A Simple Botanical Dye Technique for Fabric

While we're creating our Limited Edition Pot Pourri and Artisan Apothecary ranges, we're also dyeing swathes of silk with herbs and botanicals that we grow along with our heritage roses. Hand-dyeing with botanicals creates a lovely, soft effect on silk fabric that leaves an imprint of the botanicals used in the dyeing process.

In this example, our purpose for dyeing a length of silk fabric is to create lovely sachets that softly reflect the botanicals we use for our Botanical Blends, as well as floaty ribbons for our signature Bridal Bouquets.

One of our favourite ways to use botanicals in the dyeing process is to imprint rose petals and herbs on fabric. Ensure that your fabric is a natural undyed fibre, such as silk or cotton. Wool can be dyed this way as well, but you will need to ensure you don't add heat to the process.

In this sample, we've chosen to use pure silk, as you'll see in these photos. The final colour and imprint will depend on the fabric you choose, whether you add heat during the dyeing process, as well as the type of botanicals you use.

I prefer a very soft, faint echo of the botanicals that I've used, but if you prefer a stronger colour, be sure to use botanicals that have a dark and/or bright colour. Be warned though, not all botanicals will dye their original colour. It's worth experimenting on a small piece of fabric first, so you have a good idea of how it will turn out.

I prefer this simple process that bypasses complicated and often toxic dye pots and mortar materials. The result can be a soft echo of the botanicals you've used in the process. For example, unlike the pink rose petals and green herbs that you see in these initial steps, the final result is very muted, which I love.

To begin, simply pick fresh petals and herbs from your garden and scatter in a loose layer over damp fabric that you have lain flat. You can layer the botanicals as thickly or as sparsely as you like. You'll see here I've been quite sparse with my layer of botanicals. Be careful to remove any grit or insects that you may have inadvertently collected with your botanicals as these will leave unwanted marks on your fabric.

Once you've completed scattering this layer of botanicals on your flat fabric, roll the fabric tightly ensuring the botanicals stay trapped in a single layer. As you can see, there is still fabric visible that does not have botanicals covering it. This is because, as I've mentioned, I opted for a loose, scattered layer rather than a thick layer of petals and herbs to achieve my preferred muted look.

Once you've finished rolling the fabric, secure it with string. Make sure the string is not coloured so that any dye from the string doesn't stain your wet cloth. Leave the roll in indirect light for up to 24 hours. Don't leave the roll of botanicals and fabric too long as the botanicals will begin to mould, effecting your cloth.

If you wish to speed up the process of transferring any colour from the botanicals, you can place the fabric in a steamer for a couple of hours. Use baking paper between the fabric and the metal of your steamer so that you don't cook unwanted marks on the fabric.

You might prefer to experiment with this process before committing a full length of expensive fabric. And be mindful that heating wool fabric is not recommended, as heating wool will probably result in felting your woollen fabric.

Once you've completed the process, now is time for cutting the string from your fabric roll and unravelling the fabric. You can see that there is some colour pigment on this fabric, which is quite faint. The green herbs did not transfer as well as the red of the rose petals.

After rinsing the botanical materials off your fabric, you'll see what you're left with. But this is not the final result. The colour pigment from the botanicals will continue to develop.

A note here: because we grow our heritage roses sustainably, and don't spray our roses or any of our flowers and herbs, the pigment on the fabric is not altered by any chemicals that might be in pesticide sprays.

Handwash your fabric using a gentle soap and hang to dry in the shade out of direct sunlight. You can see from the fabric above that the silk has not grabbed all of the pigment from the rose petals and herbs. However, this soft, muted effect is what I was after. If you want a more in-depth pigment, you can repeat the process using the same botanicals. To give a more layered effect you could also use other botanicals with a different pigment.

The silk fabric pictured here is destined for creating soft, rustic sachets for our Limited Edition Pot Pourri. This is the same technique we use to create our beautiful, floaty Bridal ribbons to finish off our lovely, scented signature Bridal Bouquets featuring our heritage roses.

Have fun with this process and experiment to achieve different results. It's useful to make a record of what worked; which botanicals and what type of fabric you used, how long you processed the fabric and so on.

Let me know how you go ...

xxLillian

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