How to DYE with Avocado on Silk

Avocado Dye on Silk Tutorial 

If I told you that avocados could be used as a natural dye, I bet you would be surprised that they would create the most beautiful pink hues on fabric! This also makes a great last-minute Valentine's gift, if you happen to have a piece of silk laying around at home. Later, you can sew it into a pillow or gift a scarf to someone. If you have time, you could raid your local thrift shop for vintage silk camis or dress, that could be up-cycled too! This process also works well on a white kid's t-shirts that have become gray. Although today, I will share the results on silk you can certainly try this on cotton or wool too! 

Today, I will share with you 2 silk scarves left in the dye pot for varying amounts of time. The white silk to the left shows how the silk looked prior to dyeing. At right, you can see the pale ballet pink that can be achieved with avocado pits and skins. Read more to learn about the process, plus see all of the wonderful results! 

When dyeing with avocados, I use a stainless steel pot. I boil the water with the pits and skins inside for about 30 minutes, until the water itself becomes a murky reddish pink color. In this instance, I used about 2 pits and the skins of 2-3 avocados. It has been fun to save the leftovers from the avocado toast that we make for lunch and on weekends. We also have an avocado that does not fruit the best tasting avocados. On occasion, I go outside to gather the leftover pits from the ground. 

To achieve these results, I dipped into into the dye bath for about 7 minutes to obtain a soft ballet pink. I knew that I wanted the silk fairly light to be used as a background color for bundle dyeing. 

Later, I scattered some rose petals, silver dollar eucalyptus, and marigolds onto the scarf in preparation for my upcoming Bundle Dye and Aromatherapy Workshop.

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To my surprise after bundle dyeing the steam and the alum mordant combined lightened the color of the avocado dye considerably to a beige-pink, as you can see in the bottom image. The silver dollar eucalyptus left behind a vague green. The top scarf below, is a second piece that I dyed for about 25 minutes using the same avocado dye bath. 

As you can see below with scarf #2, it turned a deeper peachy pink when left for a longer period of 25 minutes in the dye bath! 

Just for fun, I am sharing the bundle dye results of the marigold petals on silk. Aren't they brilliant?! Although, I have done this process many times in the past, I am always amazed by the vibrant patterns that are achieved by plants on fiber. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the results of avocado dye on silk today! 

If you loved this post, then you might enjoy: 

• Natural Dyeing with Avocado Pits
• Natural Bundle Dyeing Tutorial ​

To find out how I got started my workshop series for creative individuals, please see my article aboutLos Angeles Workshops for Creativity 

If you are in the Southern California area and would like to learn more about botanical dyeing and aromatherapy, along with spend the day with creative people relaxing in nature, then please consider joining our upcoming Bundle Dye and Aromatherapy Retreat.  I would love to meet you in person! As always, I would love to hear your experiences, notes, and suggestios on natural dyeing in the comments.

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