Red Onion Dye with the Whole Onion

You may have seen some red onion dye using just the skins, but what if you use the entire onion? I tried it out and the results were so cool.

Don’t miss my whole page full of dyeing tips and tricks. You may also like to know how to do shibori folds as well as how you can dye using pinecones.

I haven’t been this excited about a new color in a long time. If you’ve been following along you know I’ve been trying to get a natural green for quite some time now. Who knew it would be this simple?

A lot of people only use the skins. But how much easier is it to just plop in an entire onion?

Onion Dyeing Process

Is red onion skin dye colorfast?

As long as you premordant your fabric, it should last. I also always suggest air drying my naturally dyed fabrics. They fade faster if they’re dried in the dyer.

What color does onion skin dye produce?

GREEN?! Who would have thought. At least red onions do! I haven’t try green onions or any others. But as I always say, stay tuned, because I’m always up for a good experiment.

How do you make red onion dye?

It’s pretty dang simple. Grab a pot, cut up some onions, and let it simmer. The full step by step is above and you can even print them out if that’s more your style.

What type of cloth should I use for onion dye?

Always natural fibers. Whether that means cotton, silk or bamboo, just find a natural fiber. My favorite thing to dye are tea towels. They take color pretty well and are inexpensive so if you mess something up, no harm no foul. If you want a super pigmented color, I suggest bamboo.

What does premordant mean and how do I do it?

Glad you asked. This is one of the most important steps you can take when you’re natural dyeing. I have a whole post on how to make an alum bath here with lots of info about what types of mordant I use and how to use them.