Upcycle Textiles with Indigo: The Blue Box for your Clothes
Images by Terri Potratz and edited by Brette Little
If you’re looking for a plant-based way to breathe new life into worn textiles, consider indigo the next tool in your kit for renewing stained clothes before sending them off to the donation or trash bin. Rejuvenating items with indigo can not only save you money and prevent unnecessary waste, but will result in textiles with beautiful colours and patterns.
I first tried my hand at indigo dyeing through a Creative COSSI workshop last year, led by Saltine’s own Morgan Fraser. Morgan shared some of her notes from those Creative COSSI indigo workshops to provide a bit more background about the history of indigo:
Indigo has a long history, both good and bad, and the extraction, production and trade of this plant has made a big impact on the world. Indigo has been deeply part of many cultures throughout history.
India is considered the oldest history of indigo dyeing, earliest major processing and production.
Ancient Greek word for indigo was ‘indikon’ meaning ‘from india’, which became indigo in English.
Indigo dyed fabric exists from over 6000 years ago.
In Europe, there was no ‘deep blue’ natural dye colour available during the middle ages (only a plant called Woad that is lighter blue and doesn’t ‘hold’ the dye as well). Wasn’t until the 15th century that Portuguese explorers came to India to find indigo and bring it back to Europe (Sidenote: this is why deep purple is considered the colour of royalty - it was the most difficult/expensive colour to make without indigo available as it was made from insects).
In Ghana indigo is considered to have healing medicinal properties when you wear it on the skin.
In Japan indigo dye is fermented, which coincides with a lot of Japanese foods (like soy sauce, miso) - whereas in Europe, where foods were traditionally boiled, plant dyes are more often boiled as well. With natural dyes there is always a connection to cultural food preparation.
The biggest use of indigo today is in blue jeans, although much of that is synthetic dye that’s not good for water sources (it’s petrol-based). On average, one pair of blue jeans uses 3-12 grams of indigo.
Latin name for the most common form of natural indigo is Indigofera tinctoria - to find other plants that are good for natural dyeing, look for the name ‘tinctoria’ in the latin name (like tincture).
Synthetic indigo was developed in the late 1800s, leading to mass decline of natural indigo dyeing, but environmental concerns are increasing demands for more natural and sustainable dyes to return.
Morgan explains a bit more of the allure of indigo and the dye process:
“There is a magic to indigo - while there are many plant dyes that can create a variety of yellows and browns, blue colour is much more rare.
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When you put your fabric in the indigo dye vat, the fibres turn a yellow-y green colour and it is only once the fabric is removed that it slowly turns blue.”
-Morgan Fraser
When you put your fabric in the indigo dye vat, the fibres turn a yellow-y green colour and it is only once the fabric is removed that it slowly turns blue. This is because indigo’s blue is created by reacting to oxygen (aka: the air). You have to be careful not splash the dye vat because it will add oxygen bubbles to the mixture.”
Folding/tie-ing techniques for the beginner:
Geometric folds
Twisted around a stick
Using elastic bands, string or clips
Gradient effects (multiple dips)
Adding leaves and things and tightening
More complicated techniques:
Hand-stitching patterns
In Japan: hand-stitch grains of rice
Batik (Indonesian) - wax resist
More complex pressed patterns
For the beginners out there, it may be easiest to purchase an indigo kit to get you started. Maiwa is based in Vancouver and has a great selection of naturally-derived indigo products, including kits with easy to follow instructions.
Here are some guides to help you understand the fundamentals and process:
How to Dye With Indigo - a very comprehensive version from Maiwa, which is where the indigo we used was purchased from
Understanding the Indigo Dyeing Process (a step-by-step Instructables guide with photos)
Increasing the longevity of your textiles may cost a bit upfront to get your dye kit established, but in two dye sessions I’ve repurposed: 20+ napkins, 2 throw pillow cases, 1 tablecloth, 1 table runner, and also dyed some cotton and linen yardage that I used for quilt backings and to make new throw pillow cases. It’s great to be able to hang on to those greying or stained garments and know that instead of tossing them out, you can increase their longevity with a bit of maintenance and an indigo makeover.
