Natural Dye from Plants: Yarn Dyeing with Dandelions

Learn how to dye yarn or fabric naturally using the common dandelion flowers right from your backyard

Welcome to my new Natural Dyeing Series.  I’ve been wanting to delve into the fun world of making natural dye from plants for a while now so I am super excited.

Actually, it is pretty easy to make natural dye from plants such as dandelion flowers, blueberries, sumac or lichen.

All you need to know is how to properly mordant the yarn (or fabric) and which natural dyeing method works best.

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Actually, this should be the second part on natural dyeing since I already wrote a post on Dyeing Yarn with Black Walnuts  so, let’s call this Part 2: Natural Dye from Plants: Dandelions. I’m hoping for a lovely yellow yarn color.

I have also experimented with Dyeing Yarn with Black Beans. Depending on the dye method and ph, you can get blue or green yarn.

What are Natural Dyes?

Natural dyes are dyes made from plants, vegetables, insects, minerals, tree bark, mushrooms, lichens and even spices like turmeric. Basically, it’s a dye derived from any natural material.

(Don’t miss my 9 Natural Dyeing Tips and Tricks article)

If something has a color in it, chances are you can extract it as a dye. Now, don’t let the word ‘natural’ fool you, tho into thinking this is completely harmless! Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. Enter, the Mordant ….

What is a Mordant?

A mordant is a substance that is used to make a dye bond to the fabric or yarn.  It ‘sets’ the color. The majority of natural dye materials require a mordant to set dye but there are a few exceptions such as black walnuts which are colorfast by themselves.

Mordants can also be used to change the final color of your yarn or fabric and are then called ‘Modifiers’.  Some common mordants include: Alum, Copper, Tin and Iron.

For this natural dye from dandelion plants, I used Alum which is readily available in the canning or spice section of your grocery store.

*** Safety Note!  Always wear a face mask when handling mordants or dye powders.

Here is a good article on various Mordants and their uses.

Natural Dye Supplies:

– Yarn (Wool dyes best). For this experiment, I used 100% Cotton Yarn
– Alum Mordant
– Dandelion blossoms (I used 2 parts blooms to 1 part yarn)
– Non-reactive pots, pans and measuring spoons
– Stove or hot plate
– Hot water

Note:  Since some products used in dyeing can potentially be toxic, it’s a good idea to have a dedicated set of pots and pans not used for food preparation. Hint: check your local thrift shop 🙂

Mordant the Yarn:

As it turns out, the only white yarn I had available was 100% Cotton. A lovely yarn but I found out later that it does not take natural dyes as well.

Ultimately, I was pretty happy with the end result, but in retrospect, I would go with a protein or wool yarn such as alpaca fiber or sheep wool.

How much Mordant Do I Use?

Honestly, after checking a lot of sources, I’m a little confused about the amount of mordant needed per fiber. Taking them all into consideration, I came up with 8% mordant to fiber.

Since I was mordanting about 2 ounces of yarn, that came to 1 teaspoon of alum mordant. This was dissolved in a cup of hot water.

I put about 2 inches of warm water in my stock pot to which I added the pre-dissolved alum.  I stirred and added the yarn. At this point, you want to stop stirring. Wool fiber will felt with agitation.

Bring your yarn to a light boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the yarn to cool to room temp. At this point, you can either let it dry for later use or immediately move to the dyeing phase.

Here is a great video from PopLove Designs on how to mordant cotton:

Prepare the Dandelion Dye:

Go out and pick a ton of dandelion blooms! Ok, not a ton but lots and lots. I used 2 ounces of blooms to dye 1 ounce of yarn.  The more blooms you pick, the stronger the yellow dyebath.

Put the dandelions in a non-reactive cooking pot and add hot water.  I used about 3 cups. Set it on the stove, bring to a boil and simmer for about 2 hours.  Strain out the flower parts and reserve the dye stock.

Dyeing the Yarn

Here is where you combine it all. Add the yellow dye stock to your non reactive pot. Heat it to just a warm temp and add your yarn. Bring that to a light boil, then simmer for about an hour.

Turn off the heat and let the yarn cool. When the yarn is wet, don’t agitate or move it around which can cause felting.

Once cool, remove the yarn and rinse it with luke warm water. Hang to dry. The end result was a nice, soft yellow colored yarn. The remaining dye can be used for another round of yarn altho it will be a much lighter yellow hue.

And that’s how you make natural dye from plants using dandelion blossoms. I’m cooking up my next Natural Dyeing tutorial so come back to see what it is.

Here’s an interesting article on Natural Dyes from Wikipedia.

Happy Dyeing!

Annette
FiberArtsy

Natural Dye from Plants: Yarn Dyeing with Dandelions