Tea & Coffee Staining Cloth...

In preparation for the workshop, today I am staining  some bleached and natural  muslin , as well as a yard each of natural scrim and bleached cheese cloth.  Staining  really is so easy and it yields the most delicate vintage looking fabric.

 Any natural/cotton works well with this technique.  I find muslin and scrims work really great and accept the color easily.  If you are tea staining different shades of fabrics for your project, be sure to do each of them separately for best results. Sometimes I will put some stain in a spray bottle and just spray the linen or muslin.  Or, over dye with a spray of stain or walnut ink for additional texture.

I am so psyched to be attending a fabric bookmaking workshop at Cloth Fiber Studio in the River Arts District of Asheville this weekend. It's been a few months since I've been out that way and I am looking forward to the drive over,  the workshop and some quality "mountain" time wandering around the Blue Ridge Parkway with my camera and my thoughts.

 You can use tea or coffee to stain your fabric. In this case, I used  STRONG day old coffee from my french press and some fresh pomegranate  - extra strong tea, brewed in super hot (but not boiling) water for about 15 minutes for depth of color.

I scrunched up my muslin and put two pieces each in two  plastic ziploc bags and two pieces each  in  two plastic containers (one for coffee and one for the red tea.)  In the ziploc bag, I sporadically poured the steeped liquid over the fabric - being careful NOT to saturate it - leaving some white of the fabric to show through.  I closed the bags and squeezed them a few times.  As for the fabric in the two plastic containers, I totally immersed the fabric for a "soak" - for  more even coverage.

(NOTE:  Tea and Coffee staining also works great on mulberry bark and certain heavy and textural papers.  I typically "spray" on the stain when staining papers, but you can brush it on. )

After about an hour  - I took all fabrics outside and line dried them in the sun.  They were then hot ironed to heat set the color - and they are ready to go.

Such an easy process - with such great results. These came out nice and  should be wonderful to utilize in my cloth books.

Oh - Hi Gimo!