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| The wadded up mess |
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| Before the rinse |
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| Rinsing in salt water |
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| Dried |
My recycle the teabag experiment turned out, hmm, well, ok. Not great. The first soak in water released a lot of the tea. Then I soaked it overnight in salted water. I wrung it out, did one more quick rinse and then let it dry. The dried photograph is a bit on the light side. I still think that this idea should work. The last time I tea dyed something in a full strength solution, it was really dark and then I tried to put it in a bleach solution to lighten it a bit. Which barely helped.
I am now saving the tea bags and letting them dry. When I have a bunch saved up I think that I will start with a wet piece of fabric and re-wet the bags. Maybe even take out the leaves from the bags.
As for the first piece, I am going to cut it into fat quarters. I will use one with another experiment using coffee grounds. One will stay as is as a control subject. Maybe I will add rust to another and maybe use the fourth for the second round of the tea bag project.
Has anyone done any experimenting with tea bags/coffee? OH, how about red wine?
I don't think you should have soaked the fabric without putting a mordant of some kind in - like the salt or vinegar. I think that is why the color came out. I bet red wine would dye nicely! I think it's a great use of wine. ;)
ReplyDeleteWould a soak in soda ash first make a difference? I have not tried this so no advice....sorry. I have a friend who uses onion skins to "dye" fabric
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