natural abundance: August 2014

Mama has always had an interest in natural dyeing. This week, I was home in southern New Jersey and I decided to show her how it's done (or at least how I do it). I wanted to teach her the process from start to finish. First we collected some flowers from her window boxes, flower pots and garden. To see what type of colors they would yield, we wet them and rubbed them on a paper towel. We liked what we saw! Pink and red wax begonias as well as marigolds translated almost literally. Then we went foraging in the woods behind her house. We found beautiful rose of sharon (related to the hibiscus flower) and daylilies. We decided not to test those and just see what type of color they might produce right on the fabric. We collected all of our dyestuffs in a pot and sat down to pull off any unwanted parts, like stems, leaves and little critters. Once we had everything we needed to dye with, we looked for a proper substrate. I am most familiar with 100% natural silk so we decided to use a (pre-washed) vintage silk blouse that my mom found at the thrift store last year. Because I was home and this project was spur of the moment, we did not use a mordant. Usually I would use alum, but the flowers seemed fresh and bright enough to go on without it. We layed the blouse out on our dining room table and began to cover it evenly with flowers. We carefully rolled up the blouse and bound it tightly with rubber bands. We wet the fabric and tossed it in a hot pot of water that was heating up outside in the fire pit. Then we waited patiently for our results!