| Dyeing fabric using tea or coffee to create antique and/or primitive looking projects. Tea staining is an easy way to create an "antique" look. You can stain the entire linen or just spots depending on the desired final project. So save your left over Starbucks coffee or chi tea from breakfast and lets get staining! You can use most any cotton fabric with this technique. I have had the best results with muslin fabric. If you are tea staining different shades of fabrics for your project, be sure to do each of them seperately for best results. You can use tea or coffee to dye your fabric. If using tea place 8 tablespoons into tea pot filled with water and heat over med. temperature until hot but not boiling. Or save a cup of coffee from breakfast and use that. I like using the coffee I seems to give a richer color than the tea does. While your tea or coffee is hot, carefully pour it into a bowl large enough to hold your piece of fabric. Place the fabrin into the tea-dye or coffee-dye and soak for approx 1 hour. You may want to check the fabric every 10 minutes or so to see if you have achieved your desired color. Once the fabric has been dyed, remove from dye bowl, wring out and hang to dry. You can also place the tea-dye or coffee-dye into a spray bottle and spray onto your project for a more splattered "old used" look. This is how I usually dye my tea towels, aprons, pillows, wall hangings, embroidered pictures, quilt blocks, christmas stockings - ornament and other linens. |
| Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005 Allison Ray. All rights reserved. Updated July 20, 2007 |
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