Adventures in Dyeing

As previously mentioned I recently bought three yards of a sort of aqua colored linen for my new Regency dress. It looked different on the computer screen but ended up almost the exact same color as a bit I used for a colonial jacket, only this length is a different weight and has a different name. I suppose that's why people send for samples, but I'm not patient enough for that. So to alter the color I bought a packet of green rit dye and another of blue, and mixed them to make a darker teal. It turned out well and I'm pleased with it. Hancock's and even fabrics-store.com has a very limited choice of appropriately colored linens, so it really makes sense to dye one's linen, or after a while all your reenacting clothes will look the same.

 Contrast: teal and turquoise.

I also made yellow dye out of onion skins. We buy onions in bulk, like so many other things, so we had plenty of skins in the basement needing to be cleaned out. I wanted to try dyeing with a natural dye because it's something I'd like to pursue this year. As I dye fabric more frequently and almost always for historical projects, I want to aim towards making correct colors without the modern elements.

 Trusty plastic tub in the much abused bathtub: the petticoat soaking in onion dye.

For the onion dye I simply simmered the skins in water until it turned a nice dark orange. I used it to dye a petticoat that I had already dyed yellow. It looked too bright, so I was hoping to dull the color a bit. It is definitely much more golden now.

Contrast: the onioned and non-onioned.