I love to experiment with the dye plants I grow. I usually have seeds and extra dye stuff to share in the early spring or winter but I make a point to experiment with what I grow at least a little each year. I usually have some undyed commercial fabric on hand for these occasions. SOMETIMES I have handwoven fabric on hand but when the weather is nice and I need a day outside I like to just roll with it and be ready - so I usually grab whatever I have that’s undyed and stashed away and get to playing.

I learn well from experimenting. It’s liberating and keeps my creativity sharp. Natural dyeing is much like baking and painting all rolled together - add to that growing your own dye material and you get all the fun of gardening (plus the magic of seeing color come out of the plants….) — what’s not to love?

This sweater is the result of those experiments.

The white fabric is organic cotton fleece from Spritex (located in NC) and is undyed. I trimmed the hem with a piece of this fabric turned soft side out. Yum.

The sleeves and neck are dyed with flowers from my 2019 and 2020 gardens. I used safflowers and sulphur cosmos (plus a little iron — that’s where the grey color comes from) to steam dye this quilted double gauze organic cotton and it is cozy, loose fitting and great for layering.

Machine wash and dry - iron if you feel like it but the crinkle texture of the cotton is natural.