How to dye cotton fabric with Pomegranate fruit

Recently, I’m been taken over by the God of natural dyeing. ;) I dyed something a few days ago & completely went to heaven, lol. I’m joking. But seriously, I don’t know why I didn’t go for it earlier. The thing I dyed is a secret. What I dyed it with is a secret… because it is a surprise gift for someone. The color effect was so awesome & the smell…Aah! heavenly just like the earth from which the plant material I used had come from.

Because I was so impressed by it’s results, I searched the big bad internet trying to find some more natural materials which I could use to dye. I found that mostly all fruits, plants, some barks, some insects can be used to make a natural dye. Just remember that if some fruit or vegetable is colorful & edible, the chances are, it most probably can be used for dye making for consumable and non-consumable purposes.

The process involved is time consuming. But, I guess, I’m just the right person for it because I love to accept challenges like this. It took me a good 2 days to dye 2 different colored fabrics.

I’m going to cover the 1st dyeing process with Pomegranate fruit with a step-by-step process.

1) I used a plain white cotton (handmade) fabric – 2.5 meters.

2) The fabric that I got was starched & a bit dirty as it was white. So I laundered it using a handful of washing powder. I washed it in clear water & rung it out. It took me about 15-20 minutes.

3) I took all the peels of the Pomegranate fruit except the edible seeds(of course I ate up the fruit ;) ). I used peels from 8 similar sized pomegranates. The quantity was 1 kg. It took me about 45 minutes to do this.

3) I cut small pieces of these parts & crushed it with a hammer. You can also use a mixer to make a pulp. It took me about 60 minutes to beat the hell out of it.

4) Dye Bath: I added it in a large pot with enough water to completely cover all the peels & boiled this mixture for an hour.

5) In the meantime, I made the mordant by adding 250 gms of salt to 4 litres of water in a large pot & once it came to a boiling point, I added the wet fabric to this solution & let it simmer for an hour stirring occasionally . I guess, the salt & water proportion should be 1:4.

6) After an hour I removed the pot which contained the dye bath from heat & strained the fruit portion with a thin strainer. I forgot to take it’s picture, but here is how it will look. Time to complete this step: 30 minutes.

7) I put the pot with the strained dye bath liquid back on stove & let it come to a boiling point.

8) After 1 hour of cooking the fabric in the mordant, I removed it from the pot & washed it in a pail of water.

9) Then I wrung the fabric & added it to the pot containing the dye bath.

10) I simmered the fabric in the dye bath for an hour stirring occasionally & removed the pot from the heat. I felt the color was a bit light, so I let the fabric sit in the dye bath till it was cold. (You may let it sit in the dye bath overnight to get a much darker shade of color).

11) Once, I was satisfied with the color, I wrung the extra dye from the fabric. I then,  put the fabric in a pail of water to remove the excess dye & small particles of the pomegranate from the fabric. Time to do this: 15 minutes

12) I laundered the fabric yet again using a handful of washing powder & lots of water to rinse off the extra dye making sure that the fabric is color fast. It took me about an hour to do this.

13) The fabric is now drying in shade. Direct sunlight would bleach the color to make it lighter in color. I will add a picture of the completed fabric after ironing it tomorrow .  I like the dull beige/ tan color it has turned out to be. I hope it stays this way.