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4 Steps to Naturally Dyeing Any Fabric Using Foods

Black beans suddenly got much more interesting

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By Ad Clever | October 19, 2018 | Diy

Text by Amanda Sims, AD CLEVER

 

Black beans are delicious, pooled beside a pile of rice on a plate of enchiladas, but have you ever thought about dyeing fabric with them? We're guessing not, and we understand why. Natural dyeing sounds like the kind of overly complicated activity that takes a whole weekend and still doesn't work—but wrong! After much investigation and a bit of actual testing, we've discovered that naturally dyeing fabric is actually quite easy, once you know the steps. And those black beans? They make the most amazing chalky blue dye, almost like a faded indigo. It's heaven.

There are a lot of things in the natural world that produce dye, from bugs to flowers and barks, but foods are our favorite. First of all, they're easy to source—no need to order your onions from an obscure Etsy dealer to make golden yellow dye from the skins—and second of all, a lot of the dye-producing parts are technically scraps. In the most Millennial news ever, avocado peels and pits make a pale pink dye; a friend of mine saves her up in a freezer bag and had the idea to call a local Chipotle for its castoffs if she needs some blush dye in a hurry. Never know!

Two things to note before you begin: The first is that natural dyes stick best to natural fabrics. Cotton, linen, wool, and silk fall under this category—polyester not so much—because they're highly porous on a microscopic level. Second, don't expect to get the exact color you're aiming for. Everything from the pH of the water to the source of your black beans can contribute to the resulting color, and especially as a first-time dyer it's kind of impossible to guess what you'll get. So be open-minded. It might be more gray than blue, or even green! That's all part of the fun of it. Here are the five steps you need to follow to dye them naturally, with all the supplies in bold.

1. Scour

Please excuse this technical-term moment. It just means cleaning your fabric thoroughly to prep it for dyeing! Plant-based fibers like cotton and linen should technically be scoured with soda ash (also called "washing soda"): Wearing gloves, get a big stock pot and dissolve a few tablespoons of soda ash 

and a few tablespoons of regular fabric detergent per gallon of boiling water required to fill it. Add your fabric and turn on the heat, letting the concoction simmer for about two hours while stirring occasionally. Um, you're a chef! Drain and rinse when time's up.

2. Make Dye

While your fabric is simmering, make your dye. Choose a food that has lots of tannins—Pinterest can help you identify which make good dyes, but here are some favorites: black beans for blue, red cabbage for purple, beets for pink, avocado skins and pits for peachy pink, yellow onion skins for yellow-orange, ground turmeric for golden yellow, spinach for green. To make dye from black beans, soak them in lots of water overnight and then drain (that black water is the dye!). For the rest, roughly chop the food, pile it high in a stock pot, then fill with water, sprinkle in some salt,

 bring to a boil, and simmer for an hour. Compost the now-pale food bits and set aside the liquid for dye time.

3. Mordant

Fancy term number two basically means soak the fabric in a fixative, so the dye sticks. The thing is that there are a 

 one of the least toxic mordants, which you can often find in the spice aisle of the grocery store. Still wearing gloves from the scour step? Great. Stir a few teaspoons of alum into a cup of boiling water, and pour that into a stainless steel pot of cool water. Stir in the fabric and bring to a simmer for an hour. (Note: If you're going to mordant with alum, you should get a pot to dedicate to this purpose and not use it for cooking.) Rinse.

4. Dye

Pour the food dye liquid into a large vessel—either a bucket or one of the stock pots you've been using—and dunk the fabric in it. There should be enough dye so that the fabric can swim around freely; if it's at all bunched up you'll get a tie-dye pattern (which can be cute!). Leave for at least an hour or overnight. Once you're happy with the color, rinse with cold water and dry. The color will lighten somewhat, but it'll stick!

Images: Unsplash

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