I often find inspiration from (the very creative and super fun) Desi over at Law of Attraction blog. When she recently posted about tie-dying adventures, I felt inspired to have a go.
Living here in rural Costa Rica means there is not an art store within reach and receiving a package of dyes by mail might take over a month. I started researching the how to make natural fabric dyes and I am happy to report it was easy and very satisfying.
Pixel and I chose the spice turmeric to make our our first batch of dye. Now I cannot wait to try making dye from beets, black beans, plums...the list goes on.
We started by boiling the white cotton in a vinegar and water bath (4 parts water to 1 part vinegar) for one hour.
Rinse your fabric and boil the chosen spice (or other) in water. I think we used about 4 tablespoons of spice to 8 cups of water. Bring to a boil, add fabric and cut the heat. Allow to soak. What determines the color is how long you leave the fabric in to soak.
We chose to tie dye the fabric and recycled rubber bands we had around the house.
Remove rubber bands and rinse. As much fun as unwrapping a surprise gift.
I really do think it's the surprise element that has me so hooked on it. I love surprises, but I don't like waiting for them, so this kind of project is a win, win for me.
Posted by: Desi McKinnon | June 05, 2013 at 07:21 AM