I have to admit my husband looked less than convinced when I excitedly tried to explain, this, my latest crafty light-bulb moment. “Why on earth would you want to put stains on something” he said, “surely people mostly try and remove them?”.
Fortunately my kids were far more impressed by my creativity, and we spent a fun afternoon testing out my theory. Turns out you can make household stains into dye!
How to Make Household Stains into Dye
We used natural cotton bags, and prepared them by simmering them in a fixative (1 part vinegar to 4 parts water) for about an hour. Having scoured the cupboard, we decided to try tomato ketchup and Mustard for our household stain dyeing experiment.
We sketched our designs on the bags lightly in pencil, so we had a guide to follow.
Then painted on our ketchup and Mustard stains.
We left our designs to dry, and then covered them with a tea towel and ran over them with a hot iron.
Breath held, they were then popped into the washing machine and run on a rinse cycle to remove the mustard and ketchup.
Having spied the dodgy bottle of wine left on the side, we also decided to try some tie-dyeing!
We wrapped elastic bands around the bags, and popped into the wine for a couple of hours. Once they had steeped we rinsed them under the tap.
And here are our finished bags. We are really happy with how our making household stains into dye experiment turned out!
The ketchup pattern isn’t as vibrant as the mustard and red wine, but still looks really pretty in the flesh. Next time we’re going to try cocoa powder and blitzed up grass cuttings!
The kids had such fun trying out our household stain dyes, and it’s a great craft to have a play with without spending lots of money. For more fun dyeing ideas check out our DIY Fabric Paint Recipe, our Eco Prints post and Making Dye from Lichen tutorials.
42 comments
beet root juice might be good.
Great idea, thanks Maree :)
This looks such fun – what a great idea. Fab post and directions. Kaz x
Thanks Kaz, it’s a really fun activity to do with kids :)
What a fab idea! And something fun and different to do with the kids. Love this
Thank you, my kids love doing this craft :)
what a fantastic idea.. im not crafty but i use to love tie dieing my tshirts in the early 90,s … i would love to try this with my little one x
Any of the tutorials on our site anyone could do I promise! Let me know if you give it a go :)
I did a science experiment at school where we used vegetables to dye cloth. It was great fun I think from memory (24 years ago!!) red cabbage worked quite well as well? I think this is great idea and very educational x
I’ve read that red cabbage is great as a dye. Lots of the things I try with the kids are inspired by hazy memories of what I did as a kid – think the one I was keenest to do with them was the owl pellets :)
What a good way to pass a day with the kids. I wonder how many times you’ll be able to wash it before more of it fades?
Oh that’s a good question. Because they are bags I only ever washed them the once. I’ll try it on a T-shirt some time and experiment :)
These is definitely a nice craft, using stains as dyes is an ingenious idea and I love it.
Thank you Miranda, I was ridiculously pleased with myself when I thought it up!
What a clever idea! I think this is especially useful if you have young kids because chances are their clothes will get stained daily so this is a fantastic way of utilizing those stains!
That was the inspiration Ana :) Made a change to want things to stain rather than not!
What a great idea! I love the way you’ve done this post – loads of great pictures and clear instructions. I might have to give this a go with my kids.
It’s great fun Zoe, and you can use anything you have in the kitchen, so its really simple :)
Great idea for a rainy day, love how the mustard turned out!
The mustard is fab isn’t it :) Someone suggested beetroot which would be lovely as well – I was thinking you could cut a stamp straight into it and it’d be self inking!
What a clever idea. I never would have thought to do that. The bags have come out really well x
Thanks – I was so excited when I thought this one up and the kids had such fun messing around with it :)
That’s a really fun idea, safer than actual fabric dye I bet. X
I would imagine so Nia, I am not sure what they use in commercial dyes but I suspect it’s a pretty nasty process making it :)
The mustard design turned out brilliantly, we have always used fabric paint to create our own bags, but this seems like a much cheaper, and just as effective, way of doing it! It would be great to try on an old t-shirt too, try to give it some life back!
xx
Be perfect for a T-shirt. Using stuff from the kitchen is great because its all already to hand :)
What a great idea! I am always on the look out for safe and fun activities to do with my little ones. We may have to give this a shot. Thanks x
My kids had such fun with this craft – they loved that they were painting stuff from the kitchen cupboards on to things :)
I do love tie dyed. Used to do this as a teen. This looks like a great project to do with my daughter, but I think I’ll save this for the summer! Easier to dry stuff outside :)
Be great fun to do this outside in the summer :)
What a brilliant idea – I might try to make a feature of some of the ketchup stains on my kids’ clothes instead of consigning them to the nursery clothes drawer! Thanks so much for sharing! Becky #busydoinglife
That’s exactly where I got the idea from – amazing how well things stain when you don’t want them too! Thanks for taking the time to comment :)
What a fantastic tutorial… my little ladies and I love dying things like this! Thankyou so much for sharing this with me on #busydoinglife
We had such fun with this, and its a perfect project for the winter months when there’s less to make dyes from outside :)
This is such a fun idea! I can just imagine how much the kids enjoyed it. Beetroot sounds like a good one to try – maybe zingy spices like paprika for an orangy colour?
Haven’t tried the beetroot yet, but imagine it could work as a self-inking stamp, so that’s how we’ll try it when I have some that needs using up. Plan to use pickled and see if the vinegar from that works as the fixative – I’m hopeful it will. Paprika would be a lovely colour to try. Thanks for visiting x
What a great idea, and cheaper than having to go out and buy the proper clothes dyes. I bet the kids really enjoyed decorating the bags with things you usually aren’t supposed to get on material. The Mustard sun looks amazingly vibrant, I’m sure the kids will be talking about this for a while! Thanks for linking up your stain-tastic fun on Trash 2 Treasure.
The kids did love this project :) Thanks for having us on #Trash2Treasure
This is such a cool idea! I love it. I guess my hubby would have looked at me oddly too, but what a fun thing to do with the kids. I love the yellow sun towel, so bright and fun. Have you thought about trying beet juice? Everytime we eat them something turns red, perhaps you could get a brighter red hue from it? Thanks so much for linking up, great creative idea.
Thanks for taking the time to comment. Beet juice is a great idea. I wonder if you could cut stamp shapes into the beet itself – would be like a self-inking stamp!
This is really cool! A great way to continue to use a piece of clothing too! Found you through the link party from View From In Here! :)
Thanks for popping in and commenting – just been admiring all your sewing patterns over at diy-crush.com