and Again!

I've decided that when I experiment with stuff I'll do it more than once - so it sinks in!
I have a habit of creating things and because it's 'done' I don't think I'll do it again until I go to do it again and then I invariably can't remember how I did it!

Having successfully tea dyed the lace for my Skirt REinvention I decided to give it another go, this time sharing the process.

I had a white crochet cardy which has sat in my 'crochet cardy drawer' for years, purely because it was white. Crochet cardys I love but white's not a colour I'm comfortable wearing.

The whole tea-dying process is so easy and a lot less messy than run-of-the-mill dying with commercial dyes. Before I start I will apologise for the lack of photos, I did think too many photos would over-complicate things, that and my kitchen isn't very photogenic!

 

I used these:

• 8 litres water
• 15 tea bags - normal breakfast style tea
• half cup of table salt

and then did this:

• put water on to boil
• chop labels off tea bags because I didn't want them interfering with the dye
• put the tea bags & salt into the water
• I used salt because I use it when dying with commercial dyes and figured any dying requires a mordant - salt being mine
• continually move the tea bags around in the water to encourage the colour out of the bags and to dissolve the salt
• once the water had reached boiling without boiling turn the water right down
• leave teabags in the water for another 15mins until the water is a rich deep brown
• remove the tea bags
• submerge the clean fabric/garment in the water, stirring continuously
• the longer you leave the item in the tea-water the more colour it will absorb
• remove from water and rinse thoroughly
• dry and wear often!

 

I'm very pleased with the subtle outcome.