Sustainable fashion is currently the most-talked about topic in the fashion industry. More and more brands are trying to become more sustainable in order to contribute a positive impact to the society.
A little background story; I'm in my third semester on pursuing my Bachelor of Arts degree at Raffles College of Higher Education, Singapore and I am currently working on my Future Fashion Project, which is my final project. After having a few mind maps and brainstorming ideas, I came to a conclusion that I'm going to create a brand that offers casual womenswear with sustainable fabric that will be dyed in natural plant-based dyes.
After I read a few articles and watched several youtube videos, I concluded that natural dyeing process is quite simple and is not complicated at all. And so, I did a few trials on dyeing the fabric until I obtained the colours that I desire. In the experiment, I used tea, strawberry and purple cabbage as the main ingredients to obtain cream, brown, pale pink and soft violet colour.
In this blog, I'm going to share how I did my natural dyeing experience and show several behind the scene and the result pictures.
How-To:
Firstly, I cut the fabric that I'm using (which is linen) into small squares (approximately 10x10cm). Then, I dip the fabrics into a bowl of water that was already combined with a pinch of salt and three drops of vinegar as salt and vinegar are said to bring out more vibrancy from the colours.
While waiting for the water, salt and vinegar to absorb into the fabric, I chop up the raw ingredient (in my case, a purple cabbage) into small pieces and boil it in plain water, so the purple colour could transmit to the water.
After boiling for about 15-30 minutes, filter the coloured water and throw away all the remaining ingredients. The last step would be putting the soaked fabric into the coloured water and wait for the colour to absorb into the fabric (P.S. wait for 1-12 hour, depending on how vibrant and strong you want the colour to be). AND VOILA!
Results
This is the result of my self-dyeing experience and I'm very happy with how all the colours turns out. Not too vibrant and not too pale, just perfect!♡
From this experience, I learned a lot about the origin of natural dye and also the process of natural dyeing. I'm so glad I did this experiment as now I could be more appreciative towards clothes that are made up of natural dye. Also by using natural plant-based dyes, I could reduce the use of toxic chemicals and contribute positivity to the environment ☺
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