Dyeing with avocado skins

I didn't think it was the least bit possible.  Using avocado skins to create a soft pink dye to use on laces, fabrics, etc.  Yet I had seen on several blogs that people were doing just that.  So I gave it a try a couple of days ago.  Made delicious guacamole from scratch and then put the avocado skins in some water and brought it to a boil.  After the water turned pink (yep!! it actually did) I turned off the heat and let the skins sit in the water overnight.  After straining, this is the resulting color of the dye.

 I know this looks orange-y, but it is pretty close to the right color of the dye.

I dyed some cheese cloth and a bit of tatted trim.  The original cheese cloth is underneath the two pieces.  The tatted trim was about the same color.  So, it does work!  A nice soft pink. 

Am going to try this again next week using a little less water to see if the dye gets stronger and darker.  Got more things to dye and am looking forward to it.  Stay tuned!!

Dyeing cheesecloth

Decided to do a little experimenting this morning. I wanted to dye some cheese cloth using reinker inks.

Learned right off to use just enough water to cover the cloth. For the pink cloth you see below I had to pour out most of the water I started with and then add just a little more ink. Wasted a lot of ink on the pink one.But I am happy with both colors. These are going into an altered folio I am still working on! I used Distress Inks in Tattered Rose and Faded Denim.