Natural dye / Willow leaves

I have wanted to natural dye fabric for a quilt for some time.  While searching boxes for yard sale items, I came across dyed wool samples from 1985!  The colours still look amazing.  Now I am in a race against time to make dyes before we leave in September on a trip.  I'm afraid that when we return, a frost will have killed off everything.  The race has begun!

My first experiment was with willow leaves. I'm not going to go into detail as to what I did.  I'm not being very scientific about the whole project, just want to have fun!

I did weigh my plant material for this project.  6 ounces of leaves was about all my pan would hold.  In future dyeing this fall, I'll just use the same pan and fill to the same level.  Very scientific, right?

The directions I read said to chop the leaves.  I didn't bother this time.  Just boiled them and let them steep overnight before straining and dyeing the fabric.

The fabric I dyed with the willow dye was an old sugar sack from the 1940's.  It was white to begin with.