This year, as the holidays crept up toward us, I started to make the gift list. Well, actually, there's always two lists - the first for the kids, and the second for everyone else in our lives. I'm still working on that first list. Rémy's list was completed long ago. He has been VERY forthcoming in ideas for gifts. Sierra plays it closer to her chest.
But the second gift list I started planning a while ago. That's because I wanted to have the kids make as many gifts as possible. And with a toddler and a preschooler, that takes a bit of forethought. As I was considering my options, I always knew that one of the handmade gifts would be a dye project of some kind.
The kids loved their first dye project, captured in the post Dyeing with Toddlers and Preschoolers: An Easy Acorn Activity. It was so engaging that I wanted to try another natural dye as soon as possible. When we visited the grandparents and saw an overgrown marigold patch, I knew we had found our perfect natural dye project.
I love marigolds. Their color is like a ray of sunshine, and their scent is deeply tied to my childhood and memories of my own grandmother. Maybe, with enough natural dyeing, it'll be a childhood scent for Rémy and Sierra as well. Perhaps it will conjure up pictures of our kitchen and a large pot filled with floating flowers.
The process we followed is straightforward and easy. There's nothing within this project that is toxic or problematic for kids. It just takes a little time to let everything unfold. But I love projects that take time and teach that making beautiful things is often an act of patience. Here's our process:
COLLECT MARIGOLDS:
We had an abundant supply in Grandma's yard, and Sierra loves picking the heads off these guys, so it was a no-stress, fun task to complete. As she picked, the strong scent transported me back to my Grandma's yard, where she would task my sister and I with collecting the dried up heads off the marigolds so that she could plant them later.
I tried to stop Sierra before she took too much, a small basket's worth was all that we needed. She would've picked the whole lot if I let her keep going.
CREATING DYE
There really are two ways to do natural dyeing. The first, weigh and measure things out. I'm the wing-it, let's-see-what-happens-if kind of dyer. So in that spirit, we filled a pot half full with water and then placed in all of the collected flowers. The kids loved watching the marigolds dance across the water and swirled them around for a bit before we moved everything to the stove.
Once on the stove, we brought everything to a simmer and let the flowers steep. I repeated this three times over a 24 hour period. After a full day of sitting and periodically simmering, I filtered out the marigolds and was left with our dye.
PREPARING THE FABRIC
While we were letting the marigolds steep, we set out to prepare the fabric we were using - a child's sweatshirt and a bandana. The first step was to scour the fabric. Now, there are many scouring recipes out there, but I used a very simple method presented by Gemma Stevens that uses baking soda and natural detergent.
Scouring is basically breaking down the fabric in preparation for it to absorb dye. You do not have to scour, but doing so will yield better results. So the kids and I scoured.
Then we created a mordant using Alum. Bathing the fabric in the mordant for a few hours makes the natural dye bind to the fabric. You can find a rundown on how to create an alum mordant at Botanical Colors.
CREATING A DESIGN
With our fabrics properly prepared and dried, we were ready to start our next step. The kids are too young to have the manual dexterity to create little rubber band resists, so they helped during this process by pointing out where I should add rubber bands.
We covered both the sweatshirt and the bandana with little rubber band nubs in order to create the round circles you see in shibori indigo dyed fabric. For a great run down on how to create this particular design, check out Mythic Seam.
DYE
The kids set the sweatshirt and bandana in the marigold dye bath and we transferred it back onto the stovetop one more time. We simmered the pot for a half hour and then just let everything sit overnight.
The kids watched me rinse out the dyed fabric while they ate breakfast. They were so excited when I took off all the little rubber bands.
GIFT AND WRAP
When everything had been washed and dried, it was time to wrap everything up. We folded up the sweatshirt and wrapped it in the matching bandana. I'm a huge fan of reusable wrapping, and this one came with the bonus that their little cousin can use the matching fabric for play.
When everything was said and done, we had a beautiful, buttery yellow sweatshirt. It wasn't as deep of a yellow as I've seen some people achieve, but that may also be the fabric. The bandana came out with a much stronger color, and better resist pattern. We will definitely be trying marigolds again but with more flowers, and a longer mordant soak.
The kids had a blast, and we have a lovely little handmade gift. I couldn't ask for anything more.
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