Natural Dyeing – My First Attempts – Chokecherry

Alright so my first attempt with Nettles was a failure… But I learned from it.

Next I tried natural dyeing with black beans which is a no heat method and got some pretty cool results.

But my third try, this time with Chokecherry turned out even better!

Supplies:

• Big Pot (Don’t use it for anything but Dyeing!)
• Mixing spoon (same thing only for dyeing)
• Soda Ash
• Alum & Cream or Tartar
• Cotton Fabric
• A bunch of chokecherries (I didn’t weigh them but I’m going to make it a habit)

First Scour:
Wash 1lb of fabric in 1oz of Soda ash boiling for 1-2 hours, allow it to cool over night. Repeat if the water is super yucky.

Second Mordant:
Add 1lb of scoured fabric to a pot filled with boiling water and 1/4lb Alum + 1oz Cream of Tartar. Simmer for 1 hour. Allow to cool overnight.

Now to make the chokecherry dye…

Throw the chokecherries in a pot with water and bring them to a simmer. Smash them up in there trying to get all the color out. Don’t burn them. After an hour let the solution cool. After it’s cooled (probably overnight) strain out the berries. You can throw them in your compost because you haven’t gotten any chemicals on them. Some sources say to boil/ simmer your fabric in the solution for an hour or 2 then let it cool and hang it to dry. Instead I poured my solution in a jar and added the fabric to the jar, leaving it to sit for 2 or so days (Shaking from time to time). Then I hung it to dry…

It looked pretty awesome:

And then I rinsed it in cold water…
And it didn’t look as awesome.

I used the same solution on another piece of fabric, just dipping the end and letting the fluid absorb up it. When it had gone far enough I pulled it out and hung it to dry.

And then I was weary but I rinsed it out…

Looks like different fabrics absorb the color differently… this is one of my favorites so far. It has a variety of colors in it. Maybe because I did the dipped end thing to it.

Attempt #3 at natural fabric dyeing seems to be bringing some better results! Thanks for taking a look! You should try some yourself! It's really rather magical!