Red Cabbage + Baking Soda – Dye Samples

Red Cabbage + Baking Soda - Dye Samples

Today I made more dye experiments with red cabbage. This time I made a dye bath with red cabbage and baking soda.

Red Cabbage + Baking Soda - Dye Samples

I diluted leftover homemade blue food coloring (made with red cabbage and baking soda) with water. The food coloring turned the water dark blue, almost black.

Red Cabbage + Baking Soda - Dye Samples

I left the fabric for some seconds, 10 minutes and 30 minutes in the dye bath.

Red Cabbage + Baking Soda - Dye Samples

While the fabric dries, it becomes more green.

Red Cabbage + Baking Soda - Dye Samples

After washing the fabric scraps in lukewarm water, all are only light blue. The beautiful teal color is gone.

red cabbage baking soda soy milk dye samples

For another dye sample I mixed red cabbage food coloring (the glass on the right) with soy milk (the glass on the left). I let the fabric soak overnight in the red cabbage-baking soda-soy milk dye bath. Before I washed the fabric it was turquoise like the dye bath, but after washing it’s just light blue.

All fabric scraps were bleached white cotton, pre-washed with soap and water and not mordanted.

Update: The dye samples aren’t very lightfast.

Here you’ll find my tutorial: How to dye Cotton Blue with Red Cabbage & Iron Mordant.

2 thoughts on “Red Cabbage + Baking Soda – Dye Samples

  1. Hi!

    I’m currently trying to obtain a deep blue. My test strips until now turned out either green or purple/blue. Do you think there’s a way to maintain the deep blue before it turns green? Thank you so much!

    1. Red cabbage-baking soda-dye is not very light- and wash-fast. If you want to dye cotton fabric blue, rather mordant the fabric with DIY iron liquor and use red cabbage dye (without backing soda). Here‘s my tutorial.

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