Tumeric and Carrots and Fabric, Oh My!

It has been ages since I last posted and now I have a long list of things to blog about, but this one couldn't wait. My Friday started as normal but after my morning coffee I got thinking about what I could sew as a gift for my cousins new babies. I started to sort through my stretch fabrics, looking for some inspiration, but none was found. I did have some lovely soft bamboo cotton knit that would make a very cosy onesie, however, it was cream and rather boring looking. That is when I decided I was going to try and dye some fabric! (First time ever). After realizing that my boys were not going to appreciate a shopping trip to Spotlight to buy some fabric dye, I started googling natural dyes and discovered that Tumeric was a very good natural dye and it didn't even require a mordant to fix the colour to the fabric. So, I got out my pot of tumeric powder and made up a brew...

Then I added my fabric;

What a lovely orangey yellow colour!! I rinsed my fabric in cold water and hung it out to dry. Then I stepped back to admire my creation seconds before it fell off the line onto the ground. (Woops - forgot the pegs). I bent down to pick it up and rehang it only to discover it was now covered in bright pink dots! What the?.... Where did this pink come from? I took my spotty fabric back into the laundry and dumped it into a bucket of water to which I added a small amount of washing powder. WHOAH!!!! Now the entire piece of fabric was peachy pink colour! (Rather pretty, but certainly not the orangy yellow it was before.) I rinsed out the detergenty water and slowly the fabric returned to it's orange colour. That was weird. So I began my investigationing..... It turns out Tumeric is an indicator for pH! Who would have thought??? I returned to my tumeric brew and tipped in a dollop of white vinegar and another piece of fabric. This time in came out bright-bright yellow!

Well that was fun!....And interesting....I wonder?.......purple carrots??.......

In it goes!...This is so much fun!

Rinse, rinse, wash , wash OH MY!!!!! The lovely purple fabric has turned blue!!!!!!! Could purple carrots be a pH indicator as well? Surely not? Lets throw some vinegar into the water just for fun.......

PINK!!

I didn't want to wash this one because the pink was so pretty, but really, what use is fabric you can't wash? So after a wash in detergent it went blue like the other piece. (Still a very pretty colour). Interestingly though, the Tumeric fabric which turns pink on washing, returns to orange / yellow after rinsing. But the purple or pink carrot fabric which turns blue when washed doesn't return to pink or purple with rinsing. So, is it really a pH indicator? Well, I think I have time for one more experiment..... I'll dip the blue fabric into some vinegar and see what happens.....

Yep! It's an indicator alright. Groovy man, I could make a weirdo Hypercolour T-shirt! Remember those? Sweat is acidic, so you could get some pink patches under the armpits! Eew, that's gross. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll use this fabric for the baby presents. (Although it could be pretty funny when the baby chucks and her onsie turns pink from the acid in the spew!) He he...