Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Dyeing Dilemma

It is rapidly becoming apparent to me that the hardest part of this adventure is not going to be the hand-sewing, but the dyeing. One could, theoretically, hand sew anything. But finding something in its natural state, or naturally dyed, to hand sew is another matter.

I chose the limitation of using natural fabrics and dyes because I found in architecture school that parameters can often be a help, rather than a hindrance. Having a restriction drives one in a certain direction, and hopefully in the direction one intended to go. I am looking for a thorough understanding of pre-industrial clothing. I think hand-sewing alone would only get me half way to that goal; not using synthetic fabrics and dyes should get me the rest of the way. Although I will miss machine knits, using them would certainly not give me the same quality of experience that linen would. And people in pre-industrial times, no matter the class, certainly couldn't just pick a color for their clothes as if it's all the same, the way we do in a modern fabric store. There were only certain dyestuffs available, and their costs and viability varied.

I am already having that experience. I have 25 yards of unbleached muslin, and about 3 yards of lightweight bleached linen. I have these because of prior interests, so I'm feeling lucky. I view the unbleached muslin as cheap linen substitute on which to royally screw up before I invest in more precious fabric - but it is hardly an exciting color palette. Oatmeal comes to mind. And I do not need to remind myself and others of oatmeal for the next year. I need to dye it.

Dyeing it myself

My immediate options are natural direct dyes. According to my current limited understanding, "direct" dyes are dyes which do not require a mordant to set the dye color in the fabric. The direct dyes I have easy access to are tea, onion skins, and turmeric. I dyed my chemise for the SCA with tea, and it came out a vaguely pinkish tan. (But a couple machine washes later, it is almost white again, which is problematic.) I've seen the results of onion skin dying; it was a kind of warm, honey yellow. And turmeric supposedly results in a color somewhere in the yellow range. Once I get more into this, I might be able to rise up out of the earth tones, but that will take time and practice.

Buying Naturally Dyed Fabric

This is very much more easily said than done. The closest I have come to this is NearSea Naturals, an online store that has a range of undyed organic fabrics and colorgrown fabrics.

What on earth is colorgrown? you may ask. I wondered the same thing. So brace yourself.

It is cotton that grows in colors such as green, brown, and allegedly red.

This blew my mind when I came across it, because I had no idea anything like this existed. It is not some weird modern biotech plant; colored cotton has been around for thousands of years, but because its fiber is short, it has been unsuitable for commercial production. Apparently there is a modern hybrid that solves this problem to a great extent. I'm hoping to acquire some samples soon!

The Next Step

I have purged my closet, but before I rid myself of it all, I want to take an inventory and make an analysis. And get a new memory card for my camera so that I can take copious photos and share it all with you!