I'm Dyeing Here

Textiles is a fun class! Just last week we went out in the parking lot and burned fabrics. And now for my mid-term project I get to dye fabric using all-natural dyes (fruit, vegetables, flowers—even dirt). I need to try at least three different things, with two different variables each; for example, boiled rose

petals with salt; boiled rose petals without salt.

So my house has been a laboratory for the last two days. It's been interesting. And rather smelly. I could have used so many things that it was difficult to narrow it down to three. But since I wanted strong colors I finally decided on Beets, Red Cabbage, and Saffron (the world's most expensive dye).

First I tried beets. I chopped 10 oz. of scrubbed beets into a pot and added 1 cup of water and 1/4 cup white vinegar. Bring to a boil and add a square of clean, white cotton fabric. Let simmer for 30 minutes. While it was cooking Brandon came into the kitchen and told me he thought sweet and sour pork sounded really good about then. Yep. It did smell kind of like sweet and sour sauce. The fabric turned a beautiful raspberry color (or maybe it was beet-color). But when I rinsed it out it faded to a pink—almost mauve—color. Bummer. My second attempt was with the fabric first soaked in salt water and then just put into a pile of 10 oz. of shredded beets. It turned out even lighter. I did one more beet-dye job, salt water (instead of vinegar) and shredded beets, boiled then strained (so I only used the juice with no solids in it). It's pretty much the same as the first one.

Then I tried red cabbage. This smell did not inspire anyone to desire food. Quite the opposite. I did pretty much the same thing with the cabbage as I did with the beets. I got a pretty purply-blue fabric with the cabbage broth. The second piece was done overnight, with pieces of cabbage in the broth. And if you think boiling cabbage stinks, you should have a whiff after it's been sitting out all night! The fabric turned blueish-purple with blue spots; I assume the spots were where the cabbage actually touched the fabric.

Saffron was next. Saffron sells for about $250 per ounce. This is because it is "the stigmas from the crocus sativus flower. There are only 3 stigmas—referred to as saffron threads—per flower. Saffron is hand harvested and it takes about 13,125 threads to weigh one ounce." This is not my own superior intelligence speaking here; I got this information online. Anyway, I have a whole bottle of saffron that my mom brought me from Portugal about 16 years ago (apparently it's cheap there). It's not a spice that I use all that often; so I mixed 1 cup hot water with 1 Tbsp. salt and 1 tsp. saffron, and in went the fabric. Seriously, that's like $25 for a cup of dye! For my variable I did the second batch with 1 cup cold water, 1/4 cup white vinegar and 1 tsp. saffron. Let it sit overnight and, voila! Beautiful yellow fabrics!

After I took the fabrics out of their dye-baths this morning I mixed up the leftover juices: cabbage + beets at a 2 to 1 ratio; salt/saffron with 1/4 cup beet juice and vinegar/saffron with 2 Tbsp. beet juice. And just for giggles I mixed 1 cup hot water with 1 Tbsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cloves and 1/2 tsp. vanilla and tossed some fabric into that. The cabbage/beet mixture is just an ugly gray; very disappointing. The two saffron mixes just look yellow unless you put them next to the plain saffron pieces; then they look more yellow-orange. Surprisingly, the beets seem to make the weakest dye.

Now I'm thinking of chopping up some of the Deadly Nightshade that grows in my side yard and seeing what that does, too. It's fun!

I had hoped that my kids would think this was cool and would want to play with me, but the only interest they showed was when Brandon mentioned the sweet and sour pork. Oh well.

Here's what I ended up with:

clockwise from right: beets + cabbage, cabbage juice, cabbage overnight, saffron with vinegar, saffron with salt, saffron with beets and vinegar, saffron with beets and salt, beet juice and salt overnight, shredded beets and salt, diced beets and vinegar, cinnamon. fancy, huh?

But should I try the deadly nightshade plant? And if I do, should I throw my pan away when I'm done?