Make Your Own Natural, Colorful Dyes – Great Kid Nature Project
March 17, 2008 by Jennifer
When I was a kid I read this book – I can’t remember the name, but I do remember that it was about a large Jewish family during the depression maybe, which is besides the point, because it was the kooky kids in the book I liked. Anyhow, one of the young girls in the family got really upset because she spilled tea on her only good dance dress (which was white) and her mother was so smart that she dyed it in tea, and the daughter was still able to go to the dance.
Seriously, I thought that was so darn smart. I was only eight or so when I first read it, and I used to steal cloths from the cupboard and try to dye them in tea – usually with poor results. But from then on I was sort of fascinated that someone could do this, just dye items with stuff from the cupboard.
Of course later I found out that you can use lots of stuff as dye material. Lucky for you I did, because now, you and your little can take a weekend and have some fun making natural juice dyes.
The best part is that you can’t really mess up. You may get some funky colors, but mistakes aren’t terrible with this project. Once you make your juice dyes you can use them to color homemade clay dough, homemade paints, or use them to dye pieces of fabric, or white rope for crafts. Really you can even use this system to create your own colored yarn – but the process takes a little longer (we’ll discuss that some other day).
How to make the dye:
To make juice (or plant dyes) you need to take about 1/4 – 1/2 cup of a nature item, put it in a pot with about four cups of water, simmer on low for 1-2 hours, strain, and cool. When you add the coloring to something like homemade paint or clay, add a little at a time until you get the shade you want, much like you would food coloring. If you want to dye fabric, soak it overnight in the coloring. The vibrancy of the color depends both on the nature item used, and the amount you simmered.
Back when I was eight, I didn’t know to simmer the water – that was my big mistake.
Nature items to use:
For blue dye use: Red cabbage, blueberries, logwood chips, elderberries. or red onion skins
For yellow dye use: apple tree bark, marigold, turmeric, white onion skin, or goldenrod
For violet to purple dye use: Camellia or purple grapes
For pink dye use: Umbilicara
For brown and tan dye use: Coffee, walnut hulls, paprika, tea, greenbriar, or sassafras
For red dye use: cranberries or beets
For orange dye use: Yellow onion skin or oats
For green dye use: oak bark, peach leaves, or crab apple leaves and bark
I’m sure you can think of plenty of other cool items from outside to try. The most fun is for kids to randomly find items and just see what happens when you try to make dye.
Later (maybe tomorrow) I’ll post some homemade clay and paint recipes for those who need them to go with their dye.
Have fun!
Couple of things struck me…1) where were you when I dyed tea towels for everyone at Christmas?? I thought I was so cool making home made gifts! I have a fresh batch left and I’m dying (har har!) to try this!! 2) Red cabbage makes blue dye? Huh! 3) Please define umbilicara and promise it doesn’t deal w/delivering a child! Thanks!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/latin/genus/Umbilicaria/
Ha, no baby! You might know Umbilicara better as lichen, it’s a plant family – and I’ve never made pure pink dye, but this is the only thing I’ve heard of that makes pink without having to mix and match. Although you can mix and match nature items to get new colors.
Also, dying items that you’re going to wash will be different in some ways than dying art stuff like clay, that said, tea seems to stick around if you dye white fabric and then wash it. At least it has for me. Fabric and yarn dying has a few more steps depending on what your goal is – I’ll post that at some point, maybe later this week.
Oh, and you have to admit, red cabbage is really more of a purple than red – hence the blue.
All of a Kind Family?
Awesome book….
really cool dye recipes!
Marye do you mean we should read a book called All of a Kind Family?
I’ve never heard of that – is it crafts? Or just dye?
I just read over on Green Style Mom’s blog about not using food coloring in St. Patrick’s Day cookies. I wondered if she could somehow dye the cookies with spinach. Of course, you may end up with odd-tasting cookies that no one will eat.
I have also been experimenting for some time now with dyeing eggs using natural ingredients (Joy wrote instructions for doing this on http://www.greenbabyguide.com). Most of my efforts have failed. The only dye that worked was tumeric, which turned the eggs bright yellow. I think what I need to do is make the dyes as you suggest above and then soak pre-cooked eggs in the solutions for a long time.
I am off to experiment again. I really want to make spinach sugar cookies. Seriously.
I don’t know much about food dyes. We don’t eat many cookies. They always sound good, but then they sit around the house and go bad (Cedar is not a sweets kid).
I think if you use spinach, you’ll get yellow, not green, and an odd flavor. But I could be wrong.
I know about 100 other plant based dyes, but I’d be nervous to recommend eating them in large quantities.
I think that making a topping might work better so far as coloring goes, like using crushed mint to make a strong liquid (mint will make a pale green) and then mixing it with some sugar and a dash of soy milk to make a paste – like a frosting for the cookie.
Or maybe there’s another darker tea that might work? Maybe Marye will come help out – she’s the baking queen and she’s a green head.
I don’t make colored cookies much, either. In fact, I have NEVER made colored cookies, because I have never bought any food coloring. Suddenly, though, I was struck with the inspiration to make spinach-colored cookies for St. Patrick’s Day. I made a little dye with spinach following your instructions. I ended up with a yellowing-looking liquid (as you predicted!) and did not even try making anything with it.
Your suggestion to add the green color to a frosting or topping of some kind is a good one, but I am not going to try it. I don’t like frosted cookies at all! I think I am going to have to let the dream of naturally-dyed green shamrock cookies go . . . at least this year.
If you’re still reading — or for next year — we made green frosting with pureed spinach. With all the confectioner’s sugar it tasted fine (not vegetably). The natural food coloring I bought at whole foods absolutely was not green! lucky we had the spinach…
Thanks for the tip, MamaBird! Did you use raw, fresh spinach? I imagine that would produce the brightest green color.
How long does it take until the dye goes bad?
PLEASE HELP ME!
@Andy Honestly, I’m not sure. We always use dyes pretty quickly. If you use herbs or flowers I doubt it’ll go bad unless you keep it for months at a time. But why make dye you won’t use?
Jennifer, I do alot of fishing. I use to buy grape dye in an 8oz. bottle to dye my plastic worms in. Believe it or not it really made a difference in catching fish! Some time ago the only company that made this kind of dye close down. Do you think that I can make a dye that will soak into plastic worms, and is there anything different I need add to the mix besides berries and water? Thanks, Jack
Do you rinse the fabric after?
how long do you let it sit?
if it is clothing, will it affect the other garments?
If i am doing this with little kids and with tee shirts, do you have any other tips?
Thanks so much!
@Hannah – I do rinse the fabric after. The dye will usually set and you can wash it even (it will fade some). I let it sit for anywhere from hours to overnight. The color varies depending on length of time sitting.
I would not wash hand dyed items with other clothing, just to be safe.
How can I dye my white vest to very light cream (winter white colour)
Does anyone know how to make paint that is non toxic. I have been looking for dry pigment and chalk that would work. Can I use dye for such a project?
hey there,
i’ve heard you can use aubergine to make fabric dye…have you tried it and if so what did you think?
i tried cranberries and it didn’t turn red it turned pink i left it in long and it still was pink why was it pink
anybody,…- does it make any difference if the water is (town-)treated, (such as chlorinated or floridated), in either the soaking of fabrics prior or dying ?
I think she meant the book you liked is called (or is part of the series) All of A Kind Family and that your dye recipes are awesome.
But I suppose it’s been awhile, so maybe you realized that.
Thanks for this by the way!
CHRIS! How much do you rock! I just looked it up and it’s totally the book! I’m so excited – I’m buying it stat. Oh, and sorry Marye
I so did not get that you were telling me the book.
Thank you so much guys
Hi.
The dye mixture you posted is dye for the hair or for clothes? Thanks. 