natural dyes
A garden or hedgerow in autumn is host to a riot of brilliant colour. Pick berries and leaves and use them to create natural dyes. Here is a fun activity for a rainy day, but you will need adult help as it does involve very hot water. Have a look at the recipes below to see which dye colour each raw material will give and then get yourself outside and see what plants and berries you can find.
You will need: rubber gloves, muslin cloth, some fabric, for example a cotton T-shirt, tote-bag or teatowel, hot plate, two deep pans, a wooden spoon, alum (available from the chemist or internet), string and a range of plant materials/berries that you have collected.
You must prepare the fabric before adding to any of the dye baths!
While your dye bath is simmering, you should get your fabric ready to be dyed. Use the second pan, add 9 litres of lukewarm water and 80g of alum. Stir with wooden spoon until completely dissolved. (If you have a small piece of fabric you could use 4.5 litres of water and 40g of alum.) The alum mixture is what will make your fabric hold its colour. Submerge your fabric in the alum mixture and then boil for 20 minutes.
Carefully remove your fabric from the alum mixture, wring out the fabric and then immediately immerse in the dye bath. Use the wooden spoon to make sure that the fabric is totally immersed for at least 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Remove fabric from dye bath, wring out and let it air dry. Discard all remaining dye bath when you have finished.
Dye bath recipes...
Yellow: wrap 450g of goldenrod flower stems in muslin and tie with string. Submerge into at least 4 litres of water and simmer for 1 hour. Then carefully wring out the bundle above the pot. Add more hot water to the dye bath to take it up to 9 litres of liquid.
Purple/lavender: follow method above, using 450g of blackberries, blueberries or elderberries and simmering them for half an hour.
Pink/red: follow method above using 450g of strawberries, raspberries or tomatoes and simmering them for half an hour.
Brown: coffee grounds and tea bags will dissolve directly in the water, and don’t need to be wrapped in cheese cloth. Simmer for half an hour.
Green: soak 680g of rhododendron leaves overnight (approx 10 hrs). Secure the leaves in a muslin cloth and boil for 1 hour. Add enough hot water to make 9 litres of dye bath.
www.snh.gov.uk
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