Natural dyeing – cotton

Steps to dye cotton

1. Scour fabric

  • Fill large pot so that cloth are covered and not crowded
  • For each 450g (1 pound) of goods add 10ml (2 tsp) Synthrapol and 20g (4 tsp) soda ash
  • Simmer for one hour. Water will turn slight yellow.
  • Allow fiber to cool down slowly and then rinse
  • Use washing machine to rinse more and spin

2. Apply tannin

  • Disolve 10-20% WOF in hot water in small bowl
  • Put hot water in container (or pot), water at 120F - 140F
  • Add tannin solution and stir
  • Add wet fibers and soak for 1 to 2 hours (can go up do 24 hours), stirring occasionally
  • Put cover on to keep the warm water
  • Gently rinse and wring (or spin in machine). Do not allow fiber to dry and do mordant.

3. Apply mordant

  • Add wet fibers to pot
  • Disolve alum at 15% WOF in hot water in small container
  • Add alum solution to pot
  • Cover fibers with hot water 120F - 140F
  • Cover pot and let soak for 1 to 2 hours. If outside, keep warm (no boil) on the burner.
  • Use to dye immediately or dry for later use

4. Dye fabric

  • Measure your dye
  • Add tap hot water to your pot (enough so fiber can move freely)
  • Add dyestuff to the pot
  • Add wetted, scoured, mordanted fibers to pot
  • Bring heat up slowly (no higher than 200F for cotton), also according to type of dye
  • Most dyes require that the temperature be held for one hour. During this time, the material should be stirred gently.
  • Turn off the heat and allow the dyebath to cool slowly.
  • Some colors will benefit from staying in the dyebath overnight (except all yellows and logwood)
  • Remove fiber from dyebath and rinse gently in cool water. Hang out to dry out of sunlight.

Madder color (with madder root powder)

  • dye at 35% to 100% WOF (for a medium to dark red)
  • if water too soft, add a Tum's tablet (for brighter red)
  • Add dye powder to water and bring to 140F. Hold for an hour.
  • Add fibers and continue cooking for another 1-2 hours.
  • Do not let water go over 160F (color will turn brown).
  • Dyebath can be reused two or three times for lighter shades.

Logwood (gives red-purple to orchid blue)

  • Do a tannin bath at 8% WOF, then aluminum acetate bath at 8% WOF
  • Dye with logwood chips at 10% to 15% WOF (for a medium to dark red/purple)
  • Pour enough boiling water over the logwood to make a dyebath and soak overnight.
  • Pour off this liquid and use for the first (and strongest) dyebath.
  • Logwood develops best in slightly hard water. Adding finely ground chalk (or a Tum’s tablet) brightens the logwood colour
  • Simmer fibres for about one hour, keeping the temperature between 170-180ºF.
  • If a darker colour is required leave fibres in dyebath overnight.
  • The logwood chips can be soaked again and the liquid used for lighter shades.

Indigo (banana vat)

You only need to scour your fabric (no mordant, no tannin).

  • Prepare dye vat and let rest for 24 hours
  • Fabric needs to be submerged in hot water for about 30 minutes prior to dyeing, or more
  • Check the PH (needs to be between 11 and 12, or 12)
  • If not alkaline enough (below 12), add 1 tbsp of calx, stir and let rest for a bit before you re-test
  • When PH ok, remove the indigo flower
  • Do a test of the dye vat with test strip for 5 minutes, if all ok, start dyeing
  • Submerge fabric in dye bath for 5 to 10 minutes
  • Rinse in a rinse bucket filled with cold water
  • Let fabric rest/oxidise for 10 to 15 minutes
  • Dye a second time for 5 or 10 minutes
  • Four dips will give you a strong dark color; you can dip over multiple days also

Rinse and neutralize

  • When ready to stop, prepare 3 buckets of water, one to rinse, one to neutralize and last one to do a final rinse.
  • The second rinse is the neutralizing bath containing water and vinegar. 15 ml vinegar (5% acetic acid strength) per litre of water. Let fabric soak in it for 15 minutes. This vinegar bath can be reused multiple times.
  • Do a final rinse in plain water or under the tap.