We were so excited to get the news that Mint Magazine published an article about our eco-friendly and sustainably made bucket hats. Dyed Naturally on luxurious European linen, OLIVE + BLUE's accessories have been making heads turn all over the world!
If you love natural dye, ladies linen dresses, eco friendly shopping make sure to check out our other posts.
The Yellow bucket hat featured here, was naturally dyed with organic carrot tops.
Vegetable dyes, especially those from the scraps of our kitchens and gardens are eco friendly, natural and ethical. They are a wonderful and fun alternative to chemical dyes that have a harmful impact on mother earth. Read the article here !
NATURAL DYE RECIPE ---> If you want to learn about natural dyeing at home, and create fun eco friendly projects on your old white sheets, T shirts etc... using your vegetable scraps is the easiest way to start.
If using AVOCADO pits and skins 🥑 refer to this article because you do not need to prepare your fabric.
To start you will need ALUM MORDANT which you can find on Etsy from various sellers.
Place 30% of the weight of your fabric in alum in a big pot of water over the stove on low heat. Stir in3 tbs of white vinegar and 1 tbs of crystal soda (not obligatory)
When you see that all the alum has been well blended and mixed, you can add your pre-soaked fabrics and stir it in for a couple of hours. At least 1 hour, but if you can do 4-5 hours you will get better results. Take out your fabric and wring it very well over the pot. Let dry.
Now to the fun part - Natural Dyeing with plants. Go in your kitchen and see what you have laying around ? Onions ? Carrots with their tops ? Pomegranate ? Once again you will want 30% of the weight of your fabric in plants (Honestly, if you have mess it will still work)
Take carrot tops for example, you will want to rinse them off and place them in a big pot full of water. Let the pot simmer over medium heat. I prefer to avoid bringing the water to a boil because it burn the color for me. So just let it get hot for 2 hours. Drain the natural dye mixture into another pot while straining the the carrot tops out. Place your pre-soaked mordanted fabric in the mixture and stir well, moving the fabric around so you get an even dye.
After at least 3 hours of letting your fabric soak in the eco friendly and sustainable natural dye bath, wring it out and place it to dry. You should rinse your fabric with just water the first time and let it dry once more in a day or two. After that it is ready to be worn/used and washed normally.
Let me know if you have any questions. Make sure you try it out with red or yellow onion skins. ven a mix of both you can get surprising results !
Love always,
Mary Madeleine
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