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Over time, it is very common for us to get bored with our clothes and feel the need to renew our wardrobe or give our clothes a different touch. Dyeing our old garments can be a great alternative to achieve this effect, reducing, at the same time, the economic cost of buying new clothes and being respectful and sustainable with the environment, since give a new life to our clothes used reduces consumerism.
Do you know how you can dye your clothes? In Green Ecologist we explain how to dye clothes with tea, one of the most natural ways to do it.
Before starting to dye clothes with tea
Tea is a good Natural colourant, so its use to dye clothes is more than recommended. However, you should know that it does not produce a radical or too intense coloration, it simply gives rise to a subdued tone or vintage. So if what you want is to color your clothes with very daring colors it will not work for you and, then, it is better that you use other products or techniques.
Also, keep in mind that the tea dyeing fabric It has to be made of cotton or other totally natural fibers, or combined if you want it to not be a uniform color.
Material for dyeing clothes with tea
To dye your clothes with tea, you will first need to get hold of a series of necessary materials for it. Take note of this list:
- A large pot.
- Pair of scissors.
- Wooden spoon.
- Clothes to dye.
- 1 liter of water for every meter of fabric.
- Tea bags
- Salt.
- Vinegar.
How to dye clothes with tea - step by step
Once you have all the necessary material to dye your clothes naturally with these herbs, you can start. Follow these simple steps to dye clothes with tea:
- Choose your tea: The first step is to select the right tea and prepare it. Although all types of tea are natural colorants, black tea works best because it is the most intense, so we recommend that you use this variety. However, you can also use other intense colors such as red tea.
- Make the tea: Next, we will prepare the tea by separating it from its wrapping and threads with the help of scissors. The amount of tea bags we need will depend on the amount of water. To get an idea of the proper proportion, keep in mind that you will need a tea bag for each cup of water you use.
- Boil the water in a pot: The fabric has to be completely covered by water, so the amount of water to boil will vary depending on the size of the garment you want to dye.
- Add salt: This will help to fix the tea dye so that the garment's color resists future washes without losing its hue. About 2 tablespoons of salt for every four cups.
- Add the tea: When the water is boiling, remove the pot from the heat and add the tea bags, allowing them to color the water and letting them marinate for at least 15 minutes. The longer you steep the tea, the greater its effect.
- Prepare the garment: You should make sure the fabric is clean before you dye it. To prepare it, it needs to be wet, so you must wet it and drain it, preventing it from drying out completely.
- Immerse the garment: Remove the tea bags from the pot once the water has reached the desired hue. From now on you will no longer need them so you can get rid of them. Then submerge the fabric or garment you want to dye and make sure it is completely covered and let it rest for at least an hour. You can help yourself with a wooden spoon to submerge those areas of the fabric that float and rise to the surface or to stir the water from time to time in order to get it to stain evenly.
- Get the desired color: You can bring your garment to the surface from time to time to check its dyeing. You should bear in mind that wet clothes are darker than dry clothes.
- Remove the garment: Remove the fabric from the container and rinse it in another container of cold water for at least 10 minutes. Add a splash of vinegar to help fix the dye.
- Get your garment dyed: eThis is the last step. Your garment is already dyed! Now you simply have to remove it from the container of cold water and let it dry completely. Once it is dry, you should iron the fabric since having put it in a pot it is possible that it presents some other wrinkles. Once you have ironed it, it will be ready and ready for you to use.
Tips to dye clothes with tea and look perfect
To finish, in Green Ecologist we give you some tips and recommendations for dyeing clothes naturally with tea that will be very useful:
- It is necessary to take into account the type of fabric or fabric that you want to dye. Generally, the more natural the fabric, the more the dye will fix and the better the result will be, being the most recommended garments for dyeing those made of cotton, thread, silk, wool or linen, while the least recommended are those made from of synthetic materials.
- If you don't want the fabric to be dyed evenly, you can tie the garment with a string and remove it at the end of the process. In this way, the garment will not be dyed equally and you will achieve a psychedelic effect.
- For a speckled effect, you can also sprinkle coarse salt on the garment when it is drying. The salt will absorb some of the dye.
- If you want to get a very dark tone, you should leave the fabric to soak for more than an hour, being able to leave it even overnight.
- Normally, during subsequent washes, the garment loses some dye, so it should be washed in cold or warm water.
- If you don't have tea on hand but you do have coffee, you can try dyeing your clothes with coffee because it is also a very effective natural dye.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to dye clothes with tea, we recommend that you enter our category of ecological products.
