Hayley's Comet

My bout with a computer dead battery/power cable is through. I’m back in action! Also, I saw Jada Pinkett-Smith at The Grove yesterday as I made a mad dash to the Apple store. How thrilling.

Now I’m catching up on my learning. Day 2 (Tuesday, if you’re counting) is all about vegetable dyes.

Did you know that the amount of cotton needed for a basic cotton t-shirt is treated with 1/3 of a pound of pesticides? I learned this while putting my business plan together last year. That is, of course, before any color or designs are added - imagine all of the other chemicals that are going into clothing. Purchasing organics is great for this reason, but you have to make sure that the fabric AND the dyes that made it neon yellow were both organic (chances are that true organic/natural dyes are more faded, non-neon colors). In Textile Science last fall I learned the different methods of dying clothes and other textile products. It can happen in one of three stages:

1. Yarn dye: dye the yarn that will make up the fabric

2. Fabric dye: dye the fabric after it has been woven

3. Piece dye: dye the garment or piece after it has been cut out and sewn together

While it’s difficult to find much information about what chemicals dyes are made of on the web, I know from class that some can be toxic to humans and nearly all of them are toxic if they get into the ecosystem. I also know from high school chemistry taht I’m not very good with chemical formulas and can barely say half of them, let alone know what they are made of. The U.S. has rules and regulations to attempt to stop harmful chemicals from getting into the ground and water supply, but not all companies get caught doing wrong. I’m not sure what the laws are like overseas, but given their other lax policies on child labor and other parts of the garment industry, I’d like to think they are less strict than here.

Political agendas aside, I found a great solution to chemical dyes by searching for “vegetable dyes.” The internet provided me with a step-by-step guide of how to make and use them. I am planning on sewing up some muslin tote bags with all of my scraps and vegetable dyeing them!

Achievable Colors:

Carrots - orange
Red cabbage - dark blue
Beets - pink
Turmeric - yellow

eHow.com suggests to “Use the food grater to grate 1/8 cup each vegetable. Place each grated vegetable into a plastic bag and add 1/4 cup warm water to each. Seal the bag tightly. Carefully knead the sealed bags on the work station for approximately 2 minutes.”

Another website (this one on how to dye Easter eggs with natural dyes) said to boil each of the vegetables separately until enough color is released. While this is going to make my apartment smell nauseating, this is probably what I’ll do. My shortage of plastic bags and patience for “kneading” them was over before this began.

Back to eHow: it says to let the fabric soak overnight in the mixture. Hmm. Is it really going to “stick?” I went to the article about “How to set vegetable dyes in clothing.” After you leave it overnight it says to remove the fabric and soak in a mixture of one part vinegar to six parts icy cold water. Continuing on, “add a large handful of rock salt to the mixture and stir gently. Add your vegetable dyed clothing and mix well so that the rock salt and vinegar is evenly distributed. It is best to separate strong colors as there is a slight chance the color can leak into the water and stain other clothing.” So I’m throwing a handful of salt into a bucket and then stirring it with what? I big stick? I may have to settle for a mashed potato masher or a ladle, because that’s all I have. Not many sticks around downtown LA.

The eHow article then states that the fabric must be left in the salt/vinegar/cold water mixture for 24 hours. This is going to take awhile, and it’s also going to smell. I better let it sit out on the balcony. Oh wait, here’s more great news, “Hang your clothing to dry. The strong smell of vinegar will dissipate once the fabric has dried.” I don’t know where I’ll be hanging smelly vinegar fabric, but I guess the only option is my bathroom. Is it going to drip color everywhere?

The final step is to wash the fabric in cold water. It doesn’t specify washing machine or not, but I’m assuming that it would be ok since this is just veggie juice and not Rit dye.

I’ll attempt to do this for real next week, and let you know how it goes!

Websites used:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2252563_set-vegetable-dyes-clothing.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2126823_make-vegetable-dyes.html
http://community.livejournal.com/picturing_food/4610060.html