Reuse food scraps, but make it fashion.
While there are different ways to dress more sustainably (think: swapping with friends, wearing natural fibers, supporting slow fashion brands, and secondhand shopping. Psst. Check out my Guide to: Secondhand Shopping!), the most sustainable wardrobe will always be the one that you already own.
Taking good care of, repairing, and upcycling the clothes that you have is an important cornerstone of sustainability. By using what you already own, it prevents depleting the Earth of more of its’ resources by having to buy new.
But I get it — you might be tired of the pieces that you own. Luckily, there are ways to breathe new life into old items, such as embroidering new details onto them, altering them into something different, tie dying them, or naturally dying them a pretty new shade!
To walk us through natural dyeing, we teamed up with our friends and fellow sustainability gurus, Madeleine Wallace and Cara Marie Piazza, to show us how it’s done!
Madeleine is a climate advocate, microplastic expert, and sustainable model, and Cara is a Natural Dyer and artisan in New York City who creates one of a kind textiles only using natural dyestuffs, such as botanicals, plant matter, minerals, non-toxic metals, and food waste.
Died assorted leftover herbs, teas, and foraged flowers
Onion skins
Distilled white vinegar
An old tee shirt
Organic cotton kitchen string
A metal pot
A stainless steel pot
A stainless steel colander
Instructions
Step 1
Lay your tee shirt out onto a flat surface. Place your onion skins, petals, and herbs on your tee shirt in any way that you like.
Psst. Get creative! Try dyeing an Organic cotton tote bag, produce bags, bed sheets, pillowcases, towels, an old dress, a bandana, and more.
Step 2
Tightly roll up your shirt. Wrap the bundle with string, and secure it well so that it stays tightly rolled up, and doesn’t come undone.
Step 3
Pour distilled vinegar into a pot (a couple of inches should be enough), place your bundle into the pot, and make sure that it gets fully wet. The vinegar will help the colors be more vibrant!
Psst. The metal of your pot will affect the color, so try experimenting!
Step 4
Remove the bundle from the vinegar pot and wring out so that it is damp, but not wet.
Step 5
Pour a few inches of water into a stainless steel pot. You want there to be enough water so that it can steam for a couple of hours. Place a stainless steel colander on top of the top to create a steamer basket. If you also a steamer, that works too! Bring the water to a boil.
Step 6
Place your bundle into the colander and allow it to steam for 1-2 hours. Be sure to turn it periodically with tongs (every 20 minutes or so) so that it steams equally on both sides. Once it’s done, allow the bundle to completely cool before unrolling.
Step 7
Unravel the string to reveal your finished product, and compost the leftover food scraps and flowers.
Psst. Learn more about how to compost at home here!
Step 8
Wash your tee shirt alone on a delicate cycle using a PH neutral soap or a gentle detergent, like The Simply Co.
Step 9
Voila! All done.
Interested in learning more about natural dyeing? Check out Cara’s work and her plastic free, reusable, and refillable dye kit at shop.caramariepiazza.com. What are some creative ways that you like to reduce food waste or upcycle old clothing?
