A Beginner’s Guide to Natural Dyeing
How to create your own colour using homegrown vegetables and foraged botanicals.The slow craft of natural-dyeing has been used for thousands of years. Dating back as far as records remember, it seems that our ancestors have been finding ways to add colour to their daily lives since time began. Today, the practice is loved by crafters and folk-artists all over the world as it offers a sustainable, eco-friendly way to play with colour and textiles.
With just a few commonly found vegetables, berries and flowers you can create a full palette of wild, organic colours at home. The dyeing process creates a totally unique finish every time, with natural highs and lows that add character to your garments and textiles. The method is simpler than you might realise, but to help you on your natural-dyeing journey, we’ve pulled together the following guide.
Natural Dye Ingredient Chart
Pink, red and purple tones |
Beetroot Blackberries Avocado skins Red onions |
Yellow tones |
Tumeric Brown onion skins |
Blue tones |
Red cabbage Black beans Woad |
Green tones |
Carrot tops Golden rod Artichoke Nettles |
Brown tones |
Acorns Walnut Coffee |
How to Make and Use Natural Dyes
- Natural fabric or a pale garment
- Foraged or homegrown dye ingredients
- For berry dyes: salt (to use as a fixative)
- For vegetable dyes: vinegar (to use as a fixative)
Gloves - An old steel pan
- An old wooden spoon (that you don’t mind dyeing)
- Tongs
- Sieve
Make your dye bath
We recommend wearing gloves – some of the best dye ingredients will stain your skin and some plants can be irritants.
- Chop your chosen dye ingredients into small pieces and place in an old steel pan.
- Add twice the amount of water to your dye ingredients, bring to the boil, then simmer for at least an hour, stirring occasionally, to get a really strong colour.
- Strain the liquid through a sieve and return to the pan.
Prepare your fabric
Any natural textile can be dyed, but it works best to start with a plain white or pale base, as overdyeing an existing colour will change the final colour achieved. You can dye over a patterned fabric, but the pattern will still show through.
To ensure the colour sets in the fabric, it’s important to boil it in a fixative first.
- For a berry-based dye, make your fixative by mixing one part salt to sixteen parts water.
- For vegetable-based dyes, mix one part vinegar to four parts water.
- Soak your fabric in the appropriate fixative mixture then bring to a simmer over a low heat for 1 hour.
- After an hour, use tongs to remove your fabric and rinse in cold water. Don’t worry about drying it as the fabric needs to be wet for the next stage.
Natural dyeing at home
- Place the wet fabric into the dye pan and simmer until you achieve the colour you want.
- Don’t forget, the colour achieved will be much lighter when the fabric dries. To get a deeper colour, leave it to soak overnight. If the fabric looks almost black when it’s wet, it’s a good sign you’ve got a strong colour.
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When it’s ready, wash your fabric separately in cold water to preserve the colour, and dry naturally.