Crossing Off the Summer To-Do List: Natural Dyeing -

I’ve been wanting to experiment with dyeing using natural dyes and finally crossed that one off my summer to-do list last week. Originally I was going to invite a group of girlfriends over, but I thought I’d better play around with things a bit myself beforehand. Turns out it’s super easy, and besides making a major mess of the kitchen, I totally want to do this all the time now as I found the whole process and afternoon to be really relaxing. I can also see myself getting addicted to wanting to perfect my colors. I’m ready for you ladies!

I would say I’ve actually learned a lot about natural dyes over the past few months just from having a baby who’s now eating solids around. I’m constantly finding berry stains on my tops from Rex’s little hands or avocado kisses on my shoulders. But I did a little googling around the internet and decided I would try beets (blush pink), turmeric (mustard-orange), onions (pale yellow), and black rose tea (light brown) for a mainly muted color palette. I really love how the pale yellow from the onion peels and the light brown from the tea turned out best. Next time I’m planning to leave it in the beets longer for more of a bolder pink, and tip: be careful with the turmeric batch. That one is bold so you don’t have to leave it in long but still creates a gorgeous mustard color.

While my tea towels were drying I played around with a little video! Now there’s a whole lot more Rex than dye but I love the home video, day-in-the life feel of it. And you can get a glimpse of the remodel construction craziness that is still happening over here… Hope you enjoy!

Tip | Soak the pieces you want to dye in water overnight.

Prep your ingredients, throw them in a boiling pot of water with your material and wait about 20 minutes or as desired for the intensity of the color you want.