Inspired by Softgrey’s suggestion at TheFashionSpot, I decided to experiement with tea-dying last weekend. It’s basically just boiling up some very strong black tea (I highly recommend PG tips – for all drinking and dying usage!) and swooshing your clothes around in it. (Remember to prewash your clothes as sweat stains will show up when dry!). No fixer, no salt required – just soak the fabric in the tea for however long you want to (depending on the colour you want), rinse and then let dry.
I had a vision of the sort of thing I wanted to create and a DEFINITE idea of what colour I had in mind – I didn’t want to go for strong ecru or ochre – but more like a faint nude colour – a dark cream. I used an old school shirt, some antique cotton doillies and an Edwardian cotton collar to create this….
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I love the colour so much I’m going to get tea-happy with more projects now!
I really like it! It looks like you could’ve picked it up while shopping for vintage..
that’s amazing! can i pay you to make me one? 😉 so pretty! i love tea staining!
Haha….francesca….. my sewing skills are appalling….I’d be ashamed to make one for you because up close it’s actually pretty shambolic….I can JUST about get away with wearing this if people don’t look too closely.