How to Tea Dye Fabric
How to Tea DyeFabricGivingyour fabric an aged or antique look is very easy. One method is to usetea to dye your fabric. You can tea dye the fabric before using it orafter depending on its end use. If I am making a sewing bag forexample. I would dye the fabric before using it.
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If I wanted toembroider on the fabric I would choose to tea dye the fabric afterworking on it simply because it is much
easier to transfer thepattern prior to darkening the fabric.
Although if you chooseto tea dye the fabric after embroidering
on it be aware that thedye can effect the colour of the
embroidery threads usedand can sometimes shrink the
fabric aswell.
Todye fabric with tea place some tea bags in a glass bowl and then fillwith boiling water. Add a teaspoon of salt to help set the dye. Thenumber of tea bags will determine the strength of the tea dye solution.As a guide use approximately 4 tea bags for a weak solution. Let thesolution cool slightly. Wet the fabric to be dyed with warm water.Squeeze out the excess and then place into the tea solution. If you arewanting an even dye remove the tea bags. Leave for a few hours stirringoccasionally to ensure the tea dye is being taken up evenly.
Alternatively leave the bags in the solution for a more uneven result.Remove the fabric from the tea solution and squeeze out the excesswater. Remember the colour will be lighter when the fabric dries.
Anothermethod is to put some strong tea in a spray bottle and spray the fabricuntil you get the desired effect. Or you can dab the fabric with thewarm tea bags to give a more dappled result.
Another method used to age fabric is touse Parisian essence (found in the cooking section of the supermarket).Parisian essence is used in cooking for browning gravies, soups,broths, cakes and puddings. The same technique described above can beused for ageing your fabric with this solution. Simply substitute thetea bags with a 1-2 teaspoons of Parisian essence. Coffee can also beused as an alternative substitute, although is a more expensive choice.
Ifyou experiment with each of these methods you will find that they alldye the fabric a different shade. Tea will give a more yellow browncolour whilst Parisian essence and coffee give a deeper brown shade.
Once your fabric is dry and you arehappy with the aged look press with a hot iron. If you are unhappy withthe result simply repeat the process again to darken further, or soakin a solution of stain remover such as colourfash Napisan to bring thefabric back to its original condition.
Dyeing fabric withtea,coffee or Parisian essence can give your projects a unique aged feel tothem.
http://www.stitchingcow.com/about/useful-resources/embroidery-tips/how-to-age-fabric I did many times - black tee, coffee or dry onion skin (onion skin is traditionally used for dying easter eggs) , warm or hot infusion. Next step is let it dry, not wash, only dry. And next is using vinegar for fixing colour. And dry again.
I wrote it here somewhere in the past. Dry flat, not crumpled. Vinegar in our country has 8%. Con cafe y te quedan preciosos, algunas veces al hacer esto las meto al horno en una charola,ligeramente arrugadas, quedan unas vetas interesantes.,si me permiten aconsejarles algo, prueben tambien con cascaras y huesos de avocado, queda un rosa viejo precioso. Gracias I have done it with a raspberry leaf tea and added some turmeric, love how it turned out. Have now some beetroot to try tomorrow and will try to do some tea/coffee as well (some Primitive Hare projects), so thank you for the tip :) I thought about using strwaberries yesterday =) I like the little red circles stains, .. but unfortunately when I decide to do so, I ran out of Strawberries =))
Can be painted with any natural dyes. The main thing to do this is before embroidery. I use tea, coffee, onions, iodine, fukortsin, even ketchup tried :P Merci pour le partage. Je teins régulièrement ma toile en la trempant dans un thé fort, mais je vais essayer avec le pulvérisateur. Ooh, I like this! I have a hard time finding anything except bright white aida cloth. I would love to do this, I just have to find a pattern that is full coverage I'm going to tryflowers , morning glories and petunia I love this idea. thanks for the details and off to try this right now :) Very useful. Thank you Mary. Ohh, I'm anxious to test with tea. many thanks for the advise Very useful! I just might try this This article was very helpful, I wanted to try this for some time. But I wanted to ask - if we wash the finish cross stitch work after stitching it on the dyed fabric, wouldn't the paint come out or stain the threads? Does this mean the work shouldn't be washed? I have tea dyed and it turned out very well. I washed my cross stitch first since once dyed you are finished. It sounds great! I have just purchased 1 yard of linen and was wanting to tea-dye half of it so I thank you or the tips and link. I have done this and love the look it gives my fabric! It would also be good to try using herbal teas that have a color like raspberry to get pink colour
