10+ DIY Natural Fabric Printing Inks With Fruits & Vegetables

DIY Natural Fabric Printing Inks

Did you know that you can make your own fabric printing inks with things you’ll find in the nature? 😀

Learn how to make your own DIY natural fabric printing ink with fruits, such as sloe berries and bilberries, and vegetables, such as red cabbage and onions.

Natural Fabric Printing Ink

How To Prepare Fabric For Printing

I used cotton fabric for the print samples. But you can also use other types of fabric, such as silk fabric. However, keep in mind that the homemade natural fabric printing inks are ph-sensitive and will turn out a different color on different types of fabric. For example, DIY natural blue fabric printing inks will turn out more purple on silk fabric.

Related: How To Dye Cotton Blue With Red Cabbage (No Mordant)

Prewash and iron the fabrics before printing with the natural DIY fabric printing inks. I didn’t use mordant – except for the iron tannin print – because I wanted to show you the natural print colors.

Related: 14 FAQs About Eco-Friendly Natural Dyeing

Natural Dye Ink From Plants

Natural Ink Colors With Fruits & Vegetables

Blue

  • red cabbage
  • bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus)
  • sloe berries (Prunus spinosa)

Related: How To Make DIY Natural Sloe Laundry Ink

Teal

  • red cabbage + baking soda (turns gray after a few months)

Related: Homemade Natural Blue Food Coloring With Red Cabbage

Brown

  • onion skins
  • walnut hulls
  • sloe berries (with ironing)
  • blackthorn bark (Prunus spinosa)
  • horse chestnut leaves

Related: How To Make Medieval Blackthorn Ink

Gray

  • bilberries (ironed before washing)

Dark Brown or Black

  • iron + tannin

How To Make DIY Natural Fabric Printing Ink

Natural Blueberry Fabric Printing Ink Recipe
Bilberries

Bring berries (bark, leaves, onion skins etc.) with some water to a boil. Simmer it for about 10 minutes (berries & red cabbage) to one hour (bark & onion skins). It takes longer to extract the dye from barks and onion skins.

Natural Fabric Printing Ink Made With Blueberries

Then strain the dye solution through a sieve. Bring it to a boil again and simmer it until the consistency is thick and syrupy.

How To Print With Natural Fabric Printing Ink

Natural Fabric Printing Ink Tutorial

Now use your DIY natural fabric printing ink just like ordinary fabric printing ink.

I used a fork and a heart-shaped cookie cutter as stamps. But you can also use other stamps such as wood block stamps.

DIY Print Fabric With Fruits
Back view of painted bilberry hearts

DIY Natural Fabric Printing Ink With Gum Arabic

Thicken Watery Ink With Gum Arabic

Optional: If the fabric printing ink is too watery, you can thicken it with gum arabic. Stir in some gum arabic while the ink is still warm.

Related: How To Make India Ink Or Edwardian Mascara With Gum Arabic

Natural Fabric Printing Ink

How To Wash Naturally Printed Fabric

Let the fabric dry overnight after printing. Then wash the printed fabric with soap and water.

Bilberry Blueberry Dye Wool Fabric
Bilberry dye before and after washing

Washing and ironing might change the color, because some natural printing inks are ph-sensitive and heat-sensitive.

Related: Red cabbage – Dye Samples

DIY Onion And Coffee Fabric Printing Ink
Onion skins and coffee fabric printing ink before washing
DIY Fruit And Vegetable Fabric Printing Ink
Coffee, onion and bilberry dye before washing

DIY Fabric Printing Ink RinseThe Fabric

I washed all the natural printed fabrics with castille soap and 60°C hot water.

Homemade Fabric Printing Ink
Turning blue

Don’t worry, natural fabric printing inks will bleed during the first wash, just like synthetic fabric dyes.

How To Care For Naturally Printed Fabric

After the first wash, you can wash your natural printed fabrics with similar colored clothes in the washing machine.

Use the lowest heat setting when ironing your natural printed fabrics – especially the blue printing inks are heat-sensitive.

Natural Printmaking Inks After Washing

DIY Natural Sloe Laundry Ink
Sloe fabric printing ink

Natural Dye Fabric Printing Inks Bilberry Blueberry Coffee Onion Skins Red Cabbage

Because I love blue, my favorite natural printing inks are bilberry and red cabbage (without baking soda).

DIY Natural Plant Inks
Bilberry print after washing
Blueberry Bilberry Fabric Print And Sugar Hearts
Bilberry fabric print and sugar hearts

While sugar hearts colored with bilberry juice are pink, fabric printed with bilberry is blue after washing. This happens because berries are ph-sensitive and sugar is more acidic than cotton fabric.

Related: How To Make Naturally Colored Sugar Hearts & Sugar Sprinkles

DIY Natural Fabric Printing Ink With Red Cabbage
Red cabbage fabric printing ink

Red cabbage (without baking soda) works as DIY natural fabric printing ink: It’s pale blue after washing. However, red cabbage with added baking soda isn’t very lightfast, after washing and some month exposure to sunlight, the teal turns to gray.

Natural Dye Ink From Plants
Bilberry print: grey if ironed before washing, blue if not ironed before washing

If the bilberry print is ironed before washing, it stays gray even after washing. Otherwise bilberry printing ink stays blue, even if ironed after washing.

Natural Dye Ink From Plants: Onion Skins And Coffee
Onion and coffee print

Coffee print is very pale after washing.

DIY Natural Fabric Printmaking Inks
Horse chestnuts leaves print before and after washing
DIY Natural Fabric Printmaking Ink With Onion Skins
Onion skin tie dye samples after washing

By the way, I also tried to print with curcuma. However, curcuma doesn’t work as DIY fabric printing ink because the whole fabric is yellow after washing.

Iron fabric printing ink

If you try out natural fabric printing inks, I’d love to hear about your experiments and results. And if you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below.

6 thoughts on “10+ DIY Natural Fabric Printing Inks With Fruits & Vegetables

  1. Did you ever figure out a way to make these more colorfast? I want to do this on some of my daughter’s clothes but since they need regular washing I want to be sure it won’t fade too quickly.

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