Tie dye, hippy needs help Options

[artist.unknown]

Okay, so I accidentally dyed my fingers brown cutting zucchini (henna-like), and it got me to wondering if I could do the same to a shirt. However, I haven't found and haven't heard of any ways to do organic tie dyeing, and what plants are good to use, or even how to make a dye from plant material. Does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks. ^^

[Kitty]

All I can think of is this project a girl did when we were in the 3rd grade and she boiled different kinds of flowers and such to extract their colors....

I did look up how they died fabrics in the medieval times once and it seemed pretty complicated, theres all these compounds you need (yes, they had powdered chemical-like stuff back then.... strange huh?) and most of the recipes I found were still using the medieval terms for the plants.... O.O Very confusing.... But I can send you thoes links if you're intrested! just send me a pm

[Aria]

I don't think veggie dyes will last, especially if you're using strong detergents to wash the clothing in. Your best bet would be to use chemical dye... Unless you can find some sort of sealant for the veggie dyes.

[EvilSpork]

I'm pretty sure clays are used as dyes, but you'd have to look into that a bit more... I know nothing about clothing dyes.

[Cath Sparrow]

You can use also sorts of stuff as a natural dye but it the getting it to stay that's your problem. For the colours it's best just to experiment with pretty much any thing you can think of. You will need a desent amount of anything your going to use because you'll need to boil it. Onion skins give a yellow colour. I think there is stuff you can buy to stay the colour but I'm not sure what it's called.
But as I've said to find differnt colours your best bet is to PLAY!

[voices_in_my_hea...]

I have a T-shirt that was dyed with "Real Red Texas Dirt" (Don't you love the way that tourist will buy anything?)

Maybe you could try different types of dirt?

[eleraama]

Most berries have lots of pigment, and irises stain well too. I think I've heard of using soda (the caustic powder, not the drink) to lock in colour, but I'm not sure... Maybe you could make do with baking soda?

[Daria]

Salt usually locks in the colour, but I'm not sure for how long...
Walnut husks (the green things that grow around the shell when they are on the tree) make a black dye, Lichen makes yellow (except it is rare in some parts so don't pick it all then find out you have got rid of the local lichen population), and red cabbage and beetroot make excellent purples and reds.
For greens and blues, I have no idea as although green is a very common natural colour it is only because of the chlorophyll in it. And blue is quite an unusual colour, so I suppose you could use lots of flowers for that. But as with most of these, you would probably have to boil them down in lots of water and make a concentrated solution.
NB- If any of my advice goes horibly wrong, ignore it, and don't sue me

[mooooooooooopo]

Most flowers, regardless of the petal colour, will make varying shades of yellow when you try to make them into a dye. Better to use marigolds than lichen...you'd need a ton of lichen to make just a little dye. And marigold are easy to grow, cheap, and not at all rare.

For a strong blue dye, you generally need indigo, I think.

Edit: Whoops. This is Cand.

[Wyvern]

For a good deep green cabbage leaves or spinach is superb although it takes alot of rather smelly preparation.

Fushia flowers give a good violet/cerise although the amount you'd need would probably be prohibitive.

From memory I think its blackberries and similar fruits give a deep purply colour too.

Rocks and minerals can give some beautiful shades, but again its getting htem in sufficient quantities.

For fixing the dyes it depends on the source and the material you are using. Some use caustic soda (nasty stuff), others use salt which is pretty good all round fixant. Most of them involve a boiling process as well and although colours can be quite vibrant you have to be very careful as washing them and even sunlight affect the colours much more than modern chemical dyes.

Anyway as Cath says PLAY its the best way. If however you do want a few recipes to play with PM me, as I've a book full of ones for dyeing natural wools and yarns. I used to tinker about with it and it certainly gives hours of fun

[voices_in_my_hea...]

From memory I think its blackberries and similar fruits give a deep purply colour too.

Well, I know that they stain your hands a blood red color (which is fun around Halloween) but maybe it's different with fabric?