DYE WITH ME: Scouring Cotton Fabric for Natural Dye using Washing Soda made from Baking Soda
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- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- The first step in dyeing fabric is to clean your fabric throughly. This process is called scouring and is more intense than just throwing your fabric in the washing machine. It requires boiling your fabric with washing soda and soap for several hours. This process is best done on cellulose or plant fibers like cotton or linen. Trying to do this with animal fibers can damage them or felt them, and synthetic fibers typically don’t dye very well, at lease with natural dyes which is what I aim to use.
In this video I make my own washing soda from baking soda. I didn’t have any washing soda and didn’t feel like running to the store to get some so I used baking soda to make it. The process is super simple. Heat your oven to 400ºF. In a flat tray spread baking soda in an even layer and bake for an hour or so. You know it has turned into washing soda when it looks very dull and more granular than the original baking soda.
For the scouring process of preparing fabric to dye, you need enough water for your fabric to move relatively freely within the pot. Here, I start off with about two or three gallons of water for three yards of fabric. I used a ratio of about one tablespoon of washing soda and a squirt of dish soap per gallon of water and boiled the fabric for around 4 hours adding more water when the fabric could no longer move freely.
I’m very excited to try some homemade natural dyes in the future.
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MUSIC:
Improvisation in A minor by Laura Early
Thanks, this is the best video I've seen on the scouring process. I thought I'd been scouring by washing cotton fabric with soda ash (sodium carbonate) in the washing machine on a fairly warm setting. But this is *really* scouring! 😃
Keen to see how your dyed fabric turns out.
I have some plans to try dyeing with black walnut and sycamore bark but I haven’t had a lot of free time recently so my dying experiments are on pause at the moment. Hopefully soon I can find some time because I am also excited to see how the fabric will turn out.
Hello. Thankyou for your viseo. Would you know at all What I could use to dye a white stiff cotton organza dress to very pale shade of sky blue ? Thankyou.
Probably the easiest thing would be to use an off the shelf dye like Rit dye. You will just use a smaller amount for a lighter color. I recommend doing some tests before dyeing the real dress.
@@TheIntuitiveArtificer Thats okay. But i must do it naturally. It will just take me the time to work it out. I read yest that purple cabbage with an added Enzyme will go sky blue.
@@CatholicSaintslayIncorruptAs far as I know purple cabbage will only stain the fabric ie. the color will not last after a few washes. That may be all you need but if you want a proper dye, you need indigo or woad for blue.
So you had your stove burner on high for 4 hours? That is so much electricity to use. I don't mind spending the actual time doing whatever needs to be done, but having a large burner on for 4 hours seems a lot. Maybe I'm not understanding. Thanks!
There is an energy cost to dyeing and keeping large amounts of water hot. Historically this would have been fueled by wood while most modern day people seem to use some form of portable propane or gas stove. In terms of my electricity usage the 4hours of having a burner on high equates roughly to leaving a few lights on all day so not more than a dollar or two on my energy bill. Hope this puts things into perspective.
@TheIntuitiveArtificer they likely went to public places to dye also with lots of dyeing pots on cooker. Its appealing to myself to do it outside on wooden burner. But that size pots needed for large amounts of fabric today they wouldn't make them.