On Thursday, my friend Brieanne and I got together to dye some fabric with the kids. We dyed some organic cotton fabric. We used a natural plant dye called madder which is a shrub root that can become various shades of red. Brieanne had been soaking the madder root for a couple days to prepare it. Before we could dye the fabric, we needed to prepare it by boiling it in 4 gallons of water with alum and boric acid for an hour to mordant it. (To prepare the fabric to take the dye.) We then made the dye by blending the madder root in the blender and putting it in small bags to make the dye bath (again in 4 gallons of water.) We then boiled the fabric in the dye bath for another hour. Unfortunately, we had to hurry off to ballet, so I don't yet have a picture of the final product. I understand it is a beautiful coral red. What a fun project! Brieanne and I are going to sew doll slings for our children with this fabric for Christmas so that they can wear their dollies! I think Ma (Ingalls) would be proud of us! :)
2 comments:
That is SO NEAT!! I can't wait to have kids to be able to do stuff like that with!
LOL! This post reminds me of a year ago when I dyed some socks with some of our marigolds. It was in the pot on the stove and Monty came home from work and asked me why we had "sock soup" cooking! :)
By the way, I love the photo of your youngest daughter with her grandpa in one of your more recent posts.
Post a Comment