Most natural dyes?

[NoliMum]

I'm going to try my hand at dyeing fabric for crafts, and I'm having trouble deciding what to dye with. Mostly I will be using cotton, maybe some wool.

Foods for dyeing: I bought a can of beets yesterday only to find that beet juice does not adhere to fibers very well, only producing a yellowish tan color even when the fabric is premordanted with alum. I also read that other food dyeing will work at first, but soon the color will fade. Is it even worth the effort?

Food colors for dyeing: I think this is great because they are obviously nontoxic, but they are artificial colors, right? If I don't eat them, would I want to use them for toys and clothes?

Kool-Aid for dyeing: Same as above. I hate Kool-Aid, I think it's a horrible thing to feed children. Do I want to support the company by buying their packets for dyeing?

Acid dyes, procion, fiber reactive: I have no idea how these work. I've just heard the term. Are they "natural" or just more chemicals?

Please help me sort this out. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being most natural, where do these different dyes end up?
TIA!

[ma2maya]

As far as plant based dyes, yes they are non-toxic but to have them work some require mordants that are not non-toxic. They also work much better on protein fibers(wool/silk) much better than on cellulose fibers(cotton/rayon).

Food coloring(koolaid etc) is basically an acid dye and will only stain your cotton but will work fairly well on silk and wool. They are classified food safe so they are relatively non-toxic. Sheesh if you think about it anything at some degree is toxic, but I digress

Fiber reactive dyes I find are relatively the easiest dyes to use and the most versatile, dyeing both cellulose and protein fibers. With very minor safety precautions i.e. a dust mask when mixing the dye powder, they are relatively non-toxic as well. Some people have developed an allergy to the dye powder itself but this is due to repeated inhalation of the powder thus the lungs becoming sensitized to it.

As far as your basic auxiliary chems for procion dyes(soda ash, urea) they as well can caused problems if not handled properly. However, the safety steps are simple and minor.

Paula Burch has good info on the safety/toxicity of dyes.

HTH!
Kathy

[eemama]

I am in the process of dyeing my own play silks. I found a great blog that talks about some natural dyes and examples of what she did and how they turned out. It is

http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadr...l_dyeing_.html

The only one I have tried before is brown from walnut shells. It turns a wonderful rich chocolate brown.

I just started using the Wilton food coloring for dyeing 100% wool yarn in jars. Some of the color washed out. I used alum as a mordant. Blue did not stick for some reason it turned purple. Could not get green to stick. I am going to buy the colors I want so I do not have to mix them myself next time. It was an experiment. I have no problem using the food coloring since my DC are past the chew on anything phase.

[BurgundyElephant]

I have this book - Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing and it is excellent. I would really recommend that you read it.

It gives a history of dyeing, the process, the results... it's very comprehensive, even has recipes! Cheap on Amazon, too! I found mine at a used bookstore for around $5.

[ma2maya]

Ooo...Eemama, thanks for the link to the blog. I have tagged it

Kathy

[NoliMum]

Originally Posted by eemama

I am in the process of dyeing my own play silks. I found a great blog that talks about some natural dyes and examples of what she did and how they turned out. It is

http://simmy.typepad.com/echoesofadr...l_dyeing_.html

The only one I have tried before is brown from walnut shells. It turns a wonderful rich chocolate brown.

I just started using the Wilton food coloring for dyeing 100% wool yarn in jars. Some of the color washed out. I used alum as a mordant. Blue did not stick for some reason it turned purple. Could not get green to stick. I am going to buy the colors I want so I do not have to mix them myself next time. It was an experiment. I have no problem using the food coloring since my DC are past the chew on anything phase.

Thanks for that great blog!!

Since I'm dyeing cotton for my current project, I went and bought some Dylon permanent dye. It was cheaper than I expected, on sale for $1.50 a packet.

I figure tthat Noli wears clothes from Old Navy and other big made-in-asia shops, so Dylon can't be any worse than what's in her clothes already.

Next project I do with wool, I'll probably try food colors. I'd love to buy plant-based dyes, but they're pretty expensive. Living in DFW, there are not a lot of naturally occurring plants that will lend their colors to my fibers.

[flapjack]

I LOVE simmy's blog

There's basically two kinds of naturally occurring dyes: those which are light-fast and permanent, and those which are not. I've had good results with tea, coffee, onion skins and red onion skins, good (but I didn't like the colour) results with nettles and I'm planning on having a good fiddle with solar dyeing later this year. I'll post back with any success stories.

[DaughterOfKali]

I've tried Kool Aid dying (using vinegar to set the color) but the color didn't last.

I'd love to try something different.