Dyeing Fabric

[smoothshooter]

I am ordering a snapsack with a leather strap soon. Unfortunately, for my use, the linen material the bag is made of is white. What can I dye it with to get a dark gray or some other earth tone color? Would a leather dye sprayed on remain color fast and not transfer on to other fabrics that may rub against it in use? I know that the whole bag could be soaked in Rit dye, but if I spray the dye on I won't have to get the strap soaked as well. If a leather dye is used, should I use an oil or alcohol based version?

 

[tenngun]

Turkey foot traders sell walnut husk for dying. And come sping poak berriers are out. Tea works as does Tobbacco. But left to itself with just being carriered in the woods it will pick up a fine lived in and loved look.
Even the oldtimers had new stuff at some point in time.

 

[Bear Rider]

I second the tea for that "used" look. It's usually on hand, cheap enough to repeat several times if necessary, and can be rinsed/washed if you overdo it.

Don't stain the entire bag to an even hue. Real dirt/wear doesn't work that way. Pull the part of the bag and strap out early, possibly leave the bottom of the bag in longest.

 

[Stophel]

The old standby, of course, is walnut hulls to make brown. If you happen to have a bucket of walnuts sitting around this time of year... Sumac (leaves, berries, branches, especially berries) should get you a tan sort of color. There are still dried up berries standing on sumac bushes around here now, so it's not hard to gather. You'd need a bunch, as it's not a strong dye color to begin with, but neither is tea.

Quick and easy is Rit dye. Something like "Taupe" will make a decent, well, taupe color. Very simple, cheap, and quick. With all Rit dye, however, you MUST wash and rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse it out thoroughly. Otherwise it will be bleeding out dye from now till doomsday.

And keep any kind of leather dye FAR FAR away!

Rit dye, sumac, tea, or walnut hulls won't hurt the leather at all.

 

[Woodyrock]

If you have red dirt(Georgia clay)throw about a cup a gallon of water, sloss it around a few times, rinse, and dry. Give a good red dirt shirt colour.
Woody

 

[smoothshooter]

I actually have un-hulled walnuts lying in the front yard about 3 feet from where I sit as I type this, and a friend of mine has a walnut hulling operation in Crane, MO about 5 miles from my house. I have shipped the juice drippings that seep out of the back of the dump truck bed that catches the hulls as the separator removes them from the hard shell to a friend in Kentucky ( William Smith) for his use in dying the fabric straps of the bags he makes.This substance is a dark oil looking stuff that requires little or no boiling and is very clean.I do need a color darker than tan, which looks like a deer or an elk and could get me shot by accident . This is a problem I have with a haversack I got last year- it stands out just like an elk's butt and can be seen for quite a distance.

 

[Patocazador]

My daughter did a high school project with natural dyes. She took most anything out there with color and extracted the dyes with water, alcohol, and a couple of other solvents (separately, not mixed). Some dyes came out better with water and some with other solvents. She then dyed cotton fabrics with them and got some very good results.

Just find something darker than what you want, heat it in water or without heat in alcohol and test on a scrap of white cloth. She used goldenrods for yellow, sumac and beauty bush berries for shades of red and violet. Blackberries give various shades of blue to purple but black walnut hulls gave the darkest brown color of all.

 

[MSW]

if I remember correctly, you gave get a pretty good 'set' if you use RIT, rinse as if your life depended upon it, and then rinse again with a diluted vinegar ... i'll as my kid - she knows a lot of chemistry...

 

[MSW]

well, she says it shouldn't matter ... I suspect the practical is being trumped by the theoretical

 

[jferguson]

There is an additional step I hear you ought to take following a dye job, and that is something to do about the word "mordant," a rinse chemical that "sets" the dye color so it won't dissipate or bleed out in the years to follow.Can anyone here elaborate on that chemical, and the process, as it relates to buckskinning activities and purposes? Thanks.

 

[50cal.cliff]

There is an additional step I hear you ought to take following a dye job, and that is something to do about the word "mordant," a rinse chemical that "sets" the dye color so it won't dissipate or bleed out in the years to follow.Can anyone here elaborate on that chemical, and the process, as it relates to buckskinning activities and purposes? Thanks.

I am not sure how this works with buck skinning but back in the tie-dye days we used a soak the t-shirts in salt water to set the dyes.
After about a 24-48 soak in the salt water the dye is set. Some of it will leach out in the soak water but what remains is set.
You can then rinse and wash to get the salt out without losing the dye job!

 

[zimmerstutzen]

As I understand it, different mordants are used for different dyes. Some use alum, some use iron filings. At the eastern many years ago, a woman gave a demonstration of dying with poke berries. She fermented them in a large pot for a few days with a bit of sugar and yeast. When done the wool she dyed was the brightest pink I had ever seen from a natural dye.

When I lived in VA, a buddy used powdered Easter egg dye that he purchased from a Greek grocery store., The powdered dye was mixed with gallons of water and a little vinegar and then the material was simmered in the dye for 30 minutes. He got some very intense colors that way.

 

[Billnpatti]

I agree with tengun. Those are all good dyes. I think the most common one was walnut husks. You just gather them and place them in a bucket with enough water to cover them. Let it set for several days until the water has turned a dark brown. Then you can use it straight for a brown dye or dilute it to the color that you want. You can use a hot iron to set the color and minimize fading. http://www.ehow.com/how_5607478_make-black-walnut-dye.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2044773_dye-fabric-tea.html
http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/natural-dyes
http://www.allnaturaldyeing.com/mordants-and-fixatives/