The Vintage Clothing and Accessories Board has started a weekly learning thread to increase knowledge of Vintage. This is compiled from the first installment, March 17, 2007, hosted by Me - Carrie, chicgeekgirl.

What Are Vegetable Dyes?
They are made from vegetables, used before commercially available dyes, & still used today by some. According to Answers.com, a vegetable dye is any colorant that is obtained from a vegetable source; for example, indigo or madder. Others extend the definition to dyes made from any plant source.

debbradee
This is what is written in a book I have:

Vegetable Dyestuffs: They are extracted from plant roots. Examples include logwood, madder, quercitron, Sumac ect. These dyes are used on cottons; logwood is used to great extent in dying silk.

Resources
chicgeekgirl
Here is a link to an article I found:
www. hinduonnet.com/folio/fo9906/99060320.htm

Here's another interesting one I found - the first article on the page is un-related so you have to scroll to the next one.

http://www.weeklyholiday.net/050402/heri.html

sweet_dreams_vintage
Timeline history of dyes- interesting to note the first synthetic dye was created in 1856:
http://www.straw.com/sig/dyehist.html

History of dyes and colorants before Wm. Perkin invented mauve:
http://www.colorantshistory.org/HistoryInternationalDyeIndustry.html

Lesson plan on identifying natural pigments:
http://www.umaine.edu/NSFGK-12/images/PDFs/natdye.pdf

cheachic
Found this one.
http://www.dyesonline.net/dyes/historyind.htm

ljandherknight
I found these two with info about vegetable dyes!!
http://www.dyesonline.com/intro.htm

http://www.amaherbal.com/range_ndyes.html

zimmersarmy
Textiles of the Arts and Crafts Movement by Linda Parry
From the back blurb: "This is a comprehensive survey of English textiles from the era when Britain led the design world. For 25 years after the first Arts and Crafts Exhibition in 1988, they were shown throughout Europe and the United Sates, influencing designers and attracting a large public, and were sold by the most fashionable shops. The refined creations of Arthur Silver (including Liberty's celebrated Peacock Feather), the distinctive designs of C.F.A. Voysey, the floral patterns of Lindsay Butterfield and George Haite - all are a source of delight and aesthetic inspiration. Some of the printed fabrics are popular again today through their recent revival by manufacturers. But the full variey of techniques exploited by the Arts and Crafts Movement -including not only printed but woven textiles, tapestries and carpets, embroideries and lace - is still unfamiliar."

FYI: Hancock Fabrics is featuring reprinted A&C prints (in cotton) this season [Spring 2007].

cherry_vintage
Fabric Dyeing & Printing by Kate Wells if anyone is interested in finding an actual book that contains info about vegetable dyes, natural dyes & chemical dyes.

I've had this book 7 years & think it still is print. I was first introduced to it in one of my fibers classes at Wayne State University, it has several chemical formulas for dying , including vegetable dying. Some complex, some easier you could do at home. The color photos are beautiful & there are some step by step illustrations.

IMO it's a good book for starting to learn the art of dyeing, the indigo dyeing, to me, is really fun. I've used this book many times in teaching dyeing workshops.

modernbelle2005
If you are into modern dyes, check out http://www.dharmatrading.com/. They have a superior dye, with a wide variety of colors. You can even order the sample packs.

swampcrone
Another tangent on the dying front:
Kool-Aid!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html
http://www.thepiper.com/fiberart/koolaid/

Note that Kool-aid will only work on animal fiber (ie wool, hair) fabrics and yarns, it will not work on cottons/ synthetics. [ Note: Kool-Aid works on nylon very well, more in the techniques section – ikwewe]

What Vegetables Make What Colors, and HOW?
modernbelle2005
We did a homeschool study on natural dyes. We has the best results with purple cabbage , and beets.
The dyes were prone to fading over time with washing, which , of course, was one of the reasons behind the invention of synthetic dyes that would form a more permanent chemical bond with the fabric.

Have y'all ever gotten ahold of a new item that had been colored with a dye that reeked?

I remember a few times buying stuff, if I remember correctly, was those Ethnic India looking skirts and dashikis....and they were SO smelly!

zimmersarmy
I pulled out a cool little book I have called the World is Clothed(Readers on Commerce and Industry by Frank George Carpenter, 1908.)

I will say something about purple as my daughter's name is Lydia. St. Lydia or Lydia the purpleler, was a seller of purple (and donated the proceeds to the church as one of the earliest benefactors.) I believe she is also the patron saint of dyers.

From the book: "The purple of ancient Tyre was so beautiful that the kings of that country made it the royal color, and it has been continued as such from then until now." "The famed Tyrian purple was from a shell animal or fish, found in the Mediterranean Sea, but it was displaced by a cheaper vegetable dye of the same color made of the orchilla weed, so named from Orchillini, an Italian, who discovered it. This, in turn, is being crowded out by still cheaper dyes made from coal tar."

The book also tells about other colors, techniques and such.

Ikwewe
Sometimes we use natural dyes for our Easter eggs. I found a site that has a list of plants and the colors. I've used beets and onion skins, red cabbage and tea.

# Pale Red: Fresh beets or cranberries, frozen raspberries
# Orange: Yellow onion skins
# Light yellow: Orange or lemon peels, carrot tops, celery seed or ground cumin
# Yellow: Ground turmeric
# Pale green: Spinach leaves
# Green-gold: Yellow Delicious apple peels
# Blue: Canned blueberries or red cabbage leaves
# Beige to brown: Strong brewed coffee
Here is the site, they go into the method, too. What works for eggs, just might work for your cloth, too. When I make dolls, I use tea to dye white sox for their heads and bodies.
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/00/000410h.cfm

Uses of Vegetable Dyes
cats*and*crickets
Not pertaining to vintage clothing,but many of the newer "organic" clothing companies use natural dyes for their clothing: Fresh Produce is one and another I have bought before is Earth Creations. Earth Creations uses minerals such as different clays as dyes as well...which I find fascinating.

viviene
Something I read on the internet (I can't remember right this second) stated that during WWII vegetable dyes were used as commercial dyes were reserved for military use. That may be why we find so many 1940s dresses with fade issues.

Pinehaven2
I will tell you my experience with Persian rugs, there is a very long history to Persian rugs. They have been made well over a thousand years. Iran makes and has always made the finest quality Persian rugs of any country.

To take this on topic a little, I will tell you two things that make a Persian rug virtually worthless. Some rugs, (most distinctly those made in the 50s, were made with synthetic dyes. In the rug industry they are the dogs. A lot of the Persians being sold today are actually machine made and from China. They, too, are worthless.

The colors in a true Persian rug have much significance and will tell the regions they are from. When you hear the name of a Persian rug (such as Bokhara), that actually denotes the region it hales from.

All the vegetable dyes have a subtle difference in color from one region to another, based on the soil and environment of that region. The true vegetable dyes used in Persian rugs first date back to 100,000 years ago and it all started with ochre. Today there are some mosques in the middle east that actually have 500 year old Persian rugs still being used for prayer. And just to become truly droll, I will inform you that the number of stitches per inch denotes the quality. Usually 100 and under stitches per inch is a "prayer rug," kind of like a carseat for us in its usability as a tool.

ghostbutterfly
Natural dyes? My favorite here is the enormously influential William Morris, the intellectual leader of the British Arts and Crafts movement, who emphasized a return to the pre-machine age, and to using natural dyes as colorants in all his work - from textiles to wallpapers. You can find a quick summary of his work and philosophy here:

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dc_styles_arts_crafts/article/0,1793,HGTV_3508_3332702,00.html He was a master of the various processes used in dyeing. His work with the plant dye indigo, whose production was eventually tanked in India as its market was subsumed by analine dyes, is particularly subtle and gorgeous.

He also developed a palette of natural dyes to use to create colors for embroidery thread, as embroidery was a craft central to the Arts and Crafts Movement. (Morris taught himself to embroider, thinking he should be able to do what he was asking his craftswomen to do...)

You will find a discussion of the issues involved in the conservation of Morris's fabrics here:
http://www.nga.gov.au/Conservation/textiles/Peacock.html

Google "William Morris wallpaper" for some glorious eye candy. Like this piece, now in the Victoria and Albert, from 1874. It is the pattern for the wallpaper "Vine."

wyogems
Part of the charm of Donegal Tweeds is the use of natural plant dyes by the weaver.

thetatteredhem
As for vegetable dyes, I bought some fabric in Joann Fabrics two summers ago that was labeled "vegetable dyed". They were all those wood-block type prints reminiscent of the hippie bedspreads and wrap skirts of the 60s and 70s and that's why I loved them. The fabrics are still aging in my stash, waiting to tell me what they want to be made into. Unless the labeling was just to describe the style, vegetable dying must still be done. Next time I'm in Joann's I'll see if they have any left and look at the labels more closely.

Techniques We Have Used
cats*and*crickets
My sisters and I tried onion skin dyes and something with dandelions before, too. I can't remember what we were trying to dye though...maybe cornhusk dolls.

liveshopdie
We used to bleach our hair and then dye it with beet juice. It makes a pretty color.

mikeboy
Well, a search for "vegetable dye" on eBay seems to be all rugs and home decor items. Vegetable dyed cloth has such depth and richness. I remember vegetable dyed denim following the acid wash thing but it didn't really go over. I guess people are leary of it - like Madras. The laundering instructions are too scary. I have a Levi jacket that looks it but it's cobalt blue so, not sure. I doubt if a big manufacturer would actually use organic dyes anyway. We made pokeberry and mulberry ink and dye when I was a kid - outside and it was better if Mom didn't find out. What a mess. But she got into soaking whites in tea (and walnuts?).

viviene
Just to add something about dyeing to this thread. I have had wonderful luck with dyeing a dress that had fading. My first step was to use Rit dye remover to make sure that the dress I was going to experiment with was evenly colored before I dyed it.

Once that was done I washed the dress. Then I dyed it. The coloring from the dye came out as a uniform color with no light areas. The key is to strip out the original color from the garment. It won't work for every item but if the garment is unwearable any other way it's worth taking the chance. Of course when I list this item it will be disclosed what I did.

thetatteredhem
Viviene, what sort of fabric was the dress you stripped and dyed? I have several 1940s-50s items that I'm waiting until better weather to dye so I can hang them outside. They are mostly rayon and I'm worrying about ruining the actual fibers of the garments.

viviene
The first dress I did this with was a satin type fabric. The dress is from the 1940s. It was a mauve color dress to start out with and had fading. When I finished dyeing it (with Rit purple dye) it was again a lovely shade of mauve with no fading whatsoever.

I also did another dress that had fading. It was a rayon fabric and was purple. I used the same process and used the same color dye. It came out dark purple. The only thing different that happened with this dress is that the thread in the seams disintegrated so I have the project of re-seaming the entire dress. But the experiment worked and the new dye colored the dress evenly.

ikwewe
Actually, Kool-Aid works on nylon. There was a 2Dye4 movement here awhile back, and boardies were dyeing nylon slips and bed jackets right and left. Kool Aid is not a vegetable, but maybe a faux fruit?

viviene
I remember the kool-aid dyeing craze a while back. I dyed a Vanity Fair robe with huge bleach spots bought just for the kool-aid dyeing and it came out beautifully.

Care and Cleaning of Vegetable Dyed Fabrics
kallen305
I found a site that specializes in clothes that have been vegetable dyed and they recommend dry cleaning and airing your clothes out for a few hours after each wear. This company is based out of India and I assume hey are one of the top producers of veg. dyed clothing today.

cats*and*crickets
The downside to natural dyes is that they are hard to treat for stains: many stain removers will also remove the color so you get a big light spot.