I decided to clean out my tea stash and realized I had a lot of old tea in there. Feeling reluctant to throw it out, I decided to put it to use and experiment staining some white cotton fabric, just for fun.
I started by emptying a really old box of Raspberry Red Zinger Tea. I poured enough boiling water to cover the tea bags (about 10). I am only dying small pieces of fabric so I just used a small bowl and let the tea bags steep for at least 15 minutes. This made the color really concentrated.
I also had some very old loose black tea so I emptied it into a muslin tea bag and steeped if for 15 minutes.
Lastly, I emptied an old box of green tea, cut off their strings, and steeped in hot water for 15 minutes.
Cotton takes dye really nicely so I used unbleached cotton muslin.
I removed and squeezed out all the tea bags and added a piece of fabric to each of the three bowls of tea. I used a spoon to weigh down the fabric in the tea water. I let that steep for at least an hour.
After an hour or so, I removed the fabric from the tea, wrung it out a little and hung it to dry. I used mini laundry clips to hang them on a hanger and air dry them. Some people like to add vinegar to the solution to set the dye then rinse the fabric. I went totally natural on this. I didn’t mind the mild sweet smell on the fabric so I didn’t want to rinse it. Like paint, the fabric dries much lighter. Eventually I got tired of waiting and dried the fabric with my hairdryer. It worked really quickly. If you decide to try this, cover your work area. This can get a little messy. I did it in my mudroom sink.
Here are the end results. I like the uneven-ness of the dye, like a tie dye effect. If you have some old tea you want to recycle, this is a fun little project to try.
Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year!! A wonderful time to try some new things and experiment a little!
Warmly,
Pam