Middle Spring

ooh that’s berry pretty …

This spring I’ve been celebrating mulberries, and I don’t just mean by shoving them greedily into my mouth whenever I pass a low hanging branch. I’ve found a way to prolong the joy of this exquisite finger-staining fruit long after the season is over: by turning it into a natural fabric dye.

This appeals to me on so many levels. It saves on waste – some of the fruit I used was straight off the ground (the five second rule does not apply here), plus I upcycled fabric and marine ply offcuts. I also got to play and experiment – my favourite!

If you want to have a go at this, you’ll need a potato masher, stock pot, tongs, a big stick (or paddle), around 100grams of berries (mashed and cold), water, sunshine, a mordant to prep the fabric, a G clamp, scrap marine ply and a white napkin (any white fabric will do but this is the lazy way – the hemming is done!).

There are lots of instructional videos online if you want more detail. I started by reading Jenny Dean’s Wild Color: How to make and use natural dyes. It’s a useful reference it you like to be exact.