Mellow Yellow Inspiration

I am a part of this great little stitch and swap group hosted by my friend, Deb Taylor.

Our next stitch theme is the color scheme of turquoise, coral red and yellow.

(image by Sarah Hearts)

Yum !

I don’t have a lot of yellow fabric

so I decided to try out an eco-dyeing technique that I have been wanting to try for awhile.

I researched dyeing cloth with turmeric, knowing that I would achieve some bright and cheery yellows.

It was a fun and easy way to spend an afternoon.

First I gathered some bits of different fabrics, including wool, silk, cotton, and even a few crocheted circles in bamboo.

I chose mostly white or natural fabrics but also included a couple of rust and eucalyptus dyed pieces that I had around.

In preparation, I did some stitching here and there on some of the pieces and also did some tie dye knots, or shibori techniques, if you want to use the fancy term !

Then I got a pot of water with turmeric and salt simmering on my handy dandy hot plate out on the lanai.

The turmeric has a pleasant smell but it gets over powering when its simmering,

plus having the heat outside helped save my ac a little indoors.

I just guessed at amounts of water and turmeric, using the info. I read on-line. I think there was about 10 cups of water and 3 tbsp of ground turmeric. I added a 1/4 cup of salt to set the color.

Once the pot had simmered for about an hour, I added in the fabrics.

I was not worried about perfectly even dyeing as some might be, so I packed the pieces in there, just making sure it was all covered with liquid.

I stirred them around occasionally as well.

The yellow color appeared pretty immediately ! Especially on the silks in the pot.

Chica and I waited as I  left the fabric simmering on low for about 20 minutes.

Then I rinsed out all the pieces in cool water until the water ran clear.

I used some mild dish soap as well, to get any of the powdery residue off and to take away the turmeric smell.

Then I used my make shift clothes line to dry all the pieces in the sun.

I am pretty thrilled with the results !

The cotton stayed a nice mellow yellow, and took the tie dye marks beautifully.

The silk definitely became the most saturated with the bright yellow, almost golden color.

The previously dyed wool, silk and cotton bits turned this lovely warm brown color, and I love how the eucalyptus details still remain visible.

 

And I now have a great stash of mellow yellow fabrics to play with!

Quite rightly !

I hope you have a creative and sunshiny weekend, Beautiful Ones.