Colors from Nature

Not all dyes have to be gathered from the wild or ordered through the mail. A supply is often as close as your garden, farmers’ market, or neighborhood grocery store. Coffee, tea, cranberries, lettuce, onion skins, purple cabbage, and turmeric and other spices all make fine dyes for natural fibers. Some are not as lightfast as others, but they are inexpensive, serve as a good introduction to natural dyes, are safe to use with children, and are easy to obtain.

Here are three formulas for homemade dyes to color fabric and yarn using beautiful colors derived from plants.

Purple Cabbage
Purple cabbage does not make an outstanding color on regular wool yarns, but it is fun to experiment with, and it does make some surprising colors on scraps of unmordanted silk fabrics and exceptionally bright colors on DMC needlepoint wools.

Use two heads of purple cabbage to 4 ounces wool.
Chop the cabbage and cover with four quarts water. Simmer for 1 ½ hours or until the cabbage leaves look bleached of all color. Strain out the cabbage pieces.

Yellow or Purple Onion Skins
Onion skins make a good substantive dye. Save your onion skins a little at a time in a mesh or open container (they’ll mold if covered). If your home onion consumption is low, you might try collecting skins from grocery stores or farmer’s markets. It takes surprisingly few of these to dye embroidery threads or needlepoint wools.

Cover the skins with water, bring the mixture to a boil, and simmer for approximately one hour or until the skins look bleached of all color. Add well-wetted fabric or yarns and simmer for another hour or until the desired color is achieved. The colors will be darker if the fibers are allowed to cool in the bath overnight.

Coffee
Buy a pound of inexpensive coffee, or collect used coffee grounds in a container in your refrigerator or dry and store them in a covered container until needed. Powdered instant coffee or leftover brewed coffee can also be used as a dye.

Coffee gives good tans and beiges on cottons or wools, and can be used to create an “antique” effect on natural muslin. They are fairly lightfast if mordants are used. Leave the fibers in the dyepot for several days to darken the shades.

Read more: Crafts & Design, Crafts & Hobbies

Adapted from Colors from Nature, by Bobbi A. McRae (Storey Books,1993). Copyright (c) 1993 by Bobbi McRae. Reprinted by permission of Storey Books.
Adapted from Colors from Nature, by Bobbi A. McRae (Storey Books,1993).

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Joe S.

4:17PM PST on Dec 27, 2011

Thanks for sharing.

send a green star

Zarka M.

8:25PM PST on Nov 23, 2010

This is interesting...Thanx!!

6:02AM PDT on Jul 4, 2010

saved to favorites, Thanks Annie!!

Kristen R.

4:53PM PDT on May 14, 2010

Great ideas!

NO EMAILS P.

12:26AM PDT on Apr 18, 2010

thanks for post

Alicia N.

12:32PM PDT on Apr 12, 2010

great tips Annie, great tips !!! I feel like trying the coffee one , won't hurt eh?

Bee H.

9:00AM PST on Dec 19, 2009

Decorating my house in earth colors such as brown, tan, and mossy greens makes me feel comfortable and tranquil. I mean both inside and outside my house. I chose for the inside of the house the earth colors for every fabric in the house. The house is painted brown on the outside, a true tree truck brown. All of it is a part of the forest setting in which I love living. I live in a very rural area and enjoy feeling like my domicile has become a real part of the earthy, deep woods setting. I like everything that surrounds me to be earthy in color. Earthy colors have so many variations such as umber, burnt umber, sienna, burnt sienna and, of course, all of the greens. When I look at the foliage in my organic garden I can count over 40 different greens, such a rich and beautiful sight the blend of foliage colors presents for me. I never overlook the sweet colors of the earth and I am always reminded of Mother Nature and the need to take care of Her beauty in all of its wonderful complexity.