The Art of the Onion Skin Dye

It's been a while since I've done some hand dyeing, the last time was in the fall during my weaving class.  I had learned about natural dyes and instantly fell in love.  When I found out that something as simple and readily available as onion skins made a natural dye, I began collecting them immediately!  It took a couple months and a lot of cooking with onions (good thing I love onions and most of my recipes start with an onion) and I finally had a collection.  Once I had enough, they just sat there.  I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to use this dye, as it took me so long to collect.

In the past couple weeks I have been in full design mode for my new apartment down in Savannah.  For it to be the perfect space it has to be well thought out and designed but more to come on that later.  As a result of moving I have been cleaning out and going through all of my stuff in my current home.  I came across tons of fabric that I had bought in the past (I'm a fabric hoarder) and decided to learn how to properly make a pillow to finally use some of that fabric.  I couldn't find the perfect color piping so I decided to dye it instead.  Since I was going to go through the whole process of dyeing, I wasn't just going to dye some strands of piping, so I added a couple yards of fabric to see what happened.  I'm so glad I did because this is what came out and I can't wait to turn them into more pillows!

I started with a couple bags of onion skins.

Filled a pot with water, added the skins and simmered it down.

I added some alum, the binder, and it boiled down for about an hour.

I added the fabric and let it simmer for about another hour.  I wanted the dye to really soak in and become a rich hue.

I also had another packet of dye laying around, so I decided to do another dye bath.  This time it was an acid dye so a slightly different process.

It started with water, dye and a splash of vinegar.  Throw in the fabric and let it simmer and soak in.

I left it in until it got rich and saturated.

This is the final product.  I'm very happy with the results and very surprised of the rich golden hue that the onions produced.  I cannot wait to turn these into pillows, stay tuned!  

Be Inspired. Be Bold. Be Natural.

peace&love

Rebecca