Yes, it can be done. It’s labor intensive, tricky and goes by super fast. But, if you really want/need to, you can dye your sample yardage at home using natural dyes. They will go down the drainage of your kitchen sink just fine. If you need to dye more than 5 yards at the time, I wouldn’t recomend it. For that the next step will be, to find a dye house in the Garment District that is willing to dye my production orders using my own dyes. It’s been done before so I am not worried. Even if it means I will have to get in there myself and dye them, it would be so much fun!

Last Thursday, Isabella came over (even though her internship ended, she still wanted to help!) and we spent the entire day dyeing 3 yards of every color and writing down the recipe for when we have to dye more. We also discovered that Logwood can make a sort of navy blue/grey if you leave the fabric in the dye for longer and it is really pretty. We will use it for Fall 12 for sure. May be we can even call it Noche de San Juan Blue!

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Mango

When you slice a ripe mango in Puerto Rico THIS is the inside color!

The second try was the charm for our grey, this is the one!

Papaya and our brand new Noche de San Juan blue for Fall 12 drying on the rack.

Temporary Dye Storage

As usual the first time you do anything there are a lot of unforseen issues. We had to improvise where to keep the dye until it cooled off.

Madder root after it's been drained

Madder bath

Isabella stirring away!

Madder and Tumeric

Papaya and Mango Baths

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