How to Make and Use Homemade Dyes

For over 4,000 years, dyes have been adding color and excitement to clothing. Some dyes have been relatively inexpensive while other have literally cost more than their weight in gold. The ability to dye fabric using natural dyes has been an art known since ancient times, the earliest written record found in China dated back to 2,600 B.C. and archaeological evidence shows that it has been a practiced art for over 5,000 years. Natural dyes are dyes that are obtained from natural sources and can be sorted into three different categories: those obtained from plants, those obtained from animals, and those obtained from minerals.

Many dyes were made right at home, while other dyes took a lot of time and work to prepare. Dyes made from everyday items, like dandelions and rose hips, have always been inexpensive. Purple dye, on the other hand, was made from mollusks. It took an estimated 8,500 shellfish to make one gram of dye, causing this color to be so expensive that only royalty could afford it. Fabrics, such as silk and wool, can be colored simply by soaking in the dye, while others like cotton require a mordant (a substance that is combined with a dye to help the color set in the fabric). Natural dyes are relatively easy to make at home, because most of the needed ingredients can be found around the house or even in the backyard. A dye can be made from an array of different ingredients:

Pink: Strawberries, cherries

Orange: Onion Skin, turmeric

Red: Rose Hips, beets

Brown: Coffee Grinds, Boiled Acorns

Purple: Red Cabbage, Blackberries

Green: Nettle, Artichokes

Yellow: Saffron, Marigold

Here are the instructions to make and use your own natural dye, right in your own kitchen!

For the Mordant/Fixative
• ½ c. salt
• 8 c. water
• pot

Before you dye the fabric, you may need to soak your material in a mordant (a solution that helps the dye stay in the fabric). This mordant can easily be made from ½ cup of salt and 8 cups of water (if you need more or less of this solution, use a 1:16 ratio of salt to water).

There are three different methods for preparing the fabric with a mordant:
• Pre‑mordanting: The fabric is treated with the mordant and then dyed.
• Meta ‑ mordanting: The mordant is added in the dye bath itself.
• Post‑mordanting: The dyed material is treated with a mordant after the dye bath.

All these methods have different effects on the final shade after dyeing.

Step 1: Inside a pot, pour the ½ cup of salt.

Step 2: Slowly add 8 cups of cold water (tap water is fine) into the pot.

Step 3: Add the material (yarn or cloth) that is going to be dyed and make sure it is completely submerged.

Step 4: Place on stove and simmer (keep stove on low) for about an hour.

Step 5: Remove the material from the mordant and set it aside until the dye solution is ready.
Now you must make the actual dye. This is a dye made from blackberries, producing purple dye and the blackberries can be substituted for almost any of the ingredients listed above.

Materials for the dye solution
• A pot
• 1 cup blackberries
• Spoon
• Fabric to be dyed
• Strainer

Step 1: Measure out one cup of blackberries.

Step 2: Add the cup of blackberries to a pot along with 2 cups of water.

Step 3: Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally, and then simmer for about an hour.

Step 4: After taking off the stove, strain the mixture (using a strainer) so that the seeds and debris are separated from the pure color.

Step 5: Add the fabric into the pot and allow it to soak overnight. Remember, the longer the fabric soaks, the darker the color of the fabric will be in the final product.

Step 6: After leaving the fabric out to dry overnight, you can do anything you wish with your homemade dyed fabric!