Natural Tie Dye Project 

Using tumeric and beets I was able to make homemade natural dyes to tie dye these cute little onesies for my baby! It was a fun and easy project. The only thing that took time was letting the dyes soak in which took some patience because I was so excited to see he final outcome!

I did the tumeric first. I peeled about a handful of tumeric and placed it in a pot of water to boil. At the same time in another pot I combined white vinegar with water (about 1/3 vinegar to water ratio). The vinegar helps the color hold in the fabric. 

While the pots warmed up I folded one of the onesies in an acordain style, first lengthwise then the other way until I was left with a perfect little square. I used a few rubber bands to secure the shirt. For another I pressed the shirt flat with my hands on the counter. I pinched the fabric in the center of the top of the onesie and twisted it to make a spiral pattern on the front of the shirt for an old school tie dye pattern. When the whole shirt was in a spiral I secured that one with rubber bands as well. The third onesie I dip dyed the top portion in the tumeric. 

When the vinegar water was hot I turned off the heat and let the onesies soak while the tumeric pot boiled. I turned the flame on low on the tumeric water and let it steep for a couple hours so the color would become very rich. 

Here is what the two pots (one with tumeric, the other with white vinegar and water) looked like as they were getting ready to boil:

I also did a batch of acordain folded napkins secured with rubber bands. Here’s what those looked like soaking in the vinegar water:Once the tumeric water was very dark orange I started the process! I placed the folded and rubber banded onesie in the pot with the dye and submerged them completely. I dipped the top of the third onesie in and let the rest of it hang out the side so it wouldn’t get any dye on it. I made sure the flame was off on the stove and just let them sit for a couple of hours! When I unfolded them I was so excited! 

Here is how the acordain folded onesie looked after it was done and hanging outside to dry:

The color stayed really well on these even after washing. 

I saved the vinegar water and a few days later I tried the beet dye. It was a very beautiful color:I repeated the process as before and had fun rubber banding and dip dying these as well. 

When they were all done I washed them (the tumeric ones first and the beet ones next–separate from all other laundry so as to not stain anything) on a gentle COLD cycle with mild detergent. The color in the tumeric dyed onesies stayed! They look amazing. 

I will have to work on making the beet juice dye more concentrated another time because the rosy color washed out sadly. But they are now a natural-looking cotton color now, which is still nice 🙂