recently i was gifted with a few tagetes flowers that were left since summer and still out in the winter cold. dried up and frozen over several times, i wondered if there was still any dye left in them.
tagetes erecta plant in winter
i picked the dried flower heads and took them home. to use them for dyeing, i put them in a pot with water, heated everything up and let it simmer for a while. you’re basically making tea, a very concentrated one. every once in a while i dip a piece of fabric to get an idea of the dye colour and strength.
tagetes flower head soaked in water to be heated up
once the dye is to my liking, i strain out the flower heads and let it cool down over night. as i mainly work with linen and cotton, for a dye like tagetes the fiber needs to be mordanted before dyeing, otherwise the colour will not stick to the fabric and wash out. for this i currently use an aluminium formate (aluminium triformiat, C3H3AlO6) cold mordant, which i keep in a bucket and throw threads or fabric to be dyed in there. it is really practical, as it works at room temperature, and you can leave fiber in there for a long time if you don’t want to or can’t dye them immediately.
the next step is the actual dyeing. for this i slowly heat the dye up and add the threads/fabric after taking them out of the mordant and removing any excess mordanting liquid.
threads in tagetes dye
leave the fabric or thread in the dye until the colour pleases you. it will get a little less intense after drying, so keep that in mind.
thread in tagetes dye
once you like the colour, take out your fabric or threads, squeeze excess dye (careful – hot!!!) and hang up to dry.
sashiko thread freshout of the dye bath
freshly dyed vintage cotton/linen handkerchief fabric
sashiko & cotton embroidery thread
after a while the dye bath loses its power – it will stilly dye, but the colours will be much gentler.
embroidery thread – dye bath already less intense
after your fabrics and threads are dry, wait approximately two weeks before rinsing them for the first time, this helps the colour settle and really stick to the fibers.
these are all fabrics and thread dyed with tagetes flowers from @westspacevienna roof top garden. first dye bath:
sashiko and embroidery thread
linen, cotton & cotton/linen fabric
second dye bath:
embroidery thread
embroidery thread
i’m still amazed at how much colour and vibrancy was left in these dried up, shrivelled flower heads. will definitely go hunting for dyestuff in nature in the next weeks. i guess there could be a few more happy surprises out there.
and i look very much forward to work with these materials. it’s really special to know where the plants come from and who grew them (thank you jana @netzwerkdachbesetzung & lilly @wiener_dachfarm for your generous gift of these flowers. ❤ and sandra @vermilio.vienna for helping me out with all my dyeing questions and troubleshooting). combined with vintage and antique fabric and thread i’m constantly hunting for, these will hopefully become nice and slow textile works in the near future.