Natural fabric dye How to Use Food Scrap-Sweet Potato Spirits

Happy Earth Month! April is the month to celebrate Mother Nature and the beautiful earth she has given us to call home. We should celebrate every day by being eco-conscious about what we do and what we eat, but I love celebrating the holidays. April 22 is Earth Day and what better way to celebrate than with a DIY craft to upcycle clothes and fabrics you already have at home. Making natural fabric dye is incredibly easy and you probably already have all the ingredients you need: food scraps!

Giving food scraps a new purpose is a great way to reduce personal food waste. Scraps can always be composted, but there are other practical uses for them as well. Onion peels, carrot peels, mushroom stems and herb stems can be frozen and used later to make vegetable broth. If you grow your own carrots or buy carrots from the farmer’s market with the tops still attached, you can use those greens to make a delicious carrot top pesto. Did you know that you can use those scraps to dye your clothes?

The best way to celebrate Earth Day is to do nothing; Stay at home, plant some flowers in the garden, try to use less electricity and water for the day. This makes it a great activity to do at home because the materials needed for this project are usually found around the house and yard.

Natural fabric dye materials

All you need for home dyeing is a stainless steel pot and some stirring. It is always a good idea to use gloves when working with dyes as well. You will need a fine mesh strainer.

Fabric

Of course you need some type of fabric that you will color adhere to. Natural fibers like cotton, wool or silk work well. Wool and silk are not vegan, so the clothes I already have at home are either synthetic or cotton. Stay away from full synthetics when using natural fabric dyes as the color will not absorb evenly or at all. Try using clothes you already have at home; Old sheets, tea towels, white shirts or dresses all work great. Upcycle what you can!

food scraps

The fun part is saving all the food scraps! Some examples of foods that can be used for natural fabric dyes are avocado pits, avocado skins, onion skins, purple cabbage, black beans, tea, spinach, blackberries, blueberries, and beets. Have fun experimenting with this part! You can also forage outside for colorful things like flowers (we’ll talk more about this later), ferns, grass, and bark. Always make sure you don’t take too much from where you are grazing. Think; What stains do you get when you spill food on your clothes? They will work perfect for dyes.

If you don’t want to paint right away, store your food scraps in an airtight container in the refrigerator until they’re ready to use.

How to Make Natural Fabric Dye

There are a few steps to complete before dyeing the fabric. Separate food scraps by type; All these will be different colors. Cut them into small pieces to make them more colorful, then add them to a pot with double the amount of water. Boil scraps and water until desired color, then strain. Before you add your fabric, you need to prepare it with a color fixative.

Mordant the fabric

Sometimes natural dyes have a hard time sticking to fabric. In this case, you will need a color fixative before coloring. One of the easiest to come by already in your spice cupboard- Alum! Bring a large pot of water to a boil (use a pot you can keep separate from cooking. A good place to find this is at a thrift store). Carefully scoop out some of the water in a measuring cup and add the curry, stirring until it dissolves. The amount of alum should be 10-20% of the dry weight of your fabric, so you need to measure using a food scale. Add the alum solution back to the pot and stir until evenly distributed. Add the fabric to the water and let it simmer for about an hour, but do not let the water boil. Stir occasionally. After an hour remove from heat and let solution and fabric cool. Your fabric is ready to dye!

dye clothes

If the fabric is dry after mordanting, soak the fabric in hot water. Previously, I covered the pot with fabric and placed the food scraps in the water while boiling for several hours, but this could produce disintegrating results. It’s best to dye it first, then add the fabric. You can boil it or let the fabric soak until the desired color is reached. If the color is right for you, rinse the fabric with cold water and let it dry. You can set the dye by ironing or placing the material in the dryer. The color of the fabric may fade over time, but you can always re-dye it!

Paint with flower petals

Another fun way to color fabric is with plant leaves or flower petals. All you need is some fresh petals or greenery, a hammer and a sheet of plastic or tape. Arrange the greenery and petals on the fabric and cover with plastic sheeting or tape the design down. I want to use a reusable sheet of plastic so I can have a zero-waste project. If you don’t want to use tape or plastic, lay out the design and then fold the material in half for a mirroring effect. Using a hammer or rubber mallet, gently hammer the petals and greens; This will release their natural dyes into the fabric leaving your embroidered design. You should also modernize this fabric to make the design last longer. It may also fade after washing.

I would always advocate using natural ingredients to avoid harmful chemicals, especially Earth Month. It’s an easy way to get creative without being wasteful. Also, you can always compost the scraps after making the dye!

Starting with natural fabric dyes

These foods make great natural dyes.

• Yellow (orange/yellow)
• Red Cabbage (Blue/Purple)
• acorns (brown)
• berry (purple)
• Avocado (peach/pink)
• Hibiscus (purple/blue/pink)
• Black Beans (Purple/Blue)
• nettles (green)
• Celery leaves/other greens (greens)
• Onion Skin (Yellow/Orange)
• Cherry (red/pink)
• tea (brown)

I chose to work with onion skins, dried hibiscus, and black beans because these are all things I already have around the house. After mordanting my fabric on the stovetop in a saucepan, I put the fabric in various pre-made dyes to let them soak until I like the color. When washed in cold water, the hibiscus dye turned a beautiful purple/blue color, but the fabric accidentally touched the yellow shirt. I decided to tie-dye it to make it look intentional, and I love how it turned out!

Natural fabric dye is a total trial and error project. Try different things and don’t be afraid to mess up; You can unintentionally create something beautiful by doing this! Leave a comment below and let me know what food scraps you plan to upcycle your wardrobe with