Topic: Fabric dye

[Val]

Not gardening I know but anyone any ideas what I can use to dye fabric . The fabric dyes you can buy are quite expensive for what I want it for, just to dye  handbag size material. Any ideas? thanks Val.

[rosebud]

  Val what colour are you looking for??

[tim]

Just thinking - saffron, beet, onion skin.....??

[rosebud]

Same here Tim.

[Val]

all colours but I don't grow many veg only a few in pots, so can't use veg dye. thanks anyway ;D

[Hyacinth]

tea! tea and turmeric. turmeric is a b. to get out of anything.....

[SMP1704]

food colouring??

coffee??

[ACE]

red wine, works a treat on my shirts.

[Val]

Thanks for that folks ;D any ideas about blue? I did think of kids paints, that never used to come out either. ;D

[Mimi]

Val, have you tried a cobblers?  The dye that they use for shoes may be available in blue.  Worth a try.

[Hyacinth]

and Val, what do you want to use these dyes for and how permanent will they have to be?

[Val]

 ;D ;D ;DStarted something here haven't I?...well I've been googling till I'm all goggled out, I finaly ordered some fabric paints, I couldn't justify to myself a tin of dye for one item, paints I can use as and when. Right Lish, they're for decorating bags, sort of cotton bags, like the kids P. E.    bags. I've stitched designs on some but they would look better with a background colour as well, I'm going to put bits and pieces , photos lavender bags and other bits and give them to the Scots cousins for Christmas.Yes I know its early but I have cards to stitch as well., Also put a few packets of seeds in as well of course ;)

[Hyacinth]

Oh that's nice, Val and takes me right back to when my son was little, I'd loads of time on my hands and Pcs hadn't been invented ;D

I remember making marble bags for boys for birthday party gifts one year from a piece of black fabric (good colour for boys ;)) with marbles appliqued on them from odd scraps of fabric. And I'm sure I've still got the glove puppet template for princesses or indians somewhere....and pretty sure I've still got some sequins still around in my sewing box..

Have fun. Great presents!

[sallyann]

I still have the PE kit bag my mum made for me when I was little! It is yellow cotton with stripey fish sewed on and  bubbles done with stitching.

It's always nice to get home made gifts, I'm sure the recipients will be pleased

[trojanrabbit]

Think you probably made the right decision there, Val. :)


Dyes are a bugger, especially natural ones. <Sigh> Trying to avoid a lengthy chemistry lesson here....

1) you need a good mordant to bind the dye to the fibres or you get rather weak colour, which washes out pretty quickly.
2) even then plant based dyes are horribly unstable, blues especially denature rapidly, and most colours will soon turn to some shade of brown when aided by sunlight.

That said though, it ought to be fun, if very messy  ;D
Happy to advise on theory if anyone does want to do some.

[Val]

Trojan as you seem to know about these things what do reckon to this used on cotton ? It is used regularly on wool, I know it wouldn't have the same intensity but do you think it would colour at all?...yes I know its a drink...lol.

http://www.koolaiduk.com/index.php?cPath=31

[trojanrabbit]

Not certain about the intensity, but I'm sure it should stain OK. Main question is how permanently!

The key thing is to mordant your cloth first, the easiest way is probably to use alum. Basically make up a solution in water, bring to just below simmer and immerse your cloth for at least an hour. After that, drain, (rinse if you're feeling thorough) and place in dye.
I checked and there are a number of websites giving advice (Google: mordant cotton) - most say you should use tannic acid in the mix as well, but the alum may do a reasonable job alone, I'll have to take advice from a proper organic chemist :-\ handily enough I'm married to one ;D. You could also use tin chloride solution - this is likely to give you a different finished colour, but is more toxic for the environment when you come to dispose of it.

Now, I can't check this out at the moment, but I'm sure that before alum became  easily available cotton was often treated using stale urine ::) Nice. Ammonia will be the key bit, but even so not really something you want to get into, methinks  ;D

I'll see what else I can find, but not being quite certain what colourings they contain, you'll probably have just as much success by trial and error as by careful reading  :)

[Val]

Thanks Trojan, as you say its trial and error, I can always give  it to the youngsters to drink if it doesn't work ;) Think I'll give the urine a miss thanks, it hasn't really got to be that permanent, I'm sure they'll bin them after a while, just so long as its pretty.I never did chemistry at school or any where else, so the rest is beyond me, think I'll have to google to find out what, alum, mordant and the rest is. Thanks for the help.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Not sure about mordant, but in Roman times urine was used in leather making. Tanners used to install urinals in the walls of their workshops and use the result. Vespasian put a tax on the urinals, and when his son Titus objected, he replied that 'Money doesn't smell.'

[Val]

Makes you wonder how they first found out about these things...the mind boggles.