This was kind of pretty actually, but I kept wanting to hum the bridal theme. And I really hate weddings, so it was no good. I woke up this morning thinking to myself, "Self, why don't you dye it if you hate the white veil so much?" "But Self," I replied, "I haven't got any dyes." "Silly Self," I said, "why not use something from around the house?"
Ok, enough of the weird conversation wtih myself. Suffice it to say, I cut a scrap of leftover fabric and got cracking. I tried jasmine tea first. It looks yellow in my cup so I figured it might work. It didn't. Maybe it would have at a stronger concentration, but I decided I didn't really like the color in the pot either. Then I remembered that people like to use onion peels. I'd like to pretend that I did a lot of research and all, but really, I just rummaged in the fridge and trash can (ew...I know) for some onion skins, popped them in a pot, and tried it out, like so:
It seemed to work on my swatch, so I strained out the peels and dumped in my poor veil, fabric, edging, satin, combs, lace, and all.
I threw in some vinegar for good measure, which in retrospect might have been exactly the wrong pH for a plant-based fabric, but whatever. I mixed it a bit and went back to sewing. Some random time later (more than 20 minutes, less than an hour), I remembered it and rinsed it out. And surprisingly, it worked out to more or less exactly the color I wanted. It's kind of a muted yellow-orange-gold (the dress engineer called it "onion-colored"....sigh). It's a whole lot less bridal white at any rate. Here's my attempt to reproduce the color on the computer....take it with a grain of salt, as it didn't photograph very well.
What surpised me was that everything took the color. I figured that the polyester thread, cotton fabric, mystery ribbon, and cotton lace would all absorb differently, making a big mess and a good excuse to get rid of the veil, but they're pretty uniform. What surprised me even more was the couple of spots I'd used a bit of anti-fray stuff. I figured the glue bits wouldn't absorb color. Instead, they turned orange. Bizarre chemistry stuff no doubt. I'll have to do something about that.
Anyway, a comprehensive guide to dyeing with onion skins this is not, but if I can do it so randomly and have it work, it's obviously pretty darn easy.
2 comments:
My dear beth, resourceful as always! I like the yellowy color much better than the white too! We used to onion dye our easter eggs when my mom was on an "all natural" kick. It was fun. Looks like we did it just about the same way.
You're head won't smell oniony, right? ;-)
I don't *think* I'll smell oniony, but now I'll have a complex about it, thanks very much ;)
No actually, it didn't even smell much like onions when I was a-boilin' the skins, so I doubt my head'll smell.
Post a Comment