How to dye fabrics naturally

Do you like natural colors? Do you have fabrics to dye? For cotton in particular, but also for wool, there's no need to search for chemical products and you can easily create natural DIY dyes. With an added advantage: a piece of clothing you were thinking about changing will once again be your favorite color, and you won't have wasted it. Every fabric can have its own color. Very natural. If you have fabrics and textiles whose shades don't suit you, you can have fun giving them the right color , without wasting anything or throwing away items you don't plan on using . Perhaps using tea, coffee , citrus peel, or pomegranate peel . For example, you can dye fabrics by exploiting the coloring properties of certain herbs: an ancient technique still used today as an alternative to chemical dyes, which are undoubtedly very effective but at the same time highly polluting . Onion yellow and walnut husk brown are just a few of the colors you can achieve naturally. The chromatic range offered by nature is very vast and from every plant it is possible to obtain dyes with unique and original colors.

Flowers and plants

Dyeing is a process typically performed by infusing dyeing herbs , which release the coloring substances that alter the hue of fabrics. Various plants, flowers, leaves, roots, fruits, and even bark can be used for dyeing. For example, nettle leaves produce green, while chamomile is perfect for yellow. Pomegranate or orange peels can be used to make orange , coffee for brown , and ivy for purple . Almost all plants can be used for dyeing. A plant's ability to color fabrics also depends on many factors: soil composition, climate, and harvest time. Flowers, for example, are best picked in the morning, berries and fruit must be fully ripe, and bark and roots are harvested in early spring. The process for dyeing fabrics is simple: generally, you need to bring the dye-producing parts of the plants to a boil and then immerse the garment to be colored. To fix the color , simply soak the dyed fabrics in a solution of one part white vinegar and four parts water. All you have to do is try it.

Types of fabric

There are also numerous materials that can be dyed completely naturally: in addition to textile fibers, you can use dyes on leather, wood, and hides. Wool and silk are the two fabrics that best lend themselves to various dyeing methods, while cotton requires special treatment to achieve good results. Depending on the ratio between the amount of vegetable dye used and the amount of fabric to be dyed, you can achieve different shades of color . Sometimes the dye bath isn't exhausted with the first immersion: some fabrics may require multiple dyeings.

Colors

Fabrics are typically dyed by soaking them for a long time in water dyed with natural ingredients. To achieve more intense shades, the amount of natural dyes used and the soaking time are increased. Generally, it's a process that requires patience but yields truly remarkable results.

How to dye black

You have a piece of clothing in a certain color you want to change. The simplest and most visible option is to change it to black. The process is very simple:

The fabric to be dyed should be washed with neutral soap before applying the new dye. Do not dry it.
To create a natural black you can use blackberries, walnut hulls, coffee grounds and oak galls.
These materials should be cut into small pieces and placed in a large steel pot large enough to hold the garment to be dyed. Generally, the water used for soaking should be twenty times the weight of the fabric to be dyed.
The water should boil and the clothes should cook for about an hour.
At this point you can filter the dye, put it in the pot, and put the clothes back in to be dyed.
Cook over low heat until the dress has changed color.
Once the dress has turned black, you can rinse it with cold water and let it dry.

How to whiten gray fabric

Any colored fabric can turn gray. There are effective natural remedies for whitening grayed fabrics : from aspirin to baking soda . Even fireplace ash and hydrogen peroxide can help.