Making Natural Dyes From Plants

Making dyes from common plants is not a new thing. It is, in fact, how we first got colour. Our ancestors knew they could extract certain colours from certain plants, such as yellow from goldenrod or purple from berries. Although commercial dyes are simpler, many long to return to doing things the natural way.

Did you know that a great source for natural dyes can be found right in your own back yard! Roots, nuts and flowers are just a few common natural ways to get many colours. Yellow, orange, blue, red, green, brown and grey are available.
Here we will take a look at a few plants and the colours they give along with how to prepare a dyebath and dye material. Go ahead, experiment!

Gathering plant material for dyeing: Blossoms should be in full bloom, berries ripe and nuts mature. Remember, never gather more than 2/3 of a stand of anything in the wild when gathering plant stuff for dying.

To make the dye solution: Chop plant material into small pieces and place in a pot. Double the amount of water to plant material. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour. Strain. Now you can add your fabric to be dyed. For a stronger shade, allow material to soak in the dye overnight.

Getting the fabric ready for the dye bath: You will have to soak the fabric in a colour fixative before the dye process. This will make the colour set in the fabric.

Colour Fixatives:

Salt Fixative (for berry dyes) 1/2 cup salt to 8 cups cold water

Plant Fixatives (for plant dyes) 4 parts cold water to 1 part vinegar

Add fabric to the fixative and simmer for an hour. Rinse the material and squeeze out excess. Rinse in cool water until water runs clear.

Dye Bath: Place wet fabric in dye bath. Simmer together until desired colour is obtained. The colour of the fabric will be lighter when its dry. Also note that all dyed fabric should be laundered in cold water and separately.

To make a dyebath, wrap the materials in cheesecloth, cover in water and simmer for times listed. Remove the cheesecloth and dye materials, then add enough hot water to make 4 gallons of dyebath.

Muslin, cotton and wool work best for natural dyes and the lighter the fabric in colour, the better. White or pastel colours work the best.

Mordent
When dying material, you should add a mordant to the dye, which will make it colourfast. The best mordant to use is alum (aluminum potassium sulfate). Using a stainless steel pot, dissolve 5 1/2 oz. of alum in 4 gallons of lukewarm water. Wet whatever you wish to dye and then immerse it in this mixture with a wooden spoon. Bring it slowly to a boil for 20 minutes. Remove from the mordant bath, wring it out and place it immediately in the dyebath.

NOTE: It's best to use an old pot for dyeing and wear gloves when handling the fabric that has been dyed. It will stain your hands. It's also important to note, some plant dyes may be toxic.

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Below is a sample list of a few plants and the colours they will give.

Their simmering times are listed and the amount given will make 4 gallons of dye. Gather the dye materials when they are in full bloom or mature.

A listing of plant material available for dyes:

Shades Of Orange
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- Sassafras (leaves)
- Onion peels
- Lichen (gold)

Shades Of Yellow
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- coreopsis - simmer 2 bushels of flower heads for 1 hour.
- goldenrod - simmer 2 pds. of flower heads and stems for 1/2 hour. deep golden to pale yellow
- onion skins - simmer 2 pounds of dry skins for 20 minutes.- Onion peels make a great orange or yellow mattering on how long you leave it in the dye bath and whether you are using cotton or wool.
- Onion skins and lichen makes a gorgeous gold colour
- Red Clover (whole blossom, leaves and stem); alum mordant; Gold.
- Yellow cone flower (whole flower head); chrome mordant; Brass to Greeney-Brass.
- Marigold (blossoms)
- Willow (leaves)
- Queen Anne's Lace
- Burdock
- Celery (leaves)
- Golden Rod (flowers)
- Sumac (bark)
- Weld (bright yellow)
- Cameleon plant (golden) (Alum mordant.)
- Osage Orange (heartwood)(shavings or sawdust)
- Dandelion flower
- Bois d'arc or hedgeapple (pale yellow)(wood and inner bark)


Shades Of Brown
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- acorns - soak 7 pds. of ground nuts overnight, then boil them 2 1/2 hrs.
- marigold - simmer 2 bushels of flower heads for 1 hour.
- Sumac (leaves)
- Walnut (hulls)
- Tea Bags (makes a light brown)
- Juniper berries
- Coffee grinds
- Any style of tea bag you can buy from the store or homemade tea if you live in an area where growing that is possible makes a very light nice brown.

Shades Of Peach
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- Broom Flower
- Virginia Creeper (all parts); alum mordant; Peach.

Shades Of Pink
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- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Raspberries (red)

Shades Of Red
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- Dandelion (root)
- Beets (deep red)
- Rose (hips)
- Red onion (skins)
- Chokecherries
- Madder

Shades Of Red - Purple
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- Pokeweed (berries)

Shades Of Green:
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- Lily-Of-The-Valley - (Light Green) simmer 2 pds. of fresh leaves for 1 hour.
- Queen Anne's Lace - simmer 1 bushel of heads and stems for 1 hour.
- Rhododendrun - gather 3 pds. green leaves, let them soak overnight and then boil 1 hour.
- Spinach Leaves
- Black-Eyed Susans
- Grass
- Nettle
- Plantain Roots
- Grass makes a nice shade of green. Just boil it in water, remove grass and use the remaining as dye.

Shades Of Blue - Purple or Lavender
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- Red cabbage
- Elderberries (deep lavender)
- Grapes
- Blueberries
- Cherry (roots)
- Blackberry (strong purple)s - simmer 2 pds. of fully ripe berries for 1/2 hour.
- Japanese indigo (deep blue)
- Red Cedar Root (purple) (Alum mordant.)
- Red Maple Tree (purple)(inner bark)iron mordant

Shades Of Grey - Black
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- Iris (roots)

Shades Of Black
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- Sumac (leaves)

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Natural Dye Plants

Plant a dyers garden with this collection of natural and vegetable dyeplants and wildflowers, including pictures and information on planting, growing, dye recipes for wool, cotton, silk and other spinning fibres, fabrics and yarns

Acorns
When preparing acorns, the by-product of making them edible can be used as a natural dye. Crack open the acorns with a large stone. To make the nutmeats edible you boil them in hot water and strain, then boil again with new water, until the water runs clear. When boiling them the water will turn brown (natural tannins boiling away from the acorns.) This brown liquid (natural tannic acid solution) can be used with a vinegar-based fixative for a very dark brown colour to cloth. It is a byproduct of boiling hulled acorns, for eating.

Beets
Dyeing with Beets - Beta vulgaris - are fun to experiment with in your kitchen. Although not very colourfast, they will produce shades of rust/red or tan colours.

Bloodroot
Bloodroot - Sanguinaria canadensis, can be used to dye reds, pinks, and orange colours.

Burdock Root
Burdock Root - Arctium lappa produces a yellow dye, and also has medicinal properties.

Clematis
The Clematis is not only lovely and fragrant, but its leaves also make a yellow dye.

Coreopsis
The blossoms of the Coreopsis can be used to make yellow and orange dye.

Hemp Dogbane
The inner fibre of Hemp Dogbane - Apocynum cannabinum, was used by the First Nations for spinning into twine, and rope.

Hollyhocks
Hollyhock blossoms give various shades of pinks, reds, mauves and tan colours depending on the colour of the blossoms and the mordants used. It's stalks can also be used for making paper.

Lady's Bedstraw
Lady's Bedstraw - Galium Verum, produces reds and yellows. It is also used for cheese rennet and medicines.

Red Cedar
Many tree barks will produce a dye, including the Western Red Cedar.

Rhododendron
Rhododendron leaves will produce yellows, oranges and shades of green, depending on the mordants used.

Russett Buffalo Berry
The fruit of the Russett Buffalo Berry or Soapberry - Shepherdia canadensis produces a red dye.

Strawberry Blite
Strawberry Blite - Chenopodium capitatum, grows as a common weed. Both the fruit and the entire plant can be used for dye to produce pinks and red colours.

Sweet Woodruff
Sweet Woodruff - Galium Odoratum gives reds and yellows. It is also used for medicines, teas and wines.

White Bedstraw
The roots of White Bedstraw yield pink and red colours.

Yarrow
Yarrow - Achillea is used for yellow, tan and green dye colours.

Cochineal
Dactylopius coccus
Cochineal comes from the crushed bodies of dried insects. The cochineal bugs can be found on prickly pear cacti, in the southern US as well as Peru, Mexico, Canary Islands and Australia. Cochineal yields reds, purples, corals and fushsias, depending on the mordants used.

Brazilwood
A natural dye substance that gives reds, purples, and pinks and corals.. Brazilwood can be obtained from several trees: Haematoxylum brasiletta, Caesalpinia sappan, C. echinata

Logwood
Haematoxylum campechianum
Logwood comes from a tree native to the West Indies and the Yucatan Peninsula. The heartwood yields a dye that gives pinks, blues, purples and greens depending on the mordants.

Osage Orange
Maclura pomifera
Osage Orange comes from a tree native to Arkansas and Texas. Its wood makes a clear lemon yellow dye.

Red Sandalwood
Pterocarpus antalinus
Red Sandalwood comes for a tree native to India and Indonesia. The dye substance is from the heartwood and yields oranges, browns and auburn shades of colour.

Tara Powder
Caesaipina Spinosa
- used as a mordant in natural dyeing of cottons and linens

Alum
Aluminum Potasium Sulfate
used as a mordant in natural dyeing

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Using natural dyes is not difficult, but takes some preparation.

Any fibre that you dye must be clean, or you will be dyeing the wool grease and not the fibre. So scour it well, in hot, soapy water. And rinse out the yarn.

With most natural dyes, it requires a 2 step process.
The mordanting of the yarn and then the application of the dye. Many of the natural dyes also need some time to soak (overnight). It is usually best done over a 2 day period. Mordant the yarns on the first day, prepare the dye solutions and then dye on the second day. Natural dyes usually require the fibre to be soaked in a pre-mordant bath. The mordant prepares the fibre to receive the dyestuff, deepening, or changing the colour and making it more colourfast.

Using about 1 lb. of yarn, winding off sample skeins, each approx. 10 yards in length. Pre-mordant the yarn samples the day before you plan to dye.

In general use are 2 different mordants, giving a range of colours.

Alum/Tartaric Acid Mordant

* Use 10% Alum to weight of fibre
* Use 5% Tartaric Acid to weight of fibre

Weigh fibre and weigh out required mordants. Add mordants to a dyepot filled with hot water. Dissolve and add clean, wet yarn samples. Simmer for about an hour at 90 degrees Celsius. Remove the yarn and rinse well.

Tin Mordant

* Use 5% to weight of fibre

Weigh your fibre and the required amount of mordant. Dissolve the tin mordant in the hot dyebath of water. Add clean, wet yarn samples. Simmer for 1 hour. Remove the yarn and rinse well.

To save time, you can make larger baths of mordants and pre-mordant larger amounts of yarn, labelling them appropriately, so that they are ready when you want to do some dyeing.

Even though there is much more work to this process than there is with buying a container of dye at the store, as you experiment with making natural dyes you will see that nature makes colours that a science lab simply cannot duplicate