Day 3: Coffee Dye

Not only does this dye bath smell (and taste!) delicious, its such a fun & easy project to experiment with because you most likely have coffee beans at home! And if you're not a coffee drinker, black tea will also work. If you choose to do coffee, you can use brewed coffee grounds, cold brew, and/or espresso.

For every 7oz of brewed coffee, add 1 cup of water. Since my silk scarf was small, I did about 10oz of regular brewed coffee and 1.5 cups of water, and added 1 shot of espresso for a concentrated dose o’ color! You want have enough water/coffee to make sure your fiber can float freely in the dye bath.

To learn to pre-treat your fiber before dyeing, see this post: (https://www.sashabotanica.com/post/pre-treating-fiber-before-dyeing)

Directions:

1.) In your stainless steel pot, put in your coffee/water mixture. Bring to a low simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2.) Add in your pre-treated fiber. If you used coffee grounds, make sure you strain them out before adding in your fiber.

3.) Use a wooden spoon to stir your fiber in the coffee dye bath, making sure there are no trapped air bubbles & that the color is dyeing evenly.

4.) Let the fiber soak in the dye bath overnight for a stronger color, rinse and hang to dry out of direct sunlight.