I recently finished this darling retro coffee ad for my kitchen,
but I was sorry that I used such a bright white fabric.
It just didn’t seem to match the 1950’s tone of the pattern.
Here is the finished piece with the white fabric:
Well? I thought I would try dying the fabric in coffee to see how it would turn out.
Having never done it before, I was a little nervous,
seeing how I already had stitched the entire thing (I’ll never get those four months back…)
I started with really diluted coffee, since I wasn’t sure what the result would be and then slowly added more of the coffee into the bowl to darken it.
I checked the fabric every 10 minutes or so.
When I was happy with it, I rinsed it out with fresh water and let it hang dry.
Then, I ironed it out and framed it with a walnut frame I found at a flea market (perfect size!)
I probably could have gone a bit darker, too, but I didn’t want to alter the color of thread too much. Hope this inspires you to play with dying your own fabric – it’s really quite easy and lots of fun!
Happy crafting!
xoxo
Genevieve
Bella Stitchery 