How to Dye with Strawberry Stems

Strawberry stems will give you a taupe color. Here I share how to dye with the strawberry stems to get your colorfast color!

First and foremost, I’m certain a lot of you are wondering “why stems and not the berry”? Despite what might be intuitive, strawberries don’t give you much of a color. In general the fruit of a plant doesn’t give great color compared to the parts you throw away. See: Avocados! I also really like utilizing the things I was going to throw away anyway. Who wants to spend a bunch on delicious strawberries then make them inedible?!

I walk you through how I dyed them in the video linked below. But if you’re like me and prefer to read instructions I’ve got those below the video as well.

For a list of my must haves for natural dyeing see this post here!

Steps to Dye with Strawberry Stems

1. Start by mordanting your fabric. To see my regular mordant process you’ll want to check out this post for how to mordant with alum.
2. Fill your pot up with water. Use enough water to cover the stems and your fabric. 
3. I put my stems in at this point. You can also bring it to a boil before putting in your stems but I tend to burn myself when I do this so… I don’t do that. 
4. Bring it to a boil if you haven’t already.
5. Turn the heat to low and let the stems steep. I let mine steep about 12 hours. I like to start the dye process at night and let them hang out steeping over night.
6. Remove the stems after they have steeped and place your wet, premordanted fabric into the pot. 
7. Leave your fabric in until the desired color is reached. Remember it will dry quite a bit lighter than the wet fabric. I left mine in about 3-4 hours.
8. Remove your fabric and rinse it. Then you’re finished!

This color will be as colorfast as strawberries can be, however, I suggest washing this the most minimal amount of times you can get away with. Some colors hold for years, this is not one of them. It will fade quicker than say indigo or avocado. Always wash dyed fabrics in cold water!