Walnut dye experiment..

Remember the walnut dye experiment I did a few days ago? Well the lovely fawn coloured linen was transformed in to a Christmas tote..

Experiment with Black Walnuts - Dyeing

and the shade I initially achieved was a yummy butterscotch, caramel shade of brown which once rinsed did fade to a still pleasant shade of fawn. Look out for new walnut coloured creations!..click hereusing my yards of vintage French linen and 'chanvre' - another slubby vintage French linen I first soaked then in hot salty water and dipped them into the now gorgeous dark chocolate brown dye..

Well, the walnuts are falling from the trees and now is the time I have been waiting for to try dyeing fabric using the green hulls which form the casing for the walnut. I have searched around for a simple recipe and a lot of them do contradict eachother when it comes to adding mordants or not. Having small children and not a lot of time I decided to go with the flow, throw the entire basketful into a pot and boil it up, randomly adding a fair bit of salt to help fix the dye.