How To Dye Fabric Pink Using Avocado

Avocados can act as a natural dye, and while you would expect this fruit to dye material green, it actually turns fabric a very pretty rose-hued pink. Natural and economical, you can transform you pale clothing in just a few easy steps, not to mention put those avocado skins and seeds to good use!

Inspired by my article on uses for gone off avocados around the home, I stumbled upon how to dye clothing. It was a fairly easy process and so far the dye has maintained its colour - even after a 30-degree wash! If you would like to try it out for yourself, follow my step-by-step guide to dying your clothes with avocados now...

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Steps on how to dye fabric pink using avocado

1. Prepare the avocado skins and seeds

Remove the flesh, before rinsing out your avocado skins and cutting them into strips. You can do this with a knife but I found it was a lot easier to use scissors. Then carefully chop the seed into chunks using a meat cleaver or a similar heavy knife. Be sure to be very careful when doing this as it can be dangerous.

Step 2: Make sure your material is clean and dry

Make sure your material is nice and clean before dying it, it's worth noting the dye works best on silks and cottons to avoid disappointment. The skin and seed from one avocado mixed with 2 pints of water is enough to dye a small T-Shirt.

Step 3: Heat in a pan on a low heat to form the dye

Take a pot and fill it with water and add the avocado. Simmer the skins and seed with a lid on a low heat for 1 hour first then add the material for a further 1 hour. Be sure to stir the pot regularly to avoid burning the material. For our dye project we only used 1 pint of water, but if you use 2 pints you may need to simmer the material for longer.

Step 4: Soak your material overnight

Take the pot off the heat, remove the avocado skins and stone and leave the material to soak overnight in the dye. You should start to see what colour the material is turning after just a few hours but you'll want to leave it in the dye for as long as possible.

5. Let the material dry naturally and iron to set 

In the morning, take your material out of the dye and hang it up to dry naturally. Once it's dried, set the iron to a low heat and go over the material. This should help 'set' the colour, but you'll want to avoid washing the material for a few days to prevent the dye from lifting.

Who knew you could do something so fabulous with Avocado skins and seeds? If you're looking for way to re-use other fruits and vegetable then make sure you check out these 25 astonishing uses for your fruit and vegetable peel.

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