Making a Bag from Avocado Dyed Fabric
Are you ready for my second adventure in dyeing? I've always been attracted to natural dyes. I think it's so cool you can basically use leftover food to make fabric a different color. For this project, I knew I wanted to make a useful project. I needed something to carry my knitting and crochet projects in, so I chose the Town Bag by Grainline Studio!
Here is what I used for the avocado dye project (lots of the same things as last week!):
- 2 yd Canvas
- Soda Ash
- Dyer's Detergent
- Lots of Avocado
- Big stock pot
- Stirring spoon
- Drying Rack
I washed the canvas with the rayon linen, so I won't repeat my mistake of dyer's detergent and soda ash, you can read last week's blog post if you're interested in my big mess! I will preface that I did the avocado dye twice because I messed it all up the first time. The mess up process will be in parentheses.
I bet you're wondering how I got my avocados. Sure, I could have eaten all my own avocado, but I don't go through avocado that quickly. So, I literally messaged my local Mexican restaurant on Facebook and asked them if they could save me a bag of Avocado skins! Thankfully, they said yes. I went to pick them up, and I was expecting a grocery bag full, but I got A TRASH BAG FULL! I spent an hour and a half cleaning the skins of all avocado bits, bagging them up into gallon bags, and sticking them in the freezer.
The night before I was ready to dye, I took out a bag of avocado skins (2 bags for the first time) and simmered them in a stock pot on the stove. (2 bags ended up being too much, and I also accidentally let them boil for a little the first time, so the dye ended up brown). After simmering for an hour, let the skins sit overnight in the water.
First batch:
Second batch:
When you're ready to dye, dampen the fabric (the first time, I did not do a soda ash bath, but the second time I did.. 1 tsp soda ash in warm water) and stuff it in the pot of dye. Heat it back up to a simmer, stirring the fabric every once in a while. (One of the main reasons I had to do a second batch of avocado dye, besides it turning brown, was because the first stir stick I used stained my fabric in spots... the second time I just used a wooden spoon!)
Let it simmer for another hour, still stirring, and then let it cool down and sit for up to 3 days in the dye. I let the second batch sit for about 2 and a half days.
When it was done, I transferred it to the utility sink and rinsed until clear. Then I washed and dried it, and it once again faded quite a bit, similarly to the ice dye. I'm sure there's a way to keep it more saturated, but I'll just have to experiment again at a later date. I have plenty more avocado skins in my freezer! I'd like to try this with onion skins too!
Did you know avocado dye made PINK?
Here is my Town Bag, which was such a quick and easy sew, although I did a few of the instructions incorrectly because I kept getting the pictures of right sides and wrong sides of the fabric confused.. oh well!
These dyeing experiments were so much fun! Sign up for my newsletter if you want to stay tuned for my next experiment!