We decided to dye our new play silks using natural dyes. We used a lovely golden turmeric, berries for the pink/purple color and our beautiful pink was from beets.

What we used:

3 35×35 inch silks

1T Turmeric (this depends on the turmeric you use, make a little sample to test first)

1/2C frozen mixed berries

1/2 a large beet cut into chunks.

1T salt

1T baking soda

First we prepared the cloth by boiling about 6 quarts of water.  Then we added salt and baking soda and stirred until it dissolved. Stirred in the silks and let sit about an hour. (For some fabrics you can simmer, but we didn’t).

Then we drained and rinsed the silks clean.

We boiled about 3 more quarts of water. Filled one quart mason jar with turmeric and one with berries. We poured the hot water onto these jars and stirred. Then we added a silk into each and stirred. For the last silk, we boiled the cut beets for a few minutes in the remaining hot water until it was a deep red color. We then poured this into the last jar, added the silk and stirred.

We placed the jars in the sun for a few hours and rinsed them clean. It worked so beautifully!

If you would like an more even color, try using a larger pot and stirring the silks in the dyes more often until you get the desired colors

Thank you!