Dyeing with avocado is a safe and simple process, perfect for beginners to natural dyeing. Both the seeds (also called stones or pits) and the skins contain colour. They produce a quite colourfast dye of the most unexpected and delightful pink.
The exact colour you get will be affected by which variety of avocado you use, the time of year, the pH of your water, and whether you use the seeds or the skins or both. For this tutorial I have used just the seeds. I collected them over a couple of weeks, washing them well and storing them in the freezer. This keeps the colour better than if you dry them.
Materials
- Avocado seeds or skin or a mix of both (well washed)
- Cotton fabric prepared with soy milk binder, or wool/ silk
- An aluminium or stainless steel dye pot
- A long-handled spoon or stick for stirring
- Loose weave fabric such as muslin for straining the dye
Preparing your fabric with soy milk binder
You can make your own soy milk by soaking soy beans in water and blending them, or you can dilute store bought soy milk at a ratio of 1 part soy milk to 5 parts water. Soak fabric in the soy milk overnight, squeeze out and let it dry, then do a few rounds of quickly dipping it and letting it dry again, to build up layers of soy milk. If you’d like more in-depth instructions, check out my Leaf & Colour book.
Instructions for natural dyeing with avocado seeds
Step one
Cover the seeds in water and simmer very gently for 1 hour. Turn the heat off and let the dye rest for several hours or, even better, overnight.
Step two
Break up the seeds to make more of the dyes available. This is best done while wearing gloves because the tannins can irritate your skin. If the seeds are too firm to break up, repeat step one first.
Step three
Re-heat the dye bath for another hour or so to let the colour develop further. Let it cool again, then strain through the loose weave fabric.
Step four
If you want to create a shibori effect, tie off sections of your fabric using rubber bands or string. For the top on the left, I tied off 3 sections to create 3 white lines. For the onesie on the right, I gathered fabric in the centre and wrapped it in rubber bands to create a circle pattern.
Step five
Bring the dye bath back to simmering, then add your fabric (pre-wet it so that it will absorb the dye evenly). Add extra water so there is enough space for the fabric to move freely. This will also help to create even colour. Let it cook on a very low heat for about one hour, stirring from time to time. Leave it to cool overnight, stirring occasionally. The colour will continue to develop as it sits.
Step six
When you are happy with the colour, remove the fabric from the dye pot. Keep in mind that the colour will lighten as the fabric dries.
Squeeze out the excess dye, and rinse well. Then remove the rubber bands to reveal the resist pattern.
Results
Depending on the avocados you used and the pH of your water, you should get lovely peach to pink tones on your fabric. Below you can see that my soy mordanted cotton came out an earthy pink, somewhat lighter once it dried but still a rich colour. I also added a piece of silk to the dye pot and it turned a more peachy tone. You can shift peach dyes to pink by altering the pH of your dyepot with a small amount of washing soda. Or if you want to bring out more peach/coral shades, add vinegar. You can also add a smidge of iron mordant to shift the colour to purple.
Pin the below image if you would like to come back to this tutorial later. And if you do try dyeing with avocado, let me know in the comments!
Living in California I have access to a lot of avocados and seeds. Thank you so much for the info. I can’t wait to make a large batch of guacamole so I can use the seeds.
You are so welcome Lori, enjoy!
Ive been loooking for a good pink thanks
Hi, will this work on a normal cotton shirt? ”Dyeing” to try it out!! 😀
If you prepare the tshirt with a soymilk binder first, yes it certainly will!
How many avocado seeds would you recommend to dye one onesie? It looks like you used about 9 in your photo..
In her beautiful ebook, Botanical Colour At Your Fingertips, Rebecca Desnos suggests using a 2:1 ratio of fabric to avocado seeds- so weigh your onesie then use enough seeds to equal half this weight. They are incredibly potent.
I’ve read a lot of places you need to seal the dye after? What keeps the dye in from fading over time, any thoughts?
The soy binder and the slow, gentle soaking and heating will set the dye. Then you can help the colour last by washing it gently and drying it in the shade. Keep in mind that all dyes (not just natural dyes) will eventually fade, especially from sun exposure.
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hola, habrá otro aglutinante a parte de leche de soya que se pueda usar? gracias.
Hi Rocio, you can also use cow’s milk or nut milk. Even yogurt or egg, but they aren’t as good. Basically you want to use something rich in protein. You can also dye on animal fibres (wool or silk) and then you don’t need to use the binder.
Can you explain the steps to do with the milk as a binder? Do you just soak the fabric in milk before adding to the dye? Thanks!
I usually soak the fabric in soy milk overnight, squeeze it out, let the fabric dry, then do a few rounds of giving it a quick dip in the soy milk and letting it dry again, to build up more layers.
After soy milk treatment, Do you wash the fabric gently before adding to dye bath? Love those peachish colors you got.. They are simply beautiful
No, you don’t want to wash the fabric after preparing with the soy milk binder because you don’t want to remove any of the binder.
Very interesting
What about with bamboo fabric?
Bamboo fabric should work well. Most bamboo fabric is highly processed and so is technically semi-synthetic like viscose, so can be prepared and dyed like that. Some bamboo fabric is more naturally processed and can be treated like cotton. Either type of bamboo fabric should give nice results when prepared with a soy milk binder before dyeing.
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Very interested in reading more from your work
Gorgeous and good for the environment. Win- win!
Both very important factors!
What Ph level is best for the water?
It depends what colour you want! If you are after strong pinks, then you want a more alkaline pH level. If you want an apricot or slightly orange pink, a more acidic dyebath will help you achieve that. Try with your local water and see what colour you get 🙂
Hi, the link to the soy binder doesn’t work – can you provide instructions on this part? Thank you!
Hello, I’ll be releasing a new ebook soon about eco-printing and dyeing with soy milk binder, including full instructions for preparing fabric with it 🙂
If I were to dye cheesecloth with this method would there be any additional steps I should take? Will it work on cheesecloth material?
Hello, yes cheesecloth is a cotton fabric so it will work. If you use plain fabric some colour should bind because of the tannins, but preparing the fabric with soy milk binder first will help you get deeper colours.
Is whey left over from cheese making OK to use as a mordant? It is quite acidic as I use white vinegar to set the curds, and it still has a different kind of protein in it.
Hello, sorry for my slow reply. I think it would definitely be interesting to try using the whey as a binder (it wouldn’t technically be a mordant because it’s not a metallic salt). I used some leftover yogurt in my ‘Iso Dye Club’ ecourse as an example of using waste products to prepare fabric. The acid would impact the final colour of the avocado dye, but that would be interesting too.
Hey there, the link for the soy binder doesn’t seem to work. Do you have the info to send or direct me elsewhere? Thanks!
Oh I’m sorry, thanks for letting me know. The basic process is to soak fabric in soy milk overnight, squeeze out and let it dry, then do a few rounds of quickly dipping it and letting it dry again, to build up layers of soy milk. You can make your own soy milk by soaking soy beans in water and blending them, or you can dilute store bought soy milk. I have more in-depth instructions in my Leaf & Colour book but that should be enough to get you started.
It says to pre wet the fabric, how does that work when you are pre treating with soy milk but don’t want to rinse off the binder?
If you are just briefly submerging the fabric in water, you won’t be washing off the soy milk binder. You just want to avoid long soaking once the soy milk binder has been used.