Natural Dyeing – My First Attempts – Eco Prints!

(this is what it’s supposed to look like… not what mine look like!)

Alright so with my first natural dyeing attempts I’ve had both failures and successes… That’s what learning’s all about right?! Same thing here with the eco prints, a slightly different process but within the same realm.
Supplies:

• Big Pot (Don’t use it for anything but Dyeing!)
• Mixing spoon (same thing only for dyeing)
• Soda Ash
• Alum & Cream or Tartar
• Cotton Fabric
• Dowels/ PVC scraps
• A bunch of fresh leaves and flowers!
• A steaming rack for your pot
  

First Scour:
Wash 1lb of fabric in 1oz of Soda ash boiling for 1-2 hours, allow it to cool over night. Repeat if the water is super yucky.

Second Mordant:
Add 1lb of scoured fabric to a pot filled with boiling water and 1/4lb Alum + 1oz Cream of Tartar. Simmer for 1 hour. Allow to cool overnight.

Now to make the “Eco Prints”:

I got 3 baby onesies scoured and Mordanted for this project. And tried out different techniques for each.

#1 was my rabbit brush and eucalyptus leaves onesie. I didn’t know if the rabbit brush flowers would work but I put them down and then sprinkled some dried eucalyptus leaves around it. I had seen that eucalyptus creates a pretty red or black and figured that’d look great next to the yellow I assumed I’d get. I wrapped it all up around a copper pipe (maybe that would do something cool as an extra mordant) and then I wrapped it tight with cord and got it wet. And put it in the steamer pot.

#2 was my flower onesie. I got a load of fresh flowers from the yard, some blue forget me nots, orange calendula, purple hollyhocks, yellow jeruselum artichoke flowers, and some orange nasturtiums too and threw them all over the dry onesie. Then I wrapped it up around a dowel and didn’t wet it, just wrapped it tight with string and placed it into the steamer pot.

#3 was very simple. A sumac leaf right dab in the middle and some of the dried eucalyptus I’d saved from a wedding I attended a week earlier. I put a piece of plastic over this to keep it from bleeding and then wrapped it around a wooden dowel and tightly wrapped it in cord. Then I wet it like I did with #1. And finally added it to the pot.
Steamed them for 2 hours misting them with a spray bottle and turning them occasionally. Let them cool overnight and through the next day. And then set them in the greenhouse to dry. But I couldn’t wait for them to dry all the way. Too much anticipation.

I unwrapped them and this is what I got…

#1 The rabbit brush worked! Cool! But the eucalyptus I was so sure would turn out awesome didn’t do a damn thing… maybe because they were dried first?

#2 The flowers onesie looked so cute with all the flowers on it but was a dud when it came out. The only thing that left color was the hollyhock flowers and maybe a little bit of the nasturtium. Another surprise.

#3 My favorite turned out to be the most simple one, the sumac leaf. But the flower shirt bled a little color onto it’s sleeve so that’s something to watch out for while steaming.

I’m starting to learn that there’s a lot of trial and error with this process and you have to understand and be okay with creating some pretty ugly stuff for a while. But the successes can be super rewarding. Plus it reminds me of making magic potions when I was a little kid. But now I get some tangible results!

Hope you make time to give it a try. You might just get hooked. I know I’m going to be doing a lot more of this.