DYE ORANGE with ONIONS, Natural Dye with onion skins! | Last Minute Laura

Natural Dye with onion skins! Alright so here’s what’s up. I’ve got onion skins and I’ve got some yarn that is ready to be dyed.
In this video I am going to show you how I do a typical dye bath when I am using onion skins. I’ve been doing a bunch of filming lately on the steps for natural dye. I did a video on scouring:    • Natural Dye Basics - How to scour woo...   a video on premordanting:    • Natural Dye Basics - How to Premordan...   and now a video on a natural dye bath.

0:00 intro
0:22 natural dye process overview
0:35 onion skins
2:03 Making the dye bath
2:23 heat
3:30 review
4:51 dye bath before heat
5:01 dye bath after several hours
5:18 Straining the dye bath
5:40 adding the yarn
6:28 initial colour
7:09 After Colour
7:24 rinse the yarn
9:38 hang to dry
10:27 final look
12:41 Thank you Patrons
12:51 Outro
13:21 end

So I am going to just peel the outer skins off of the onions. So the average bag of yellow onions (sweet yellow onions) have these beautiful papery skins in a lovely gold, bronze, bright copper, beautiful metallic colour. That colour creates a beautiful natural dye colour. It is a really easy one to use, and I really recommend you give it a shot. If you are thinking of getting into natural dye, start with onion skins. It is so rewarding.

So I am gonna add the onion skins to a pot of water on the stove.
The pot is less than half full. It doesn't need to be too full with water, because at this point we are making a strong onion tea. We can add water later if we need it.
I will turn the heat to medium. I want to bring the dye bath JUST below a simmer, (definitely not boiling). We want to not damage the pigment. The rule with natural dye stuff is LOW and SLOW. Keep the temperature low, and steep for a long time.
You do not need as many onion skins as I use in this video. You can use the skins from one 3lb bag of onions and that will make a gorgeous bright colour! That being said, the more skins you have, the brighter, bolder, and darker your dye bath will be.
You might get more of a golden yellow if you use the skins from 5-6 onions, but, if you use triple that, you might end up with a more bold orange, burnished gold colour.
So I will simmer the dye bath for several hours. The water in the beginning is clear and the skins are separate and floating in the pot. After a few hours, the skins will soften, the dye bath will be more of a soup, and the water will take on a beautiful dark orange colour.

After several hours, I will strain out the onion skins, returning them to another pot with water to create an exhaust dye bath. With the strained liquid, I will add pre-scoured and mordanted wool, returning the dye bath and wool to the stove on low, for 1 hour.
Onion skin dye is my favourite colour.

After the hour has elapsed, I will turn off the heat and let the yarn cool down and sit overnight.
In the morning, I will rinse the yarn out in warm water, then let air dry hanging for the rest of the day.
The following day, I will twist the hank up, and show you the amazing orange we achieved from the onion skin natural dye bath!

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Last Minute Laura
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