can anyone tell me what this is, and how its done?

Have you ever stained your shirt with tea (or coffee)?

It is exactly what it says - you dye your fabric with tea. (Can also be done with doffee)

Steep the tea to a dark reddish brown color and remove the bags then put the damp (prewashed) natural fiber fabric in the solution. Soak until the proper color is reached and rinse. Can be used to "antique" some bright fabrics. Works really well on muslin.

Brew some tea. You brew the strength of the tea, depending on how dark you want to dye your fabric. Also it depends on how long you leave it in the tea as to how dark it can get.

Dampen your fabric and do a test with a small swatch. Always make sure your fabric is wet before you put it in the tea. When you have the fabric the colour you want, take it out and put it in cold water. Rinse until the water runs clear. Dry your fabric.

I have done this a few times and it works really well.

Thanks for all the tips, I am going to make some rag dolls, and bunnies ant tea dye them, good stuff on this site!! Thanks

My friends and I did an "experiment" once with different kinds of tea. We each threw a fat quarter of muslin into the brew. We used red zinger for one, blackberry tea for another, etc. It was fun to see the different shades the muslin turned with different teas. We wrote the name of the tea on the selvage to keep for future reference.

I prefer to coffee dye. And you can get different shades with different brews of coffee too.

Thank you very much for telling me how its done. Penny

Back in the 50's my Momma used to "tea dye" her white elastic hoses that she had to wear Looked so much better than just the white. glenda in Tx.

When you prewash the fabric, you might have better results if you don't use fabric softener or dryer sheets :D:D:D

thank you, I would have used dryer sheets, Im trying to learn as much as I can about quilting and fabric dyeing and fabric painting. Penny

the tea does work well, have not tried coffee

I didn't realize you could use coffee too. I'm going to try that.

Lots of cool tips, thanks!

just found this cool link for you

http://www.scribd.com/doc/468579/How-to-Tea-Dye-Fabric

http://www.crafty-moms.com/tea-dye-fabric.shtml

lots of nice information on this website, enjoy!

I have used coffee and tea and I think I prefer the coffee, not that I have used it for quilts but I have used it for dying laces and such with my doll making. Natural fibers will always take the best, nylons etc do not work so well.

Gal

I have never tried coffee, I will have to try it.

Thank you all so much for your great suggestions. I will let you know how it turns out.

did you try the tea or coffee dye???

A good tip also is to put a little vinegar or baking soda into the rinsing water to set the dye colour.

Also for a 'tea dyed sprinkling effect' you just prewash fabric and lay it flat, sprinkle tea leaves onto the surface as many as you would like, then leave to dry. Rinse out excess dye using a little vinegar as I mentioned, this gives a nice rusty speckled look, antique sort of.

Gal