Six years ago I did two post on how to dye wool yarn with black beans. As I have moved into dyeing cotton fabric I thought I would write a little updated post. You can read here the part 1 and part 2. I basically I used exactly the same technique, the biggest difference was…

The name of my blog is called The Easy Blues. That’s because I was listening John Martyn two months ago when I started this blog. Ironically blue is definitely not the easiest colour to achieve whe…

A couple of years ago I’ve already published a tutorial on how to dye cotton fabric blue with black beans using DIY iron mordant and a cold dyeing process. This is now a different method to dye cotton gray blue with black beans. You don’t need to mordant the fabric before dyeing it with black … Continue reading How To Dye Cotton With Black Beans (No Mordant) →

Don't throw out that orange peel just yet! Follow these instructions to make natural dyes from basic grocery store ingredients.

Have you ever wanted to try natural dyeing? It's as easy as raiding your pantry! Check out this step-by-step tutorial for how to dye yarn using black beans to get a gorgeous smokey blue color!

Today I made more dye experiments with red cabbage. This time I made a dye bath with red cabbage and baking soda. I diluted leftover homemade blue food coloring (made with red cabbage and baking soda) with water. The food coloring turned the water dark blue, almost black. I put pre-washed white cotton fabric scraps … Continue reading Red Cabbage + Baking Soda – Dye Samples →

Having seen some pretty amazing pictures on Ravelry, where a whole thread is devoted to the colour variations obtained with black beans, I have wanted to experiment with those for a few months now.…

I finally finished an actual dye! I'm super happy with how it turned out, and plan on doing some cabbage dyeing after work today, w...

Natural dyes are a fun way to experience the natural world, and plants, mushrooms, lichnes and moss not only decorate our world, they have hidden color inside that can dye fabrics, paper, wood and more.

Blueberry Fabric Dye using organic blueberries, water, salt and vinegar. I've been wanting to experiment with natural dyes. I read Jenny Dean's book Wild Color. It gives a great overview of the process and all the details to consider in natural dyeing. (With the left over blueberries, I made blueberry jam.) ;)