Hi there! You are invited in for tea. What flavor do you like?

Tea anyone?

Nobody around here drinks ordinary Earl gray, so that was the tea flavor that I was brewing for my first batch of tea dyeing. I gathered up little pieces of fabric, lace and scraps and put everything together in a pot of water. You can dye any natural fabrics in tea and what you will get is that sought after vintage look.

Dyeing fabric in tea

I don’t know why the vintage looks is so appealing to me, but it is. There is something calming and comfortable with old worn things. I am drawn to what ever is wabi sabi or shabby chic. I think it has something to do with my love of vintage things, flea markets and imperfection. I see the imperfection in all things I do and I sometimes strive for that (and imperfection is so easy to do for me!). It is my belief that there is nothing that can be “perfect” (as in “without flaws”). It is much better to be happy with “what is”.

Bits of tea

Wabi sabi acknowledges three things: “nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished.” That sure is me in a nutshell. When we embrace those things we are closer to enlightenment.

Tea dyed bits

I own Rebekah Meier’s book Fabric Art Collage and in it there is a short segment on tea dyeing. It is not a favorite book because her style is a bit to ordered and neat for my taste, but there are a lot of interesting techniques in there that I want to try.

Drying tea

If you want to know more right now about dying visit Dawn’s page on How to tea dye. Because of that page she gets a lot of questions about dying. One question she got was; Can I tea dye my couch? Her answer is just hilarious;

Sure! All you need to do is brew up a couple hundred gallons of warm tea, make sure to use extra teabags to make it strong. Get a container large enough to hold your couch, and soak overnight. In the morning, after the tea has cooled, remove the couch and let it drip dry. You may need help as the cushions and fabric will have picked up a lot of weight from the tea and will be heavier than usual.

The questions you get from people…

Tea dyed bits
The tea dyed fabric bits on the cloth line – pretty!

Tea dyed bits