An Intro: Bundle Dyeing

During Christmas 2020 I decided to create some natural dyed tea towels to use in my son’s teacher gifts. I picked up a large pack of cotton tea towels from Amazon and got to creating! I dyed with avocado pits + skins, black beans, and then decided to get real fancy and tried some bundle dyeing with dried marigolds and other bits + pieces from my garden. It was such a fun project and any project where I get to create with nature is always a WIN for me! 

My collection of fresh + dried botanicals to play with

My first batch of tea towels after unrolling my first bundle dyed experiment. I used dried marigolds from the garden along with a few evergreen branches I clipped from the yard.

Patterns can be achieved through different folding techniques

A simple dye bath pot of Avocado Pits. Similar to making wild ink, just on a much larger scale. Some botanical dyes will hold their bind to the fabric longer than others. I think experimenting is part of the fun!

I decided to dive in deeper and got 2 books to help me in the process: Botanical Inks by Babs Behan and The Wild Dyer by Abigail Booth, both inspirational as well as beautiful books! I highly recommend either one if you are starting down this path and want to learn more.

Last month I was itching to create something as I’d been in some sort of creative slump; and decided a few eco printed t-shirts were just what my wardrobe needed. I set off to my favorite thrift store and scored 5 white, 100% cotton t-shirts in varying styles for my project.  Now, this is where I veered off the advice of both Babs and Abigail and decided not to do any sort of mordant on these pieces. As everything came from the thrift store, I was pretty certain all had been washed numerous times and didn’t do any sort of pre-treating either.  I just decided to get straight to the bundle/eco printing and I actually don’t regret it, and I’ll tell you why in just a little bit.

Juniper stems, pansies, bittersweet, dogwood leaves, rose of sharon petals, pokeweed berries, and hibiscus flowers are just a few of the items that were included in this experiment.

To get started, I washed all of my shirts as normal but didn’t dry them as you do want to start this process with them all wet. Not sopping wet; I just let the washing machine do it’s thing and got to work once the spin cycle was done. I used all sorts of plants I found around the garden in October + a few dried flowers I had from the summer: Japanese Maple, Dogwood, dried Rose of Sharon, Pokeweed, Osage Oranges, Hibiscus Flowers, Pansies, Bittersweet, Juniper, even some old loose leaf tea I didn’t care for but didn’t want to go to waste. 

I laid each shirt flat on my work surface, and worked on them one at a time, scattering my tea or plant material over the front of the shirt. I didn’t create any sort of pattern as with eco printing, you kind of get what you get; it’s part of the fun! So I just scattered everything around making sure I didn’t have any larger empty places. Now, here is where the fun comes in- I rolled or folded each shirt up into a tiny bundle, and wrapped tightly with twine. This is where most of any ‘pattern’ comes from.  Again, have fun with it!  Once all my shirts where folded/rolled/bundled + tied, I put them on the rack of my turkey roasting pan and steamed, covered with foil for about an hour and a half, making sure to not let my pan run dry, filling it with water as needed to ensure steaming took place for the entire time. 

Japanese Maple leaves create a beautiful blueish gray wild ink, I was curious to see what it would do in this process.

I rolled the tshirt up on itself

Rolled it up and wrapped it with kitchen twine so it was nice and tight.

After scattering all of my goodies on the shirt, I used a stick to tightly roll the shirt up, then wrapped it in twine to hold it secure.

The hardest part in this process is the wait time! You need to let your bundles cool for at least 3 days.  I had to keep mine in a room I don’t frequent often just so I wouldn’t get curious and unwrap it. The color and patterns continue to set during this time which is why it’s so important to leave them alone.  Once your 3 days (or more) is up, you can unbundle and compost your plant material. Your fabric should be allowed to continue to dry and cure hung up for as long as possible to continue to allow the color to set. I let my shirts set for about 3 weeks before I ironed each with a hot, dry iron to set the color in even more. I let them sit for a few extra days before washing everything in cold water and I went ahead and dried them like normal too as a few of them lost their shape during this process. I am sad to say that the beautiful purple color from the pokeberry was all lost after the first wash. I had a suspicion but decided to try it out for myself just the same. Not every plant is colorfast, meaning the color has the potential to wash out. I knew this going into this project but was bummed all the same. I’d like to experiment with other berries next time like strawberry, wild raspberry, + blackberries next time.

These are what my bundles looked like after pulling them from the steamer. Look at all that color! It was very hard NOT to unwrap these right away!

You can also experiment wrapping your fabric around copper or iron pipes as each will leave prints on your fabric as well! I’d like to try a mix of bundle/eco print AND natural dye too for additional patterns and layers of color next time.  

One of the reasons I chose NOT to use a mordant on my shirts was that I actually LOVE the idea of creating seasonally. Re-dying these shirts again in the spring or summer months to get additional colors, textures, + layers of patterns and it will be like a whole new wardrobe again! I also really want to get cotton pillow covers to dye/print on seasonally so my sofa has seasonal color, texture, + patterns with each of the passing seasons without buying more stuff.  

Results after unwrapping the bundles. Unfortunately, the pink/purple color I initially got from the pokeweed berries didn’t make it through the initial wash. I’ll be sure to experiment with other berries this summer.

The bittersweet berries left beautiful orange imprints all over this shirt that have lastest through several washes

You can find a wealth of information within the 2 books I mentioned earlier, as well as lists of reliable dye plants online if you are looking for more consistency + control over your outcomes but part of the fun + magic for me is in working with the natural world around me in my own area.  The Dogwood Dyer is also another fabulous resource, whom I actually bought some dye plant seeds from last month- Indigo and Black Hollyhock to try in the garden next year!

Happy Creating!