Behind the altar | Vol. 3 NATURAL DYEING WITH EUCALYPTUS

Ara’s European hemp pockets — naturally dyed with eucalyptus leaves

VOL. 3 —

NATURAL DYEING WITH EUCALYPTUS

For this month’s volume of Behind the altar, I thought I’d share the process I’ve just been through to dye Ara’s next batch of hemp pockets.

Every piece of Ara adornment is accompanied by a european hemp pocket, designed in house and ethically made here in the UK with minimal waste.

For each new batch of bags, I naturally dye the fabric by hand, using botanical or food waste dye.

David was due to prune a eucalyptus tree so I thought I’d put the leaves to use for my next batch of hand dyeing, rather than letting it go to waste.

Freshly pruned UK grown eucalyptus leaves

---

1. PREP THE FABRIC

For natural dyeing, there are several steps to prep the fabric:

Scour the fabric —

I washed it on a cool wash with PH neutral washing powder. This step is to remove any residue on the fabric that could impact the dyeing process

Soy milk binder —

When using plant based fibres, the colour can bind better to the fabric if treated first with soy milk.

Lyra and Atlas have a helpful guide to pre-treating your fabric with soy milk here

This is a fairly slow process so worth doing around a week in advance for the full benefit.

Soak —

Once ready to prepare the dye, I popped the fabric in water to soak which allows any creases to lessen before I placed it into the dye bath.

The pre-treated hemp fabric soaking in water

2. CREATE THE DYE BATH

I separated the eucalyptus leaves from their stems (in hindsight I may have gotten some good colour for the stems so I will try including those next time). I tore up the leaves exposing more of the inside of the leaf, to help extract as much of the colour as possible.

The pot

NB — I use a large aluminium pot for my dye baths. Some dyers advise using a stainless steel pot as this will not result in a reaction from the dye to the aluminium. An aluminium pot could be another factor that would impact on the colour the dye takes.

I filled up my pot of leaves with water and brought it to the boil before quickly reducing the heat to a simmer.

From here I kept returning to the pot every so often to see how the colour was developing. Once it had reached a bold enough colour I took the pan off the heat and removed the leaves with a sieve.

The eucalyptus leaves after the dye has been extracted

---

3. DYEING THE FABRIC

I added one piece of water soaked fabric to the dye bath at a time to make sure the fabric had room to move around within the pot.

I returned to pot to stir the fabric regularly so the dye wouldn’t sit for too long in any creases.

The fabric is ready to remove as soon as you’re satisfied with the colour but leaving it overnight gives time for a deeper colour to develop on the fabric.

Stirring the hemp fabric in the dye bath

---

4. POST DYE

Once out of the pot, I washed the fabric with ph neutral washing powder once again.

I hung the fabric to air dry. This time I made the mistake of leaving some of my fabric to dry outside on a sunny day. When I brought it in once dry I noticed that one side of the fabric was lighter than the other! So the advice to avoid natural dye from dyeing in sunlight is best taken!

Interestingly I got several different shades of dye from the one dye bath, ranging from a soft sand colour, to earthy terracotta

Different shades of the air dried eucalyptus dyed hemp fabric

---

THE FINISHED BAGS

I gently steamed each piece of fabric to ease any creases from the wash and to try and get a smoother surface in preparation for sewing.

I sent the fabric to the talented UK based maker who cuts and sews the dyed hemp fabric into Ara’s uniquely designed pockets, to keep Ara adornment safe.

The pockets are carefully sewn with GOTS certified organic cotton thread. The very little waste that is produced from the edges of the fabric is returned to me to be repurposed.

A finished hemp pocket

---

I hope you enjoyed this insight into the process of natural dyeing with eucalyptus leaves.

I have a list of topics growing for subjects to explore as part of Behind the altar — if there’s anything you’re curious for me to explore, just let me know.

L x

---