I decided to try some more natural dyeing, and this time be a little smarter and put all of the leaves/flowers in an unbleached cheese-cloth pouch so I didn't have to fuss with getting them out of the fiber.

This time around, as you may have been able to tell from my cringe-worthy pun title, I decided to use hibiscus petals.

For this blogpost I'm simply going to talk about the pros and cons of natural dyes that I've found so far.  

Pros:

It has given me a bit of a new perspective on the multitude of uses everyday plants possess.  The more I researched which plants did what, the more I was surprised by what plants had to offer.  Bay leaves, for example, supposedly turn fiber yellow, and I would have never known that unless someone was dyeing to tell me that fact, or I started learning natural dyes myself.

• Even though I trust a lot of non-natural dyes everyday, there's something that feels a little extra safe and clean about natural dyes.  
• If I get splash up when I'm messing with the water and putting the fiber in, the dye is for sure washing out.  I could take my dear sweet time to put it in the wash, and would still have nothing to worry about.
• The colours turn out subtle and pretty.
• (If you're into this) there's something very enriching about realising how much work our ancestors put into dyeing their garments.  Think of the time, resources, and labour it took to make their clothing different colours, and investing what could be eaten (sometimes) into something that was mostly impractical.  That's a lot of dedication to make something nice for day to day life.

Cons:

• Bold colours tend not to happen.
• It takes a long time.
• As nice as the natural dye agent might smell, adding wool fiber to that can often make it smell a little gross.  The people I live with are patient, but I've noted I should space out how often I do these dye pots just so I don't make other people's lives difficult and smelly.

Main takeaway:

Natural dyes can be remarkably fun, but going into the process you have to accept that the colour is probably never going to be what the water around it looks like.  It's a fun process, and if you like more mellow colours it's your dream boat, but if you're going for bold, you might want to go elsewhere.

For me, this outcome was really exciting and I have full intentions of using it in future projects, so you will absolutely be seeing this colour again in the future.

It's the perfect dusty rose colour that I can rarely ever find clothing in, and I think I would be a fool not to make myself something in this colour.

I hope this might help in future natural dyeing experiments, and as always- 

Stay sweet, stay crafty, and stay tuned.