![]() After the clothing is dry, you can use a warm iron for five minutes to heat set the dye. After you remove the clothing from the water, allow it to drip dry – don’t squeeze it too hard, or you’ll squeeze all the natural clothing dye out! You can either dry it outside if it’s a warm, sunny day or place it in the dryer on the lowest setting. Let the clothing sit in the beet water for no more than 24 hours – I found that 12 hours overnight was plenty of time to allow the beet water to soak into the t-shirt. Stir it around with a spoon or paint stick until the beet water has soaked through the entire garment. Let the boiled beet water cool to room temperature, and then place your t-shirt or other item of clothing into the water. If you’d like, you can add one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and/or one tablespoon of salt to your beets while you boil them to help retain the dye. Strain the beets and save them for another use, like the boiled beet brownie recipe at the end of this blog. Bring to a boil and simmer at a low boil for about an hour. Cover the beets in your large pot (large enough to accommodate whatever item of clothing you want to dye) with water so that the water level is about 1” above the beets. ![]() Using fewer beets and more water will give you a lighter, more subtle color for your natural clothing dye. (I quartered my beets.) Remember that if you use more beets and less water, you’ll get a deeper rose color. Don’t go crazy chopping them into small pieces, but do make sure that you chop them so that plenty of the inner flesh is exposed to the water. For a ladies’ medium T-shirt, I chopped up five fist-sized beets, removing the tops and roots. If you’re not going to peel your beets, scrub them well to remove any dirt, and then chop them. Even if your clothing is new out of the package, it helps to run it through the wash to make sure you remove any dirt or other substance from the manufacturing process that might interfere with the uptake of the natural clothing dye. ![]() Using beets as natural clothing dye is probably the easiest way to get started, and you’ll love the results – a romantic, dusty pink! Since I love beets and we’ve been successful at growing beets in our garden for many years now, I started my experiments with natural clothing dye by using the abundant beets we get every summer from our home gardens and from the local CSA. ![]() Natural Clothing Dye: Getting Started with Beets If in doubt, try a little swatch of the fabric first before you commit to using natural clothing dye on a piece of clothing with mixed synthetic fibers. It was also more difficult to use the iron to heat set the color into the fabric, as these kinds of fibers tend to melt at a lower temperature than natural cotton. Even using the salt/vinegar combination didn’t do much to help the clothing retain the dye. Pretty much everything came out in the wash, or faded in the sunlight in as little as a day when I hung them out on the line to dry. In my experiments, synthetic fibers like rayon and polyester didn’t take as well to the natural clothing dye. Adding a little bit of salt and/or vinegar will also help the cotton clothes to retain the color longer. These natural cotton clothes will take up more dye and will hold on to the color longer with normal wear and washing. Look for T-shirts, tank tops, or other clothing made with 100% cotton. When using beets and other vegetables for natural clothing dye, it’s always best to begin with a natural fiber item of clothing. Natural Clothing Dye: What Kind of Clothing Can I Use?
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