Dyeing with Flowers Part Two
Now let’s talk flower specifics! It turns out not all flowers will produce nice, saturated colors for textile dyeing. When planning which species of flowers I’ll plant on the farm, this was a huge consideration. After reading A Dyer’s Garden mentioned in the previous post and some internet research, I have a general idea of which flowers work well for natural dyeing. I’ve got some big plans for dye crops that I’m going to plant next year (more to come on that). In the meantime, I’ve already got flowers growing in my home garden to use for my first round of dye tests:
Hollyhock
Marigold
Tansy
Sunflower
Poppy
For the past several weeks, I’ve slowly been harvesting blossoms here and there that have been accumulating on my kitchen table. Based on my research, it takes a lot of plant material to dye a decent-sized batch of fabric. So for now, I’m going to try a bundle dyeing method that requires fewer flowers. And tbh, looks super cool, even more exciting than just a solid color.
Here are some inspo images that demonstrate the effects you can get with the bundle method:
I’m excited to see what kind of colors come out of the blooms I’ve collected. I’m not sure they’ll be this vibrant, but one can hope!
XO,
Abigael