How to Make Homemade Dye for Sneakers
When you purchase canvas sneakers, you're probably buying them for comfort. However, most sneakers are either plain white or a bright color or pattern that may not coordinate with anything in your wardrobe. Using commercial fabric dye on your sneakers is an option, but many fabric dyes have a lot of chemicals in them. Those chemicals can be avoided by making your own fabric dye for your sneakers. It's easy, inexpensive and just as effective as commercial dyes.
Instructions
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Select the proper natural material for the color of dye you wish to use. For purple dye, use red cabbage. For yellow dye, use yellow onion skins. For orange dye, use carrots. For brown dye, use tea bags or coffee grounds. For pink dye, use strawberries. For blue dye, use blueberries. For red dye, use red rose petals. For green dye, use spinach.
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Chop the material you are using for the dye into 1 inch pieces. If it's already small, such as coffee grounds, tea bags or rose petals, you can omit this step.
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Put the dye material in the pot and add twice as much water as you have dye material.
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Bring to a boil, lower the temperature, and simmer for an hour or more until the dye material has lost all of its color.
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Strain out the dye material.
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Tips & Warnings
Exercise caution to avoid burning yourself when straining the dye material from the hot fabric dye. You can wait to strain out the dye material until the dye has cooled, if necessary.
References
- Photo Credit Leonard Mc Lane/Digital Vision/Getty Images
