Via Full Circle I found a good idea to dye t-shirts with vegetable dyes. Before the existence of chemical paints, it used to be dyed with vegetable dyes. The author of the blog has used Dandelions to get the color green, but other shades can be obtained.
To make the dye you will need:
- A pan
- A variety of vegetables
- A glass bowl
- Strainer
The procedure consists of:
- Cut the chosen vegetable and crush the hard parts. Cover with water and let them soak overnight in a glass bowl
- Pour the contents of the bowl into a stainless steel saucepan and simmer for an hour. Add water when necessary.
- Strain the dye to remove the solid material and let it cool.
- For every quarter of the dye add a tablespoon of alum, this will help fix the dye.
The dye is ready to use. The resulting hue will be soft, not bright. You can dye the entire garment (it is recommended that it be made of cotton) by dipping it in the pot with the dye and bringing it to the fire until you achieve the desired intensity or if you wish you can draw a picture following the instructions in the mentioned blog.
And finally I leave some colors that can be achieved using common plants:
Onion skins: yellow. Carrots: Yellow Red onion: Pink Raspberries: Pink Coffee: Brown Beet: Pink Dandelion: green Spinach: green The skin of the nut (not the shell): brown Grass: green
Via | Full circle
