Tea-Dyed Fabric for the First Time Yesterday

[Hannelore]

And I'm REALLY pleased with how it came out! The color is perfect: like an unbleached muslin, but without the little specks. I think it'll be just right for the quilt that I'm working on. It's the "background" fabric, so I wanted something neutral but not as stark as the fabric was originally. The only downside was wringing out 5 yards of fabric after the dyeing and rinsing: my hands are covered in blisters! I used my aunt's old giant stock pot that she doesn't use anymore, and 12 bags of really cheap tea which was so old that I didn't know if it was even drinkable anymore. So I feel good, having gotten some use out of it.

Here's the quilt that I'm basing my current quilt off of (pretty sure that I posted it before, when I was asking for advice about it): https://www.pinterest.com/pin/532832199637441303/
The dyed fabric will be the "connecting" diamonds, in between the stars. I used one printed fabric, and then one of the colors from the print as a solid fabric, for each star. I've got all of the stars sewn to make a 70"x90"-ish quilt, and now I've got to figure out how I want to arrange them. I swore after the last quilt that I'd never do another random arrangement, but I think that would be the best plan for this one, since all of the stars are different. 😡

[verenaerin]

That's great! Do you have to do anything to set the dye? Do you wash it out a couple times to get out the excess?

I have a book with great patterns, and they call for dying some of the fabric, they use a chemical solution though. I always wondered about tea.

I am assuming you will hand sew this next quilt?

[Lynne]

Lovely! I've always wanted to try tea-dying, haven't yet...

[maryslittlegarden]

Ha, my old eyes read this as tie dying......

[Hannelore]

Verenaerin: I read two different tutorials before I started. One said to soak the fabric in plain cold water for about thirty minutes after wringing out the (scalding!) hot tea, in order to set the color, and the other said to soak the fabric in cold salt water. All of the other descriptions of dyeing that I've read have mentioned some sort of acidic soak, like a vinegar solution. Anyway, I put the fabric into the washer on "rinse and spin," in order to see if the color would hold up (and so that I wouldn't have to wring it out anymore), and it came out fine.

I've calculated how many diamonds I'll need, and am now in the process of tracing and cutting them, and marking the seam lines. Then comes final assembly, which I'm really looking forward to. I've never seen a quilt in individual patches and then put them all together at the end before. I really like it, since it allows for a little feeling of mini-accomplishment at the completion of each piece, as well as the satisfaction of seeing all of the pieces accumulate. I'm going to hand sew, but I'm seriously considering using quilt binding this time. I sewed the last quilt like a duvet cover, and then ladder-stitched the last seam closed and it was a nightmare!

I've found that I've been more consistent with working on this quilt, and consequently it's gone much faster. But it's smaller than the last one: only an extra-long twin, rather than an extra-long queen-size. I like my blankets long enough to tuck a lot in at the foot of the bed, and still have enough to pull up to my nose and burrow under. Lol