I am attempting to dye some 100% cotton flour sack towels with peppermint {front garden bed still has lots of healthy greenery on the stems}. I read it gives a khaki green color. According to this site I will be using vinegar & water as the fixative. http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-basics/naturaldyes.html Is that it? nothing else like a chemical {alum, etc} mordant?
I would like to do these as gifts and KNOW they will be used which means they will need WASHING. Do I use the Rit brand sealer fixative stuff? {cant remember the whole name, sorry}. Is there something else that I may have in the kitchen/house to use as the color fixative to PREVENT BLEEDING? Is there something for the above that can be bought at like a joanns, pat catans, or even walmart? I really do not want to order something online if at all avoidable. I prefer to have things I can buy and not wait a week or so for it to arrive when I am experimenting. Thank you for the help. I'm hoping to get started this weekend.
I doubt that vinegar will work as a fixative for cotton. Traditionally acid is used as a mordant on animal fibers and silk. Soda ash is usually used on cotton. Alum might work - I use it to fix my cotton lace when I tea dye it. You need to have alum for dying. The kind you get in the grocery store doesn't work very well. I hope that helps some. All I can say is experiment and see what happens.
Thank you. I will do a little more research on the soda ash. Unfortunately, our local stores do not carry it, so I will see if the pool chemical is pure enough to use {not sure if they add something extra to their soda ash package}. I'm hoping to find some woad this summer while out hiking so I can experiment with some blue. It's not on the invasive weed list for Ohio so not sure how easy it will be to find. lol. Thank you again for the input.
Natural plant dyer newbie HELP please...
Posted - Jan 12 2012 : 12:06:49 PM
