Natural Dyeing – Red Onion Skins

Ingredients to naturally dye onion skins:

100g of onion skins
6g of alum powder
6g of cream of tar tar
100g of dry fabric

Method:

Place the onion skins into a muslin bag or (reusable veg bag) then place these into a pot and cover with water generously. Bring to the boil and simmer for approximately 30-45 minutes.

Once you have a lovely colour in your dye pot, take the skins out and discard them.

When you have your mordanted fabric place this into the dye bath. There is no given time on how long you ‘should’ leave the fabric in but normally it is until the desired colour is reached.

Once the colour of the fabric is achieved then removed the fabric from the dye bath and then rinse these with water. Some of the dye will come out when rinsing the fabric this is normal. This is another reason to keep your fabrics in the dye bath longer as they will become lighter once rinsed.

With red onion skins you will get a lovely green colour to your fabric. Do not throw the dye away as you can repeatedly use this until all the colour has gone ( the fabric will become paler each time the dye bath is reused).