The Surprising Colour of Avocado Dye

Exploring the Internet one day I stumbled on how to dye with avocado. Since the colour was so improbable, I thought I'd give it a go. It was around the end of last Summer ( February, I think), when the roses were blooming beautifully.

First I sorted through some fabrics and doylies and sorted them into baskets - one for coffee, one for tea and one for avocado.

I'd been saving every avocado seed and skin as we ate them - I put them in the freezer in a ziplock bag. I'm not sure if that changed the result, but it worked, anyway!

So I boiled them up for about 30 minutes in a large saucepan, until the water turned a pinky brown. I strained out the avocado mess and put it the pink water back into the pot. Then I threw in a few pieces and pushed them under the water.
Here's a peek into the pot...

Instantly they turned a gorgeous shade of antique pink, which dried slightly lighter. I hung them to dry naturally on an airer in the bath - this meant they looked aged - speckly, with darker patches where the water ran. So I did some more, and dried them in the clothes drier. These were more uniform in colour.

Drip-drying avocado dyed laces

It's not a strong dye, so the original colour of the fabric still shows to influence the new shade. It mellows and ages strong colours, depending on the fabrics. The cottons took well, but the synthetics were not affected as much.

The colour lightens as it dries.

I love the natural antique look it gives - very subtle. I even tried dying some white fake daisies -you cans ee it on the edges of the petals.

The pinker doylies were white to start with, and the slightly browner shade were cream or beige before dyeing

The perfect match - a rose from my garden.

They look great with this antique hat box lid and my David Austen rose.

I just happened to have a vase full of another favourite rose - a gorgeous pale apricot, so I had a play with my camera...

Here's a little wall hanging I made using some of the laces.

Vintage lace wall hanging

 The colour looks different indoors... I tried to adjust it a bit below.

Vintage lace wall hanging

So, start eating those avocadoes... guacamole (mashed avocado, lemon juice and crushed garlic) is great with corn chips!

Thanks for visiting.
Jesse