DIY Beet-Dyed Thrift Store Napkins
My father has a beautiful garden, and since I live about 10 minutes away from my parents I am lucky enough to enjoy his vegetables from his garden. This time of the year, my dad’s garden is producing many vegetables, including beets. I am not a fan of eating beets, but I was recently inspired by this article from House of Lars to use my father’s beautiful beets for a new purpose.
As you may know, thrifting has always been so much fun for me. I am missing many things during this quarantine (as we all are), but I am missing thrifting a lot. I was recently rummaging through my thrift store napkins and I noticed some of them were stained. So I thought about my father’s beets and decided to dye my thrift store napkins the prettiest shade of blush pink to give them new life.
This is a great use for thrift store napkins or any thrift store linens with stains. Thrift store linens are very inexpensive and some have beautiful markings, endearing shapes and patterns. This technique will allow you to give your thrift store napkins character and a high end, custom look for your next party without the cost of it.
This natural dying technique will work on any 100"% cotton linen. For my first attempt, I tried, and failed to dye my fabric because it had 65% polyester, and 35% cotton. The natural dye didn’t stick.
I hope this natural process will inspire you to look around at your own garden, backyard, farmer’s market or grocery store for unconventional ways to personalize well-loved or fresh pieces in your home! The possibilities are endless, and now I am excited to try more colors in the rainbow!
Please continue below for the step-by-step tutorial to dye your own linen with natural beet juice.
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To dye your own cotton with natural beet dye, you will need:
Step 1: Prep your fabric.
Add 1 cup of vinegar to 3 cups of water into a large pot. Increase the measurements as needed for the batch size. I used 3 cups of vinegar and 9 cups of water for my 6 napkins.
Bring the vinegar solution to a boil, then with tongs add the fabric.
Boil the fabric for 1 hour. Keep an eye on the fabric and use the tongs to keep the fabric moving so it doesn’t burn. (I burned my fabric during my first attempt, because I didn’t have enough water nor did I keep an eye on it.)
Step 2: While your fabric is boiling, make your beet dye.
Skin and cube the beets.
Add the beets to a large pot. Cover the beets fully with water, and about an inch above with water covering the beets.
Bring the beets to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer for about one hour.
Step 3: After an hour of boiling the beets, remove the beets with a slotted spoon. (I put my beets in our compost for my garden.) Then remove the beet dye from the heat.
Step 4: After your fabric has boiled in the vinegar solution for an hour, turn off the heat and remove the fabric with tongs.
Rinse the fabric under cool water.
Step 5: Place the wet fabric in the beet dye. Let the fabric sit for anywhere from an hour to 24 hours. The longer you let the fabric sit the more saturated the beet pigment will be onto the fabric, and the richer the color will be.
I wanted a softer, pale pink for my napkins so I kept them in the beet dye for about 2.5 hours.
*The above picture is after 1 hour, and the below picture is right before I took the napkins out at 2.5 hours.
Step 6: Place your pot in a sink, and remove and squeeze out any extra beet juice from the dyed fabric.
Step 7: Rinse each piece of fabric in cool water. Then lay the fabric flat on a towel to dry.
*Please use a towel that you don’t mind getting ruined (stained on) as the beet juice may also dry onto the drying towel from the recently dyed linen.
*Next time I will lay my linens flat on a towel to dry. Some of the napkins had creases from the way the dye settled, because of the way they were hanging on my clothes drying rack.
Step 8: (Optional) After your fabric dries, place the fabric gently in a cold water bath with some fabric softener to rinse off the vinegar smell. Then lay them flat on top of a towel to dry again.
*Some of the pigment will leave the cloth, but that is okay.
Once dry, your fabric is ready to use.
Step 9: When cleaning your dyed fabric, I recommend hand washing in cold water.
I love how the beets added a sweet touch to my thrifted napkins. I can’t wait to use them at my next dinner party.
I hope you enjoy customizing your own linens with beets this season!
I believe crafting is more fun when we share our projects. Please email me at elizabeth@countrypeony.com, or please tag me @thecountrypeony or #countrypeony to show me your beautiful, custom creations!
Thank you so much for following along!
