Introduction to Natural Dyeing

1. Introduction: Hi there. Welcome to introduction to natural dyeing. If you've been curious to learn about the process of natural dyeing, but maybe felt it was a little bit daunting to take on, you're in the right place. The process of natural dyeing involves a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of math, and a lot of magic. Hi there. I'm Julie Rae. I'm a textile artist based in Portland, Oregon. I've always been an artist at heart. I began dyeing my own fabric in 2023, mostly out of curiosity, but I loved the process so much that today I work exclusively with plant dyed fabric. With this course, I really wanted to create a comprehensive resource that shares everything I've learned about natural dyeing over the years. My intention with this course is to walk you through each step of the process and break it down one step at a time. Natural dyeing is the ancient practice of extracting colors from natural elements such as plants, insects, fungi, and minerals, and using that to color cloth. The earliest known records of natural dyeing date back to China in 2,600 BCE, and evidence of humans using natural dye techniques can be found all over the world. Natural dyeing is an involved multi step process that requires time, patience, and attention. The results can sometimes be a little unpredictable. So why bother? After all, it'd be so much easier to go down to the local fabric shop and buy some yardage, right? Since I've started working with natural dyes, I can honestly say I'll never go back to purchasing synthetically dyed fabric, no matter how much more convenient it is. Here's a few reasons why I'm committed to the process of natural dyeing. First of all, natural dyeing connects us to nature. Since I've started dyeing my fabric naturally, I notice myself paying a lot more attention to the plants in my areas, learning about their properties and benefits and observing their life cycles. The soft, muted, earthy color tones that come from natural dye fabric create a depth and texture that I have not seen replicated in synthetically dyed fabric. The process of natural dyeing invites us to slow down. Being involved in the slow process of dying requires patience, attention, and intimacy. As our world becomes increasingly automated and cerebral, I believe that our bodies crave this slowness. Finally, the process of natural dyeing is kinder to the Earth and her resources. The process of commercially dying fabric has a harmful impact on the environment, most notably, in the release of toxic chemicals into the wastewater system. With natural dyeing, I can rest assured that nothing harmful is being used in the dye process. It's a small yet meaningful way to both honor and care for the Earth and her resources. I'm so excited that you've decided to join me on this journey of natural dyeing. It's truly a magical practice, and I hope that it brings you as much joy as it's brought me. 2. Class Project: This class will walk you through the process of natural dyeing. For the class project, you'll be dyeing a piece of fabric using a dye stuff of your choice. Once you've dyed your fabric, take a photo and upload it to the project section, sharing with us what you used to dye your fabric and what you learned along the way. The next lesson will provide a broad overview of the process of natural dyeing. 3. Overview of the Natural Dye Process: This lesson will provide a big picture overview of the entire process of natural dying. There's a lot of steps. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. In future lessons, we'll be going into much greater detail about each step. The process of natural dyeing consists of four primary steps scouring, mordanting, dying the fabric, and then finishing with the final rinse. Let's take a closer look at each of these steps. Scouring is the process of cleaning the fibers to remove any dirt, wax, and other impurities that may be present from the manufacturing process. This step is very important, as it helps ensure an even application of the dye. The second step in the dye process is mordenting. Most dyes won't naturally bind to fiber, especially with plant based fibers, which are known as cellulose fibers, such as cotton or linen. The mordenting step prepares the fabric to receive the dye and acts as a liaison between the dye molecules and the fiber. There are various methods for mordanting cellulose fibers, but the process I use consists of two steps. First, immersing the fabric in a tannin bath, followed by a bath of metal salts, usually alum. Proper mordenting is very important to make sure the color is permanent and to ensure color fastness. That is to prevent the color from fading or washing away. Once fabric has been mordented, it's ready for dyeing. Once the dye has been extracted from whatever material you're using, the prepared fabric is immersed in the pot with the extracted dye and enough water to allow the fabric space to float freely. Generally, the dye bath is heated and the fabric is simmered for about an hour. Finally, the fabric is let to sit for a week or two to let it cure. After that, I generally wash my fabric with a pH neutral detergent and rinse it thoroughly to ensure that all the unattached dye is removed and to prevent the color from bleeding. Let's go over a few important terms related to natural dyeing that I'll be using throughout this course. Dye stuff refers to the material that's used for dyeing. Different examples of dye stuff include roots, flowers, leaves, bark, or any other materials that you either gather or purchase to use to color your fabric. Throughout the course, I'll also be referring to the concept of color fastness. Is the extent to which a material is resistant to fading from light exposure or washing. The process that I use and the dye stuff that I offer as examples in this course help to ensure color that's permanent and won't easily fade away. Another important concept that I'll talk about a little bit more in depth in a future lesson is that of weight of fiber, generally abbreviated as WF. In natural dyeing, you'll use the weight of fiber, which is generally measured in grams to determine the quantities of dye stuff and other materials that we use in the natural dye process. I hope you find this overview useful. As I said earlier, don't let yourself become overwhelmed. We'll take this together one step at a time. In the next lesson, I'll talk about some of the materials and supplies you'll need for natural dying. 4. Materials & Supplies: Here are some of the essential supplies you'll need for your dye studio. First of all, you'll need some stainless steel pots. It's important that these are stainless steel and not aluminum or cast iron, as these other metals will have an impact on the color of the dye. The size of your pot will depend on how much fabric you'd like to dye. Ideally, you'll want a pot that's large enough so that once it's filled with water, the fabric has enough space to float freely. You'll need a heat source. This can be your stove top or a hot plate. You'll want some stainless steel or wooden spoons for mixing the fabric in your dye. You'll need some measuring spoons, a digital scale that measures grams. You'll need some small jars or bowls for measuring out dye materials, and two or 35 gallon buckets. You can generally get these in any hardware store. A few other items you might want to have on hand, include a chef's thermometer if you'd like to track the temperature of your dye pot, some rubber gloves to protect your hands, and a large stainless steel strainer for straining out whole dye stuffs. I also recommend a mask, especially when we're working with fine powders. These next two items are optional, but they're ones I use a lot. The first is a bucket heater. This works like a sou vid and is irsed into a bucket and used to reheat the water. I use this for reheating my mordant baths. It's also helpful to have a water kettle if you need to top off a bucket with some hot water. As a note, for pots, pans, spoons and measuring supplies, I highly recommend keeping the tools that you use for dyeing separate from the pots and pans you use for cooking. This will help avoid cross contamination. While, all the materials we work with in natural dyeing come from nature. They're not all safe for human consumption. So have a dedicated set of tools that you use exclusively for natural dyeing, just to be on the safe side. I've purchased almost all of my dye studio tools secondhand from garage sales and thrift shops. See what options you have in your area for buying secondhand. Here are some of the materials that you need for dyeing. Many of these might be unfamiliar, and I can guide you to some online shops where you can find these. First of all, you need a dyers detergent. My preferred brand is synthropl, but any pH neutral soap will work. You'll also need some soda ash, which is also known as sodium carbonate. You'll need a source of tannin. We'll talk more about options for tannins in the mordanting stage. You'll need alum, which is also known as potassium aluminum sulfate. You'll need your dye stuff. This might be flowers from your garden or an extract that you purchase online. You'll need cellulose fabric, such as cotton, linen or hemp. And there are some other optional materials I'll talk about in the discussion of modifying color. The one that I use the most is iron in the form of ferrous sulfate. Three online natural dye suppliers that I've used are listed here. Dharma Trading Company and Botanical Colors are both based in the United States, and Maiwa is based in Vancouver BC in Canada. That was a lot. If you're feeling overwhelmed, take a deep breath. You don't need to gather these things all at once. I'll be covering the process one step at a time, so feel free to gather materials as you go. The next lesson, we'll talk about fabric. 5. All About Fabric: Oh so let's talk a little bit about fabric. The kind of fabric you use matters. The natural dye process will only work on natural fibers. Natural dyes will not bind to synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon or acrylic. Natural fibers fall into two categories, cellulose fiber and animal fiber. Animal fibers, as the name suggests, are fibers that come from animal sources, such as wool alpaca, and silk. Cellulose fibers are those derived from plant sources, and these include cotton, linen and hemp. Because the underlying molecular structure of cellulose fibers and animal fibers are different, they require slightly different processes to prepare the fabric for natural dyeing. I work almost exclusively with cellulose fibers, and so that's what I'll be covering in this course. If you're planning to dye wool, silk or another animal based fiber, just know that the process I describe in this class won't necessarily work. Feel free to reach out and I'd be happy to connect you with resources for dyeing these kinds of fabrics. An important concept in natural dyeing is that of weight of fiber, which is a number generally represented in grams, measuring how much your fabric weighs. Let's calculate the weight of fiber of some fabric and see how we use this number to determine the quantities of the dye materials we'll be using throughout the process. To make these first calculations easier, let's say I have a piece of fabric that weighs 100 grams. This is the weight of fabric or WOF. Let's say my dye recipe calls for 10% weight of fabric of gall nut. In order to calculate the amount of gall nut I need, I'll take 10% of my weight of fiber. We've already determined that my weight of fiber is 100 grams. 10% of 100 is ten. Therefore, I would need to measure 10 grams of gall nut. Now, the weight of fabric isn't always a nice round number like 100. So let's look at another example. In this case, I have a piece of fabric that weighs 327 grams. The recipe I'm using calls for 15% weight of fiber of alum. Alum is what we'll be using as a mordant. In order to calculate the amount of alum I'll need, I'll take 15% of 327. This is where a calculator comes in handy. 15% of 327 or 0.15 times 327 is 49.05. I'll generally round to the nearest whole number. So in this case, I would need 49 grams of alum. Once you've recorded your weight of fiber, go ahead and make a note of this number somewhere. You could write it on a piece of paper or a sticky note or even write it in the salvage of your fabric. In the next lesson, we'll talk about the first step in the natural dye process, which is scouring. 6. Step 1: Scouring: The first step in the process of natural dyeing is scouring. Scouring is the process of deeply cleaning the fabric to remove any impurities such as dirt, oils or waxes that are leftover from the manufacturing process. While this step is a little bit unglamorous, it is essential. Unscoured fabric will yield uneven results, and it will prevent the dye from penetrating and bonding with the fiber. As a note, there is a kind of fabric you can buy that's generally labeled as ready to dye or prepared for dyeing. This is sometimes abbreviated as PFD. This fabric has been processed without the use of oils or waxes and, in theory, should be ready to dye without scouring first. I've purchased and used PFD fabric before, and it works great. I would still recommend running it through a hot water cycle in your washing machine to make sure it's good to go. Here are the materials and supplies you'll need for scouring. First, you'll, of course, need your fabric. You'll want to make sure it's cellulose fabric, which is fabric derived from plants such as cotton, linen or hemp. You'll need a large stainless steel pot. You'll need a scale that measures grams. You'll need some measuring spoons. You'll need a large mixing spoon. The mixing spoon could be wood or stainless steel. You'll need a heat source such as a stovetop or a hot plate. You'll need synthropl or some other pH neutral dyers detergent, and you'll need soda ash, which is also known as sodium carbonate. The first step, if you haven't done this already, is to weigh your fabric. Make sure your fabric is dry when you weigh it. You'll use the weight of fabric to determine measurements throughout the dye process. So be sure to make a note of this number somewhere. The recipe for scouring is as follows. You'll need 1% weight of fabric of synthropl or whatever dyers detergent you're using, and 2% weight of fabric of soda ash. Next, weigh the amount of synthropl and soda ash you'll need based on the weight of fiber. My fabric weighs 327 grams. According to the formula above, I'll need about 3 grams of synthropal which is 1% of 327. I'll need six to 7 grams of soda ash, which is 2% of 327. As a note, my scale only displays grams in whole units, so I'll generally round up or down to the nearest gram. Next, fill your pot with warm water and mix the measured out synthropol and soda ash to dissolve it. You will need enough water to be able to completely submerge your fibers and allow them to move freely. This will ensure the solution can access every part of the fabric. Once your pot is full, add your fabric to the pot. Be sure to open up the fabric and shake it out, especially if it's been folded. Agitate the fabric a few times to ensure it is completely submerged and that it has space to float freely in the water. Next, place the pot on low heat and simmer for about an hour, agitating the fabric occasionally. Be sure to keep the fabric completely submerged. Avoid letting the water come to a hard boil. This attention will help ensure the fabric is scoured evenly and that the cleaning solution can access every part. After about an hour, turn off the heat and allow the fibers to cool in the pot over the next several hours. So once your fabric is finished scouring and the pot has cooled off, you can remove your fabric and give it a good rinse in a bucket of clean water or run it through a rinse cycle in your washing machine. At this point, you can hang it to dry and store it for later use, or you can proceed directly to the mordanting step, which we'll talk about in the next lesson. 7. Step 2: Mordanting: In the previous lesson, we scoured our fabric, so it should be clean and ready to go, and we're now ready to move on to the mordentin step. A mordint is an inorgatic material, generally a metal salt that is used to bind the dye to the fiber. You can think about the mordent as a liaison between the dye molecule and the fiber molecule, creating a permanent bond that will not easily fade or wash away. There are various methods of mordenting cellulose fabric. In this lesson, I'm going to share with you the process that I use. I find that it yields really rich colors and creates really color fast results. Mordenting my fabric, I generally follow a two step process. First, fabric is immersed in a tannin bath, and secondly, it's immersed in a alum and soda ash bath. To mordent your fabric, here are some things that you'll need. First, you'll need your cellulose fabric that you scoured in the previous lesson. You'll also need 25 gallon buckets, a scale that measures grams, measuring spoons, a mixing spoon, a source of tannin. I'll talk about some different options for these momentarily. Alum, which is also known as aluminum potassium sulfate, soda ash, which you should have on hand from the scouring stage and hot tap water. Let's talk a little bit about tannins. The molecular structure of plant based fabric, such as cotton and linen, do not readily accept dyes. Immersing fabrics in a tannin bath prior to the mordinting step greatly increases the color fastness of the dye. There are many sources for tannins and lots of fun ways to use tannins to achieve different effects. Depending on the type of tannin, it can give an undertone to the fabric, which will in turn influence the final color result. For the sake of simplicity, I'll share the three main sources of tannin that I use. I like to think about tannons in three different categories, clear tannons, yellow tannons and dark tannins. Clear tannins will give the purest results, letting the true color of the dye show through. My primary source for clear tannin is gall nut. Galnut actually comes from the oak tree. When a wasp lays an egg in the oak tree, the tree will form a tissue around this, which is known as a gall nut. It is very rich in tannin and an excellent source for this step in the process. Yellow tannins will provide a slight yellow undertone. Depending on the final color you want to achieve, this may be one worth experimenting with. I like to use Mrabllin as a yellow tannin. Myrabllin are the ground nuts of a species of tree that's endemic to South and Southeast Asia. Be able to find this for most natural dye suppliers. The third category of tannins are referred to as dark tannins. And these can be used if you'd like to achieve a deeper, richer, final color. The source that I most commonly use for dark tannins is chestnut, which I generally purchase ground. So to mordent fabric, I follow a two step process. First, immersing the fabric in a tannin bath and then in a solution of alum and soda ash. As you can see, this mordint recipe offers a range of percentages for both tannins and alum. The amount I use depends on a variety of factors, including the type of tannin I'm using and how much tannin is present in the dye that I'm using. For the purposes of this course, I plan to use galnut for the tannin at 10% weight of fabric, and I plan to use alum at 15% weight of fabric. If you don't have the weight of fabric recorded from the scouring lesson, be sure to weigh your dry fabric before proceeding. If you allow your fabric to dry after scouring, the fabric will need to be completely wetted out. That is, completely saturated with water before adding it to the tan and bath. Immerse the fabric in water and let it soak for about 30 minutes. You can add a drop of pH neutral dish soap to break the surface tension of the water and aid in absorption. If the fabric is not completely wetted out, it will lead to uneven mordanting and this will impact the dye results. Next, measure out your tannin. As I mentioned, for this example, I'm using gallnut which is a clear tannin and will allow us to see the pure color of the dye. For this example, I'm measuring my tannin at 10% weight of fabric. As I calculated earlier, my weight of fabric is 327 grams. And therefore, I'll need about 33 grams of gall nut. Next, take one of your five gallon buckets and fill it with hot tap water, mixing in the tannin until it's completely dissolved. It's important to note that tannins can become damaged when exposed to very high temperatures. You want to be careful not to heat the water above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot water from your tap is generally about the right temperature. Once your bucket is filled, add your wetted out fabric to the bucket. Be sure to open up the fabric and shake it out before adding it in order to eliminate any folds. Agitate the fabric a few times to ensure it is completely submerged and to make sure it has enough space to float freely in the water. While tannins aren't harmful, they can dry out your skin. So feel free to use gloves or a spoon for this step. Once your fabric has been completely submerged in the tannin bath, place a lid on the bucket to help it retain heat. Leave it to soak anywhere 6-24 hours. I'll generally leave it overnight. Stir the fabric in the tannin bath occasionally to help ensure the tannin can access every part of the fabric. Now I'm going to prepare the alum and soda ash bath. I'll measure out the alum at 15% weight of fabric and the soda ash at 2% weight of fabric. According to my calculations, I'll need about 49 grams of alum. And about six to 7 grams of soda ash. So to prepare the alum soda ash solution, I'm going to fill my second five gallon bucket, about two thirds of the way full with hot tap water. I'll add the alum. And then the soda ash mixing to completely dissolve. Then I'm going to top off the bucket with water just off the boil, bringing the solution to a temperature of around 170 degrees Fahrenheit. You'll notice that the water appears quite cloudy. This is very normal. Once my alum soda ash solution is prepared, I'm ready to transfer the fabric. So I'm going to remove the fabric from my tannin bath and squeeze to ring out any of the excess water. I've prepared a second bucket with clean water to give it a gentle rinse. Then I'll wring it out and place it directly into the alum and soda ash bath. The tannin is not permanently attached to the fabric yet, and you don't want it to wash away. For this reason, don't rinse the fabric too vigorously after the tannin bath. Additionally, you don't want to let your fabric dry after the tannin bath because you could lose too much tannin when wetting it out again. Once the fabric has been transferred, I'll cover the bucket to help it retain the heat. And again, let it sit for anywhere 6-24 hours, making sure the fabric remains completely submerged and giving it a gentle mix now and then. Okay, so my fabric has been sitting in the alum soda ash solution for about 24 hours, and I'm ready to remove it from the bucket. I'll remove my fabric from the solution and squeeze to wring out any extra liquid. Next, rinse your fabric thoroughly in order to remove any unattached alum. I generally take my fabric and rinse it in a plunge bucket and then throw it through a rinse cycle in my washing machine. Once your fabric has been rinsed, you can place it directly into a dye bath or hang it to dry and store for later use. One way to stretch your resources is to reuse the tannin and the alum and soda ash baths. You can reuse both of these baths as long as there's no mold present. I'll generally reuse mine two more times after the initial use. Beyond that, I find the components begin to break down, and I'll start a fresh batch. You can assume that about half the tannin or alum soda ash has been consumed during the mordinting process. Therefore, you can either use the leftover mordintin baths to mordant half the amount of fabric as the first batch, or you can recharge each bath with 50% more of the tannin, alum and soda ash. Before re using, reheat the tannin bath to about 120 degrees Fahrenheit and the alum soda ash bath to about 170 degrees Fahrenheit. You can do this by placing the bucket in a hot water bath and recording the temperature with a thermometer. Or by using an immersion heater or a bucket heater. Once the bucket has been heated to the appropriate temperature, add the additional mordant materials if needed. Then add the new wetted out fabric and proceed with the rest of the mordinting process as normal. In the next lesson, I'll talk a little bit about how I organize my scoured and mordinted fabric. 8. Organizing Fabric: Because I dye so much fabric, I'll generally scour and mordnt my fabric in batches. In order to help me keep track of where I am in the process, I have these three bins to help me organize my fabric. So this top bin I have labeled as ready to mordent. So this is fabric that has been scoured. Once fabric has been mordented, it moves to this second bin, which is labeled as ready to dye. Each piece of fabric in this bin has information written in the salvage. That provides information about what I used as the tannin and Morten and what quantity I used of each. Once fabric has been dyed, it moves to this bottom bin. And I don't generally have much fabric in this last bin. This bin is simply labeled dyed. And I'll put fabric here once it's been dyed and is perhaps waiting for a final rinse, or perhaps I plan to use this fabric to modify the color in some way. All of that fabric will be stored here. And once fabric is finished and I'm happy with the color, it moves to my fabric stash on my shelves. In the next lesson, we'll talk about all different kinds of dye stuff you can use and where to source it. 9. Sourcing Dyestuff: If you've been following along with the lessons, at this point, you should have fabric that's been scoured and mordented and is now ready for dyeing. Saving kitchen scraps can be the easiest way to start out with natural dye. Some great options include pomegranate rinds, avocado pits, and onion skins. Red and yellow are both great and produce different colors. I've heard used coffee grounds and black tea leaves are also good options. Although I haven't personally tested these, it'd be worth experimenting with. If you have a little soil and a bit of a green thumb, you can plant your own dye garden. Some flowers that I grow include marigolds, hibiscus, cosmos, dahlias, and weld. The pollinators will appreciate this, as well. There are lots of natural elements you can gather from nature. Some items that I gather each year include prunings from fruit trees, fresh black walnuts and walnut husks. Let's talk about some of the plants that are commonly used for dyeing. And I'm going to organize this by the color they produce. Most of these are plants that I've personally used and have been shown throughout history to have good colorfast. As a side note, while I've organized these by color, know that the color results can vary a lot depending on a variety of factors, including the quality of the water used, such as the minerals that are present or the pH, the soil conditions that the plant was grown in, and the dye process that's followed. Some plants that produce reds or pinks include mataroot which produces a bright scarlet red, Koch, which is the heartwood of a species of acacia tree, and this makes a beautiful terracotta color. And the bark of various fruit trees, such as pear, cherry, or apple will produce a light pink or sometimes a blush color. Some plants that will produce oranges include dyers reopsis which I found produces a nice bright orange, cosmos, which produce more of a muted orange and onion skins, which will produce more of a golden yellow color. A few plants that will produce yellows include marigold and weld, which will both produce a bright yellow and pomegranate rinds, which will produce more of a muted yellow. Some plants that produce a nice, neutral beige or brown color include black walnuts and walnut husks. And a couple dyes that make purples include logwood and two other natural dye items that are not actually plants, but are insects are lack and cochineal. And these both produce varieties of purples, as well. In the resources section, you'll find a document that provides a list of various natural dyes, along with some notes about what colors they generally produce, as well as some notes of where to source them. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but feel free to use it as a resource if it's useful. There are several items that I want to talk about that won't necessarily work well for dyeing using the process described in this course. First of all, a lot of food stuff that seems like it might be good for dyeing, such as beets or black beans or cabbage don't actually dye very well. While these may seem like they would produce a beautiful color, they're not very light fast, and the color fades very quickly. Mushrooms, especially in my area in the Pacific Northwest, are becoming quite popular for dyeing. While these work well for animal fibers, they don't work very well for cellulose fibers, so I won't be referring to them as a dye source in this course. Indigo is probably one of the oldest and most popular items from natural dye. However, the process of dyeing with indigo is very different than the process I'm describing in this course. I'd be happy to direct you to some other resources if you're interested in dyeing with indigo. So spend some time gathering a couple of different dye sources, whether it be from your kitchen, from your garden, or from an online natural dye supplier. In the next lesson, we'll talk about how to extract the dye from your dye stuff. 10. Step 3: Extracting Color: There are three primary steps to immersion dyeing, which is the process of immersing prepared fabric into a die pot in order to infuse it with color. They are, one, extract the die from the dye stuff, two, dye the fabric, and three, rinse and finish. Let's talk about extracting the dye. Dye material is generally found in one of three forms, whole, ground, or as an extract. Materials are great because these are the things you can grow in your garden or gather from your community. These can be used fresh or dried and stored for later use. When dyeing with whole materials, color will need to be extracted from the dye stuff before immersing the fabric. You can generally purchase dye material such as roots or nuts that have been ground into a powder. The color still needs to be extracted from these, but the extraction process generally takes less time than with whole materials. Dyes can also be purchased as extracts and are generally available in either a powdered or liquid form. The benefit of an extract is that the dye has already been extracted from the dye stuff. These are generally very concentrated and only require a small amount to create really vivid colors. If you are using dye stuff that is in its whole form, such as flowers, leaves, or bark or in ground form, such as dried and ground roots, then you'll need to extract the color before dyeing it. This is generally accomplished by simmering the dye stuff in water for an hour or so. It's not unlike steeping tea. The amount of dye stuff you need will depend on the amount of fabric you're dyeing, the type of dye stuff you're using, and the desired saturation of color. Here are some general guidelines for how much dye stuff you might need based, of course, on the weight of fabric for various dye stuff. Use this as a starting point, but feel free to experiment with different quantities on your own. If you're using fresh whole dye stuff, such as fresh flowers or leaves, you'll want about 100 to 200% weight of fabric for dried leaves and flowers, you'll need about 25% of that or 25 to 50% weight of fabric. If you're using ground dye stuff, you'll need about 15 to 30% weight of fabric. For extracts, you'll need 3-9% weight of fabric. In order to demonstrate the natural dye process, I'll be working with three different dye stuffs in three different forms, dried marigold flowers, Himalayan rhubarb, which is ground, and matter root extract. So in order to extract the dye, first measure out the amount of dye stuff you need, and then place it in a stainless steel pot filled with a generous amount of water. You'll be simmering this for about an hour, so you want to make sure you have enough water to account for evaporation. Place the pot on a heat source and simmer for about an hour. Avoid allowing the water to come to a boil, especially for flowers, which can be quite delicate. After an hour or so, turn off the heat and let the dye water cool. Once the water is cool, you can strain out and compost the dye material, reserving the dye water. As a note, if you're using dye stuff in the extract form, you do not need to extract the dye. This has already been done for you. You can follow the instructions provided from the source where you purchased the dye extract, which usually involves dissolving the extract in a little bit of warm water before adding it to the dye pot. Once you have your dye stuff and you've extracted the color if needed, you'll be ready to dye your fabric. We'll explore that in the next lesson. 11. Step 4: Immersion Dyeing: Oh Alright, we've done all of the preparatory work, and we are ready for dyeing. The technique of dyeing that we're going to be using is called immersion dying. It's called this because the piece of fabric is immersed into a pot that has been infused with color. The process of immersion dyeing involves three steps. First, extracting the color from the dye stuff. Second, immersing the fabric into the pot of extracted dye, and finally, rinsing and finishing. We already discussed extracting color in the previous lesson, so we're ready to move on to dyeing. Let's get to it. I'm going to begin by preparing my Marigold dye bath. I have my pot where I've already extracted the die from the Marygold flowers. I'm going to begin by straining out the extracted dye into a larger pot. I can then compost the used marigolds. Once I've strained out the dye stuff, I'm going to add water to ensure that I have enough to allow my fabric to float freely. You don't need to be concerned about diluting the dye bath. Since we measured the appropriate amount of dye stuff, the dye will find its way to the fabric regardless of how much water is in the pot. Now we're ready to add our fabric. If you allow your fabric to dry after the mordenting step, you'll need to wet it out again. Unfold your fabric and place it in a bowl of clean water, allowing it to soak for about 30 minutes. The fibers should be completely saturated before proceeding in order to ensure even application of the dye. If you're proceeding directly from the mordenting step, then there's no need to wet out your fabric. It should already be good and saturated. Ring the excess water from the wetted out fabric and add it to the dye pot. Mix it around to ensure that the dye can reach all surfaces. Then turn on the heat and heat the dye bath to just below a simmer. I generally aim for around 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Hold at that temperature for about an hour stirring periodically to ensure the fabric remains completely submerged. After an hour, turn off the heat and allow the dye bath to cool for an hour or for up to 24 hours for the most saturated color. So for my second dye bath, I'm using Himalayan rhubarb, which I've purchased ground. So I've measured out the dye material and added it to the pot, and I've had it simmering for about half an hour. With ground material, I don't generally worry about straining it out. I'll just add my wetted out fabric directly to the die pot once it's ready. You'll notice that my morditd fabric is a little bit darker shade than the previous one. During the mordant phase, I use chestnut as the tannin, which provides a slightly darker undertone. I'm excited to see how this color turns out. Again, once my fabric is in the die pot, I'll mix it to make sure it's completely submerged and let it simmer for about an hour. The third die pot I'm making is a MarootEtract. And since I'm using this in an extract form, the dye material is all ready to go. In order to prepare it, I measured out my desired quantity and dissolved it in a little bit of hot water, and then I'll add that to a pot that I fill with enough water to accommodate my fabric. Once my diepod is prepared, I'll add my wetted out fabric and follow the same process that we used for the previous dye baths. Matarot is really rich, and we can see the color transformation immediately. Such a beautiful color. So I've allowed all of my fabric to simmer for about an hour, and it's now cool enough to handle. Once your fabric has achieved the desired saturation, remove it from the depot and rinse it thoroughly. I'll set up a plunge bucket and agitate it to remove as much unattached dye as possible. Then hang your fabric to dry. Once my fabric is dried, I'll generally fold it up and let it sit to cure for a week or two. If I haven't already, before I store it, I'll make some notes in the salvage about the process I use to dye it just so I don't forget. After storing the dyed fabric for a week or two to allow the color to set, I'll do a final rinse. First, I'll place the fabric in a plunge bucket with warm water and a little bit of pH neutral detergent and agitate it really well to remove any additional unattached dye. And then I'll do a very thorough rinse, rinsing as many times as I need to until the water runs clear. This will help ensure that the dye won't bleed onto any other fabric. I can't wait to see the beautiful colors that you create from this natural dye process. In the next lesson, I'll talk about some different techniques for modifying and shifting your colors in order to expand the range of colors you can achieve through natural dye. 12. Expanding Your Color Palette: So in the previous lesson, we talked about the process of immersion dyeing, and by now, you should have one maybe two or three pieces of dyed fabric. Let's talk about some ways to modify your colors and expand your color palette. The first options for expanding your color palette that I'll talk about are the exhaust bath, combining dyes, and over dyeing. After dyeing your piece of fabric, you may notice that there's still some color leftover in your dye bath. This is called the exhaust bath. I will often dye a second piece of fabric in the same vat to continue to use the color that's leftover. The piece of fabric that you dye in the exhaust bath will generally yield a lighter shade than the original. Depending on the strength of the initial dye bath and the amount of fabric you were dyeing, you may be able to dye two, three, maybe even four pieces of fabric until the bath is completely exhausted. This is a great way to build a collection of natural dye fabric with varying shades. Another option for expanding your color palette is combining dyes or over dye. Both of these options are based on color theory. You might remember back in high school art class that red and yellow make orange, right? We can use these same concepts to combine two dyes together to create a new color. For example, if I were to use a combination of marigold flowers, which produces yellow and matter root, which produces red in the same dye pot, I could in theory, achieve an orange. Playing with the proportions of one dye stuff and the other will produce a range of colors between yellow and red. Over dyeing is the same idea, but rather than combining two different dye stuffs into the same pot, you'll use a piece of cloth that you've already dyed and dye it in a new color. For example, this is a piece of fabric that I dyed in pomegranate extract. It's the pomegranate rind, actually, that makes this kind of very muted yellow color. But after I had dyed this fabric, I created a matter root bath. As we discovered, matter root creates red. Um, and this was the result. It kind of makes this orange blush, this very beautiful orange blush color. And this was the result of taking fabric that I had dyed in pomegranate and then after it was dyed, putting it in a matter root bath. The possibilities and colors you can create from combining dyes, whether you combine them in the same dye pot or dye it in one color and then in another, are virtually endless. Have fun experimenting. PH is the measure of how acidic or basic, which is sometimes known as alkaline, a solution is. While not all dyes will react to changes in pH, the addition of an acidic or an alkaline modifier can shift to the color of some dyes significantly. There are two kinds of pH modifiers, alkaline modifiers and acidic modifiers. Alkaline modifiers, such as soda ash generally shift the color to a pinker tone. To try this, dissolve a small bit, a quarter to half teaspoon of soda ash in hot water and either add it directly to a dye bath or immerse dyed fabric into the solution for five to 10 minutes after dyeing. You can experiment with more or less soda ash to see how the color responds. Acidic modifiers, such as white vinegar, will shift the color to a yellower tone. Add a very small amount of acidic modifier to a vessel filled with water and soak dyed fabric for five to 10 minutes. Rinse thoroughly. Modifying the color of dyed fabric using iron is by far the method that I use the most, and it's a great way to expand the range of colors you can achieve from natural dyes. The addition of iron, generally in the form of ferrous sulfate or ferrous acetate, saddens the color, making them more muddy and muted. Iron reacts with the tannin in the fabric, and the effect will shift yellow towards olive green and red toward deep purple or brown. To modify a dye with iron, you'll need a source of iron salt. I generally use this in the form of ferrous sulfate. Add one to 4% weight of fiber to a non reactive vessel, such as stainless steel, ceramic, plastic or glass, and add hot water to dissolve it. Place fabric that's been dyed and wetted out into the vessel with the iron solution and stir it continuously for 30 seconds or for up to 5 minutes. You should see the color begin to transform fairly quickly. Rinse immediately. You want to be sure to wash all items, including bowls, spoons, and any surfaces that were used to modify with iron very thoroughly in order to avoid cross contamination. Iron reacts with tannin, and the reaction is irreversible. If any fabric that's been soaked in tannin comes in contact with even a small trace of iron, it will react and create spots and stains on your fabric. I keep a set of tools that I use specifically for working with iron in order to avoid contaminating other fabric. High doses of iron will be damaging to fibers, so I don't recommend using more than 4% weight of fabric or for letting the fabric sit in an iron solution for more than 10 minutes. I also recommend wearing gloves when working with iron as the iron will stain your hands. I hope this brief introduction to modifiers has sparked some inspiration and gets you excited about how you might expand your color palette of naturally dyed fabrics. In the next lesson, we'll talk about how to document the natural dye process in a dye journal. 13. BONUS LESSON: Keeping a Dye Journal: H. As you step into the world of natural dyeing, I strongly encourage you to keep a record of the processes and techniques that you're using. Every dye will produce different results under different conditions. And there's so many factors that can impact the color result, including temperature, pH, length of time in the dye pot, et cetera. Keeping a dye journal is a great way to begin to notice how changes and different factors impact your results. My dye journal is just a mixed media sketchbook that I got from the local craft shop, and it seems a bit chaotic. But let me tell you what I generally include for each entry. So once I'm done dyeing a piece of fabric, I'll snip a little swatch from one of the corners and add it to my dye journal. Along with the swatch, I'll record some information about the process I used to achieve that color. In my dye journal, I'll generally include the date, some information about the substrate or kind of fabric and weight that I used. I'll make some notes about the mordant, including the type of tannin and the percent of tannin, as well as the percent of alum. I'll make notes about the dye stuff and the percentage of the weight of fiber that I used, as well as any additional notes, such as whether it was the exhaust bath and perhaps even the temperature of the water and how much time I allowed it to sit in the dye pot. If I use any modifiers, such as a pH modifier or iron, I'll include information about that, as well. You can get as granular and scientific as you want with your dye journal. The more notes you take and the more information you have, the better you'll begin to see patterns and understand how different factors impact the final results. In the resources section, I've provided a dye journal template for you to print and use as a guide for creating your own dye journal. In the next lesson, I'll share with you how I achieved all of these colors using only three dye materials, along with the different techniques covered in this course. 14. Final Dye Results: Let me share with you some of the fabric that I dyed during this course. I was able to achieve all of these different colors using only three different dye stuffs and a variety of techniques that we've learned throughout this course. Let's break down all of these colors that I achieved, moving from left to right. I achieved a really dark burgundy color using MatarootEtract, modified with a little bit of iron. Just above that is fabric dyed with MatarootEtract at 9% weight of fiber. Next to that was another piece of fabric dyed in the MatarotEhaust bath. Took half of the fabric dyed in the exhaust bath and modified that with iron to get the next fabric. Moving on to the fabric on the right, I got a beautiful deep brown, dyed with Himalayan rhubarb and modified with some iron. The next fabric was made with ground Himalayan rhubarb, dyed at 30% weight of fiber. And the next piece of fabric was the exhaust bath. In this case, there was a lot of dye left over in the bath, and there isn't much difference between the first piece of fabric and the fabric dyed in the exhaust bath. I could have dyed a third piece of fabric to achieve a lighter shade. The last four pieces of fabric were all dyed with marigold flowers. The first was dyed with dried flowers, a 25% weight of fiber and achieved a bright yellow color. The next piece of fabric is a paler yellow and was dyed using the exhaust bath. Olive green was achieved by taking part of the fabric dyed in marigold flowers and modifying it with iron. And the last color was using part of the fabric dyed in the Marigold exhaust bath and modifying that with iron. As you can see, from just three different dye stuffs, we can really achieve a wide range of colors. In the next lesson, I'll share some final thoughts and discuss some options for further exploration in the world of natural dyeing. 15. 15 Conclusion: Well, you've done it. Hopefully, by now, you find the process of natural dyeing a little less intimidating. And maybe you've even come out of this course with a beautifully dyed piece of fabric. I would love to see the beautiful work that you create from this course. So take a photograph of a piece of fabric that you dyed and share with us what you used to dye it and what you learned along the way. Be sure to submit your final class project on the projects page. There are endless opportunities for continued learning and exploring in the world of natural dyeing. Some techniques you may want to explore further include eco printing, painting with natural dye pastes, block printing, creating an indigovat or making lake pigments and creating your own natural dye paints. In the resources section, I've provided a list of books that can help you take what you've learned from this class and expand it further. If you enjoy this course, I would really appreciate it if you would leave a review. Reviews will help others find this class and will help provide valuable feedback for me so that I can continue creating quality classes. If you're looking for project ideas, to use your naturally dyed fabric, check out some of my other classes. I have several quilting classes available on Skillshare for both beginners and for more advanced quilters. Imagine creating a quilt made entirely from fabric you hand dyed yourself. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or comments that you have. I'd love to continue to be a resource as you dive deeper into the world of natural dyeing. Thank you so much for letting me be part of your journey into natural dyeing. Bye for now.