Sooooo, following on from yesterday’s post about tea dyeing, I had ANOTHER silk top that was gifted to me by a lovely friend. The pale lilac colour really washed me out though so I’d never worn it. When googling info on tea dyeing it occurred to me that coffee might have similar dyeing/staining properties. After all, I’ve spilled enough coffee down my front to know that it doesn’t always come out in the wash! (I am a clumsy cow!) Sure enough….
I followed exactly the same process and timings as I did for the tea except this time I used a 100g jar of Tesco own brand coffee priced at £1.50. Unfortunately their 47p one wasn’t available in our local Tesco Express, grrr….!
Again, the finish was streak and blotch free and the colour much, much, much more me! Hurrah!
The one thing with both these projects that has yet to be determined is how the colour results stand up to washing. I’m fairly confident about this. For a start, these are silk tops and as such will be handwashed only which will limit the impact on the colour. Plus, everything I’ve researched online prior to trying this, suggests that it doesn’t require a fixative to be permanent; and at the very most it may fade a little, but for all intents and purposes is permanent. I will be sure to let you know how I get on with that!
In the meantime, I have plans afoot to try out some other “grocery” dyes. Turmeric and beetroot are both renowned for staining so it seems logical to me to try them on some silk. Onion skins are another source of natural dye that I fancy trying. Of course, all manner of plant materials and fibres have dyeing properties. Dyeing fabric goes right back to ancient times and would have been wholly achieved by using natural raw materials before the advent of chemical dyeing processes during the industrial revolution. Some of it though is akin to alchemy and beyond my level of patience!There are  more experiments to come though! For now, I’ve run out of silk tops to experiment with. Best get down the charity shop and have a rummage; and you know how I hate that 😉