianne.

Living Life at LeeHaven

Marilyn Robertson said...

This sounds like fun! Let us know about your results!

Teresa said...

Be sure to let us know how it turned out.

dee said...

I did this with the juice from beets I made for dinner once. I was unsure how to get it to stay that lovely violet color and it washed out to pink. It was fun trying though and I would try it again after some research since the color was really lovely.

Texan said...

Ok I am not a dye expert LOL but I did buy some homespun type fabric once that were vegetable dyed, I was told to be sure and wash them a couple times as the dye would wash out some.

So for whats that worth.. maybe just wash it a few times to get out any of the color that is going to come out?

What a great idea though, to use the colored water to dye fabric!

I would say yes use vinegar in the water when you wash as yep I have read and been told vinegar will help set the color :O)...

Nan said...

I don't know anything about dying fabric at all, so I'm very interested to see what your fabric looks like. Looks like you received some good info.

Leanne said...

I would never give advice about dye I have had some real disasters...LOL

Lyn said...

Hi Julie, some years back our quilting group spent a morning in one of the quilter's garage,learning to dye calico.I remember we had to have 6 metres of fabric and about 22 jars each.For the life of me I cannot remember what we actually did that day. My friend and I were always up to mischief and frowned upon by the others.We had to have exact measurements, however I am sure we guessed and the colours of our fabric were outrageous.LOL Regards Lyn

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