Craft people......tea staining/dying????

[sharon]

Can anybody help me with how to do tea staining for fabrics to use in crafts? I tried it once long ago and I didn't get much color out of it.

If anyone can let me know like how many tea bags to how many parts of water you need to use?

I have some projects up my sleeve. I might even be staining some heavyweight paper too.

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

I never did paper, but I have tea-dyed alot of stuff around my house and for crafts. My house is real "country" so I CANT have anything NEW looking...

: I usually just boil my water 1 cup per tea bag, (if you have a big item you would use 10 cups water to 10 tea bags, and so -forth) and let it simmer for about 5 minutes or until its a dark tea color, then, shut it off and seep your material in the tea water till its the "right" color. If your came out light, I would think it was because you didnt let it sit long enough. A solid white piece of material will be a beige color, within just a few minutes. Then rinse the material in COLD water to set the color into the material. Hope this helps. Corinne

 

[sharon]

Corinne- Thank you so much! That is exactly what I wanted.

 

[SunQuest]

I have done some tea dying. Once you get the fabric to the shade you want, rinse it in a setting solution of

1/2 cup white vinegar in one gallon of water. This will help the tea stay in the material.

Something that you should be aware of is that their are reports that the tanic acid in the tea will harm the fabric eventually. I have not had this happen to me on the cross stitch project that I tea died, but then again I did wash the peice when I was done cross stitching it, and the color did fade some as well.

Still, I love the antique look of tea dyed peices.

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