Natural Fabric Dyeing with Avocado Stones and Skins
I am going to share my first experience of natural fabric dyeing with you today. Wastewater from commercial fabric dyeing is a huge pollutant around the world. Textile dyes can destroy whole rivers and water systems. Natural fabric dyes are made from fruit, berries, spices, and herbs and are much more gentle on the environment. I wanted to give it a go. I chose avocados because they create this gorgeous pale pink shade that I love.
If you want to have a go at dyeing fabric with avocados you’ll need the following things:
3 or more avocado stones and skins
A big pot
Plastic gloves
Bicarb Soda
White garments or fabrics that you want to dye (need to be natural fibers for the colour to really stick, I used one cotton top (Dayo Blouse) and one linen top (Morning Glory Top by Sarah Kirsten)).
Get avocados ready
I only used three avocados for my dye. I washed the skins and stones thoroughly and then kept them in the fridge until I had enough to start dyeing.
2. Place Stones and Skins into big pot
Once you have collected your stones and skins, place them into a big pot with cold water. Ideally, you use a bigger pot than mine, but this is the biggest one in my kitchen. Be careful, avocado dye can stain your pot, so do not use a fancy one.
I kept my pot on low heat for 12 hours. Then, I turned the plate off and let it soak overnight. I then turned it on again in the next morning. There is no exact rules for this step, just go with your gut feeling. I read blog posts that said you need to let it soak for at least 48 hours and I read some that said 1 hour is enough.
3. Break up your stones
After about 30 hours of soaking, I broke open all the stones to get more colour out of them took the avocado skins out of the dye. Again, I just went with my intuition here, there are no exact rules.
4. Test your dye and add bicarb soda If you want to make it more red
I added some bicarb soda to my dye because I read that it makes the dye go a bit more red. I added two heaped tablespoons and found that it did make it a bit more pink. I tested the colour by dipping in a piece of paper for two minutes.
5. Strain your Dye through a thin Piece of fabric
I strained my dye through a piece of thin cotton fabric. I then wrang out all the dye from the stones. Make sure you wear plastic gloves if you don’t want your hands to go pink.
6. Place your fabric into the dye
Soak your fabrics/garments in cold water for 10 minutes before you place them into the dye, this will make sure the dye applies evenly. Then let it simmer in your avocado dye for 1 hour or more. Check your colour and decide if you want to leave it in the dye for longer to achieve a deeper shade. I left my two tops in for about 1.5 hours. I then went a bit crazy and soaked two kitchen towls and a face cloth overnight, but I did not notice a big difference in the shades (could also be because of the different fabrics).
7. Rinse and dry your dyed garments
My dye turned out very pale but I really love it! I love these soft blush shades. I can’t wait to do it all over again! I also started reading about fabric dyeing with eucalyptus leaves, which I really want to try.
I hope this blog post was helpful for you, let me know how you go.
