Sunday 4 November 2007

more on dyeing (that's with an 'e')

I signed up for a tea dyeing class through Quilt University, and it's been very interesting. The teas I have tried so far have been :
Twinings Earl Grey - nice pale tan
Dilmah extra strength - very strong tan, nice
Twinings Blackcurrant - light tan, later read that it's only blackcurrant 'flavoured'
Lipton Orange - lovely pale pink
Twinings Raspberry and Peach - deeper pink
Twinings Pure Peppermint - pale cream
Twinings Lemon and Ginger - not much change
Lipton Cinnamon and Apple - pale tan

I used white homespun fabric. When I rinsed them in water and vinegar, a lot of the colour disappeared, but they are still quite use-able (is that a word?).



They were only smallish pieces, so I rummaged around in my plastic tubs of dyed fabrics and found these. They have all been hanging around for a few years waiting to be used, so now's the time!



The biggest square I could get out of the tea dyed pieces was 8" so I cut *8 squares out of all of them and just made some half square triangle blocks. I had originally planned to do something a bit more involved, but got a bit discouraged after rinsing out most of the colour.


They turned out to be very 'spring' looking - quite pretty. Maybe I'll add some flowers or something to play up the light spring feel a bit. Haven't got that far yet.

1 comment:

Delta said...

If you let the fabric dry before rinsing it out, you will keep more of the color of the tea. You can also use coffee for a darker stain, and if you scrunch it up and let it dry you will get darker streaks at the folds of where it's wadded. Coffee/tea dyeing is so much fun to play around with too!