How to Tea Dye Fabric

Using tea to color textiles like tea towels, napkins, and other linens is a beautiful way to add character and charm to newer-looking items. Here’s how to tea dye fabric.

Tea dyeing fabric is a simple, natural, traditional method of bringing a warm brown color to table linens, clothing pieces, and cloth items of all kinds. Originally, this was a convenient, inexpensive way to extend the life of kitchen textiles that were looking a little dingy and stained. Creating a uniform, earthy beige color can help disguise marks and stains and make textile items that were previous a dark white look like they were always a natural linen color. This practical use can still be applied today, but I like to use this method to give my new-looking fabric items a charming, nostalgic, time-worn look that fits in a little better in our 100-year-old farmhouse. Here’s how to tea dye fabric.

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Preparing Fabrics for Tea Dyeing

If you’ll be using brand new fabric items, run them through a wash cycle with detergent prior to beginning the dyeing process to remove any coatings or residues on the fabric that may prevent the stain from being absorbed into each fibre evenly. If you’ll be using older fabrics like thrift store finds, vintage garment items, or heirloom pieces, make sure they’re thoroughly clean before you get started.

Create a bath of about one part white vinegar to three parts warm water and soak your fabric items white you prepare your tea dye. The vinegar, which acts as a mordant, will open the fibres of the fabric materials and prepare them to absorb the dye effectively. When working with natural dyes instead of synthetic pigment dyes like rit dye, a mordant can be very helpful for achieving a dark color. If your fabrics are very old and well-worn, this step is usually less necessary. Skipping the vinegar step will result in less dye adhesion and therefore lighter coloured items, but if that’s more what you’re going for, feel free to move past this step in the preparation process.

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Preparing the Tea Dye

While your fabrics are sitting in the vinegar and water bath, you’ll want to create your concentrated tea solution for dyeing. There are no rules as to how concentrated of a mixture you need to use. Some people may use up to 100 tea bags in two to three gallons of water to achieve a really concentrated tea for the deepest, richest brown tones.

For my tea dyeing mixture, I simply used about five regular black teabags in about six cups of boiling water. I brought water to a boil, then let the tea brew for about 15 minutes, then removed the tea bags. This solution gave me the nice, lightly-aged look I was going for. The result was something similar to a natural linen tone, which I thought was just perfect.

The best types of tea to use are basic black tea blends like English-breakfast tea or Earl-grey tea. Green-tea varieties, white tea, rooibos, and herbal-tea blends are pretty, but most won’t be potent enough to make a good dye. Also try to stick to tea bags and avoid loose-tea, as you don’t want to end up with tea leaves getting stuck in your fabric and creating darker patches.

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How to Dye Fabrics With Tea, Step by Step

When your tea solution is ready, remove your fabrics from the vinegar and wring them out well. Immediately place them into the tea and swish them around a little bit, making sure the tea fully covers all parts of the fabric. You also want to make sure that the submerged fabrics aren’t trapping any air bubbles that could prevent full contact with the tea solution and result in uneven dyeing. Use a small plate, if needed, to keep the fabrics completely soaked and submerged.

Leave your fabrics to soak in the solution for between 30 minutes to two hours, checking every 15 minutes or so to see how the color is developing. I left mine in for only 30 minutes and was impressed by the results I achieved in such a short time.

When you’re satisfied with the color of your linens, remove them from the dye, wring them out, and lay them flat to dry completely. You’ll want them to avoid washing them for a few days to let the dye fully set into the fabric, so continued to let them sit even after they’re fully dried.

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Washing Tea Dyed Fabrics

When you’re ready to wash your textiles, it’s important to realize that no matter what type of washing method you use, you will experience some initial fading with all naturally dyed fabrics. The best way to keep the color as much as possible and avoid having it rinse out, is to use a gentle detergent and run a gentle cycle on your washing machine, or wash your items by hand. Handwashing is always the most gentle method, and is easy to do for smaller items if you use a large bowl or just the kitchen sink.

If you’re using the textiles for decorative purposes only, such as with a table runner, pillow covers, or a tablecloth, you may wish to forego washing altogether if you really love the color of your tea dyed items. To help remove the vinegar smell, just air your fabrics outside and use a scented linen spray. The vinegar smell will fade quickly and you will maintain your perfect warm-toned fabrics.

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