Avocado Pit Dye

I recently scored a pretty white shower curtain from a thrift store. I have saved some avocado pits recently and I knew I wanted to dip dye the shower curtain! I fell in love with dip dying last year when I transformed some dish towels and burp cloths.

Before...

After!

I referenced this blog post as I was researching the best way to dye with avocado pits. 

First, I submerged the pits in water in my largest pot (I wish I had a bigger one) and brought it to a boil. 

I then let it simmer for an hour. The pink color became apparent rather quickly and got darker and darker as it simmered. Then I let the dye sit overnight. 

Ready to go! Notice the dark pink color of the water

In the morning, I scooped the pits out of the water and brought the water back to a boil. I then got the bottom portion of the shower curtain (the portion I wanted to dye) wet. I then turned off the heat on the dye bath, submerged the wetted portion, and secured the rest of the curtain out of the way. 

I frequently moved the curtain around so that it would stay submerged. 

I left it soaking for about two hours.

I wish I had left it soaking longer! I think my dye bath had the potential to produce a beautiful, dark color because I had so many pits. 

I will definitely be doing this again! Just need a bigger pot... Such a cool experiment. I would also love to dye with yellow onion skins and tea. 

Indigo Dying

I have always wanted to try indigo shibori dying. So when my sister-in-law Rachel suggested we have a dying party, I was all for it!

We had it all planned for a weekend when the whole family would be in town. She and my mother-in-law brought white cotton to make quilts and some knit fabric. Some of the other siblings dyed various items, like shirts and socks. I brought some white dish towels and white burp rags.

We spent the morning scouring Pinterest to find inspiration and learn the different techniques. My technique of choice: dip dying! I recently attended a bridal shower where the table settings were topped with a beautiful indigo dip dyed linen napkin. I fell in love! The napkins were so simple, yet they made such a huge impact. I wanted to create that same look with my dish towels and burp rags.

I used flour sack kitchen towels. They are my favorite kind to use in my kitchen because they are super thin but still absorbent and have such a fresh, clean appearance. They are so simple and go with any style. 

The dip dye method turned out so cute! I used a few of my old, semi-stained towels (just to spruce them up) and a few brand new ones, too. 

I only dipped them two or three inches on both ends. The fabric only sat in the dye for a few seconds and the color still came out so vibrant and dark!  

This shibori dyed towel was one of my favorites. I folded the towel like an accordion. Once I had a square stack of folded fabric, I secured wooden blocks on the top and bottom with rubber bands. Then we used a c-clamp (for lack of a better option) to secure it real tight. Once it was dipped, untied and unfolded, the result showed a square pattern with the uncovered edges dyed blue. So pretty!
I'm all about white/mostly-white stuff around my house. Maybe not practical, but oh so pretty.

We have a burp rag laying across multiple pieces of furniture at our house. They might as well be cute!

The burp rags were so quick. I had a huge stack of thin, plain white burp rags that had hardly ever been used. Now that they are dip dyed, I use them all the time. 

You can see Rachel's post with more pictures and a cute video here to see the cute patterns and techniques that everyone else tried.