I do my best to use up as much color as I can in my natural dye baths. Sometimes I throw in old sheets or fabrics that need a re-fresh. Sometimes I toss in some yarn. There are ways to extract the unspent pigment and use it to make paints or save it for later but usually I dye and then dump and rinse to get ready for the next dye project.
I bought 100% cotton string produce bags knowing that I wanted more options to share when trying to exhaust my natural dye baths. They live in the shop when available and there may be some other things there with yarns dyed in exhaust baths…
Exhaust baths will give you lighter shades of your dye color until it is spent. I like to layer colors on by dying things in indigo and then marigold, madder or cutch. These are the dyes I use the most although other flowers do make their way in when I have some around!
(pictured bags are dyed in marigold, indigo, and cutch)
