Roses To Dye For

I have a lot of beautiful roses in the garden and so thought I would try dyeing with them.  I collected the fully open blooms, I wish you could smell them.

I'm trying a selection of textiles, cotton, silk, cotton threads, some lace of unknown content.  I washed them all and then soaked them in a bowl of three parts cold water, one part white vinegar for an hour.

Meanwhile I separated the petals from the flower heads and cut them into small pieces.  I was reminded of making rose petal perfume as a small child!  The petals were covered with cold water, about twice the amount of water as petals, and brought to the boil.  I then left them to simmer on a low heat for an hour.

I gave the fabrics a good rinse and squeezed out as much water as I could.  One piece I tied up with elastic bands to see if I could get some pink and white fabric, the other pieces I left as they were.  The colour had come out of the petals, I strained the mixture into a glass bowl, squashed the petal pulp to remove any extra dye, and was delighted to see the depth of colour in the bowl.

I put all the fabric into the bowl of dye, looks pretty doesn't it?  With fingers crossed I added a plate to hold all the fabric under the dye and set the bowl aside.  I'm going to leave it overnight….

Sweet dreams.