Dyeing with Avocados!

A neighbor and friend once told me that you could dye things with Avocados. I had heard of it before and so I started collecting pits and skins. I made a lot of guacamole and it was good. Then I put the pits and skins in a baggie in the freezer until I had many many small sandwich bags stuffed. What prompted me to get them out and finally use them was a bush in my backyard. I was out in the yard where my husband was trimming some bushes and noticed one of the bushes had some berries in it and so I decided to see if the berries would dye anything. I have a large plastic bin full of dye-ables that I have collected over the years -- some vintage crocheted pieces, silk ribbons, various threads, rayon ribbons, fabrics, etc. So out it came. These are all natural fibers (cotton, wool, silk) or a rayon mix. I searched online about dyeing with Avocados and got some great ideas from this website: http://hookedanddyed.com/2014/05/28/natural-dye-avocado/

I have a fair amount of dyeing experience and dyeing supplies myself, so I added some steps. First I cleaned anything that I was worried about taking the dye. Some fabrics have chemicals on them that prevent the dye from taking to the object you're dyeing. To clean these items I used a few tablespoons of soda ash in some water in a pan on the stove. I let the water get nice and hot but never boiled it. I stirred my fabrics and fibers in this concoction for several minutes. After the wash I put all the fibers and fabrics in a large bucket filled with a gallon of water and 1/2 cup of soda ash and soaked it for 30 minutes. Soda ash acts as a mordant and makes the dye somewhat permanent. I say somewhat permanent because some of the dye always washes out. It will look like it is going to be much darker than it will actually end up.

I got several plastic containers for the large pieces of fabrics and used mason jars for the smaller fibers. I decided to do 3 batches so I had 3 pans of water on the stove -- one with pits only (cut in half), one with skins only and one with pits and skins. I also had a 4th with the berries. At first I put the pits and skins in with the materials, but I noticed they were staining the fabric darker in places; some looked great and some not so great. This would be a great experiment later to purposefully make a batik type fabric and some of my fabrics did turn out like this. Eventually I removed all the pits, skins, and berries. I let them soak in the sun (or a warm place) for about 24 hours. I brought them in at night. The sun was too hot and evaporated some of the dye. It also burnt the fabrics on top where the fabrics were exposed to the light. If you don't live in Colorado and the sun isn't too bright you could probably get away with this. I ended up putting paper towels on top of the fabric to protect it, but I'll probably keep them inside next time.

After soaking for a day I took all the fabrics and fibers out of the dye and rinsed them in cold water. I let them sit in the cold water for a couple of hours and then rinsed them again. I did this over an over again until the water ran clear.

The berries turned out a nice grey-blue, the pits a pale pink, and the other two I am confused about. I'm very good about performing my experiments scientifically, but not so good about writing them down! One was slightly darker than the pale pink and another slightly darker than that one. I think the skins were the darkest. For some reason some pieces in each batch turned out pale peach. Also, some items really took the dye and were comparably really dark. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. So many people are surprised that avocado dye things pink and such a nice victorian pink at that! I did not test the pH as it suggested on the link I referred you to.

I saved the dyes and added more fabrics to them and let them sit for another 24 hours. I added more soda ash to see what would happen. The fabrics-fibers turned much more peachy. I don't think I quite got the right colors in these photos, but they're somewhere in the neighborhood. (-; The first one is really more pink than that, a little more like the last one, but brighter. Maybe I should take pictures during daylight hours!

I liked how they turned out pretty well so I decided to put some together for a gift exchange we did at the Crazy Quilting International (CQI) Retreat.

Dyeing Cotton

These are pictures of my first dyeing lesson from Candy. You can see her site here: http://classes.candiedfabrics.com/101-purchase-access/#comment-8962 . I spent a few hours yesterday playing with procion MX dyes. Hopefully you can see the different gradations from dark to light of each primary color. I just love the texture the dyeing gives the fabric!

Pomegranate Dye

So, yesterday I took some silk velvet and silk ribbon and used them to squash pomegranate pieces. Nice color. I am going to iron them before I wash them out to see what the final color will be. Don't try this at home unless you like pomegranate splattering all over everything! lol! The first time I added too much water and it turned out pinkish and I wanted a deeper color. The picture shows velvet/ribbon pre-second squish.

Tea Dying Experiment

I did some tea dying yesterday and it was a blast! I used blueberry, black cherry, peach, and pomegranate raspberry flavors (left to right, top to bottom) and dyed a couple different muslin along with a variety of lace. Yummy! Here's the results:

Paint dying ribbon

I bought this earring holder off a lady for $1 at a flea market. I don't know what I thought I was going to use it for, but I finally figured it out this weekend. I added nails at strategic points around the frame and used it to hold my ribbon while I painted it with dyes. I got this idea from a book called "Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible" by Joan Gordon. It was fun and I like the variegated look of the ribbon. The ribbons need to be wet to get the variegated effect. I painted the entire ribbon first with water then with a light color. Then using a darker version of the same color, I just touched the edge of the top of the ribbon and the dark dye would run into the light creating interesting effects. I used both silk ribbon and white rayon seam binding. The silk ribbon was 13mm and is the purple ribbon in the photos. I also tried 4mm silk ribbon and it worked fine (not pictured). The green and yellow ribbons in the photos are the white rayon seam binding.

More Dying

The second day was just as fun as the first. Here I was dying with specific quilts in mind. (Not all the same quilt!) I'm not gonna lie -- I love how they turned out! Please double click on each photo to see them clearly. Then you can even click one more time to further magnify the images -- this makes the laces look like there right there on the table in front of you. I might have to do a day 3 . . .

Dying to Dye!

I had the best time dying fabrics all day yesterday with my friend Shari. I enjoyed it so much that it inspired me to do some more today! Here are some of my results from yesterday. The first group were done on silk organza and chiffon with shiva sticks and dye. The last two were done on silk velvet and silk charmeuse using techniques I learned in Jay Rich's class at the Omaha retreat last year.

Techniques learned

I took two Jay Rich classes. One was to teach making textured silks and the other was stitched resist dying. I feel I have enough knowledge to be dangerous and am starting to make monthly orders of silk velvet, silk charmeuse, dyes, and chemicals for another week or two of experimenting in dying and texturing! I also took MaryAnne Griffin's Beyond the Seams class and learned many, many fun techniques! I wanted to try them all and so quickly went to each station to get that lesson under my belt. It was a relief to go to Jay's class the next day and play with the castrator and marbles to dye my silk charmeuse!No - I loved her class! We put pictures on polymer and mica, played with shiva sticks, embossed velvet, textured fabric, and played with angelica fibers. I love learning new techniques and so all my classes were technique classes. Loved them all and can't wait to experiment some more!

Last of the dying days!

These are the Jacquard Silk Dyes and the tools I used to dye much of the lace. It is ready to use and you just mix the colors the way you want them to be and add water to make it lighter or don't and it is dark. It came with a resist which I tried once without great results. It also came with a solution that you mix with water and then soak your died materials in for 5 minutes to set the die. This says it causes cancer in lab rats in California. I avoided dying lab rats and wore gloves myself. Really handy for this task were:

1. the dyes (-:

2. a couple of plastic containers with water in them (one for rinsing the brush and one kept clean to add water to lighten the color of the dye)

3. Several eyedroppers - one for each color

4. Several small containers - I bought jars for this purpose, but found using the lids worked best (Shari's idea)

5. tweezers to move the soggy died pieces around

6. Drying rack

7. lot's of paper towels

8. Larger plastic container for rinsing in the setting solution.

9. Brushes - I used some I got at goodwill that were designed for some other purpose I can't remember now. I liked them because they are stiff and you can't shove the dye in where it doesn't want to go.

It is really hard to paint an item just the way you want it because the dye tends to run, especially when the fabric/lace gets wet, which it does. I got really good at making my mistakes look like they were on purpose! Better just to let them run! (Shari, you will notice some of the butterflies and flowers that you gave me in the first photo. I will trade you many more shells for some more roses. (-: ) I liked using several colors to add shading. I liked having both the Jacquard Acid dyes for the larger items and the silk dyes for the smaller items. Some materials couldn't be dyed by either, so it was nice to have the paints too.

Day 4 - Dying

I'm done with the Jacquard acid dyes for now. I ran out of silk velvet! I only had a yard of it to begin with because it runs $20 per yard. Acid dyes are definitely a good way to go for immersion dying.

All you really need are:

1. your materials for dying (I used silk velvet, dupioni silk, laces, and white silk ribbon),

2. a sauce pan (I bought one at goodwill special for dying),

3. a measuring cup to get an idea of how much water works,

4. the acid dyes (all I had was red, blue, yellow and black),

5. measuring spoons (again I bought some especially for dying),

6. some plastic gloves and some large flat plastic containers, and

7. some vinegar.

8. Paper towels and a

9. drying rack come in handy for letting them dry.

I bought a yard of white silk fabric, a yard of silk velvet, and a roll of every width (2mm, 4mm, 7mm, and 13mm) silk ribbon I wanted ahead of time. The acid dye worked best on silks and not so good on some of my laces - probably all the synthetic laces. Luckily for me my Jacquard paints and Jacquard silk dyes worked well on them. So I started with 4 cups of water which I brought almost to a boil, then used a color wheel to select my mix of dyes (just got an estimate - nothing scientific!). I poured my die into my plastic container, added a little dye (less than 1/8 tsp for light colors and more than 1/4 tsp for dark colors), and a little less than 1 Tbsp vinegar. Stir and add your dying materials, then let sit for 30 minutes. Rinse in warm water. I saved the dye by pouring it into another container. Then I added a cup of water and reheated to a near boil to get a lighter version of the same color. That worked better if I started out with a fairly dark dye the first time. Some of my second dye attempts turned out very light. So, then I squeezed them out and laid them out to dry on my drying racks. (Shari - turns out I do have some - wasn't sure that was what you were talking about!) Anyway, I'll tell you about the Jacquard silk dyes and paints another day.

I did try to dye beads and they turned out really nice - one I dyed red and the other blue using the Jacquard silk dyes and they have a slight red and blue glow to them.

I also tried to use a resist, but I have to wash out the resist yet, then I'll post a picture.

I also tried to use salts on fabric to get a burst of color. First the instructions tell you to paint some Jacquard silk dyes on your silk fabric, then sprinkle on the salt and let it dry. They do warn you about using too light a dye and they are right about that! I'll have to try again with a darker bit of dye.

Day 3 - Dying

I have arrived! I got my peach! I'm having the most fun doing this.

Day 2 of Dying Adventure

On this day I used acid dyes to immerse several items. I was dying silk, silk velvet, silk ribbon and various laces. I used anywhere from one to four cups of almost boiling water, then added the dye and a little vinegar and the dying victims! I let them sit for 30 minutes and then rinsed in warm water. The silks dyed marvelously (no surprise since I believe acid dyes are geared for silk), but some of the laces came up in unexpected colors.

I started with the golds because I didn't have to mix dyes to make the colors for those. (I had 2 different gold powders, a black, ecru, and the primary colors. The golds were find if not a bit vibrant(!) so I ventured on to color mixing. The green turned out exactly how I wanted it to. I was so thrilled! There were a couple of rogue laces that decide to go more of a lilac color than green - go figure! Then I decided to go for a soft peach and came up with the vibrant reds and pink above. Not exactly what I wanted, but they will go nicely in a Valentines quilt I'm going to do one of these days! I saved all the dyes and today I think I will split the dyes into different pots and add a little black or water to get varying hues of the same colors. I may try some blues and purples if time permits! And I'm going to modify those reds to get some peach! Did I tell you I was having fun?!

Dye Day with Shari

The laboratory and Shari!

Shari came over yesterday and we spent the day dying! We used a couple of different kinds of dyes and came up with some really nice results. Shari had to return to life at 4:30 (something about sloppy Joes to make), but I stayed up and dyed and dyed until 10:00 when my back was bent and broken! First thought this morning was things I forgot to dye, so I'm pretty sure the plan for today is dying!

Easter Egg Dye

I tryed dying silk and cotton lace and ribbon with Easter Egg Dye! I mixed the Easter Egg Dye with lemon juice. I bought some cheap cotton lace and left it in the dye for about 20 minutes. Initially the dye was quite bright, but when I rinsed it later in cold water it did fade some as seen on these pics.

Then I put the silk ribbon in. I used 2 different kinds of ribbon. The long one in the pic is YLI ribbon. The other ribbon (Pink) came out very wrinkled and never did really iron out straight. The dye is very evenly dispersed- not exactly what I wanted, but it is nice just the same.