15 Best Natural Dye Plants for Sustainable Fashion Items

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Sustainable and natural dyes are everywhere around us, ranging from scraps to foliage, flowers, and roots from plants.

Unlike synthetic dyes, natural dyes are free of harmful chemicals and color fabrics that are eco-friendly and safer for consumers.

So, here are the 15 popular dye plants you can use on all-natural fibers.

1. Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria)

Indigo is the most popular and, I think, most used natural dyeing plant. Its rich and beautiful blue hue ranges from the palest summer sky to almost purple-black.

You can achieve the coloring based on the type of vat, the concentration of indigo, and the number of dips.

To use it, indigo leaves are fermented to create a powder called Indigotin and make a dye vat.

The dyers then make a solution with water and dip the cloth or yarn in it, if they are already scoured. Next, they Oxidize the items and finally wash them.

I find indigo works well with all-natural fibers, especially cotton and linen.

If you’re a garden enthusiast, you can grow indigo yourself or source it from ethical suppliers for your dyeing purposes.

2. Turmeric (Curcuma longa)

You may have heard of using turmeric in cooking as a spice and culinary supplement. It also has several medical properties.

Now, the edible item plays with dyeing the fabrics and offers a bright yellow shades.

Turmeric dye is best for cotton, silk, and wool.

As it is not a potent dyeing supplement, turmeric’s color may fade shortly. Overwashing and placing it in sunlight for prolonged hours may result in this.

To use it, you need to boil the rhizomes of turmeric and extract the dye.

In a simple way, users have to chop the rhizomes into thin pieces, enough to dry and collect. After drying, grind the pieces to powder and make a solution with water.

You can grow and use organic turmeric to avoid pesticides.

3. Madder (Rubia tinctorum)

Madder is considered one of the oldest and most complex dyestuffs. It produces many colorants such as turkey reds,  orange-red, mulberry, and terracotta.

If combined with other dyers, madder can also give crimson, purple, browns, rust, and close to black.

Also, if you wish to create a deep red, use alum as a mordant.

The powdered dye is extracted from madder roots. They are processed through cutting and drying to reach the final dye bath.

I suggest you harvest the roots sustainably to allow the plant to regrow.

Natural fibers, including cotton, linen, and wool, are compatible with this dye, getting cool red to orange coloring.

Use oil to treat fabrics before mordanting and dyeing. This helps boost the brightness of color and dye’s ability to withstand washing.

4. Weld (Reseda luteola)

Do you know primitive tapestry weavers used the weld for several dyeing purposes in Central Asia, Turkey and Europe?

Thanks to  Luteolin, the weld is considered the lightest, brightest, and clearest of the yellow dyes.

It also makes a beautiful chartreuse hue if combined with iron. Or you can get a clear lime green when overdyed with indigo.

The dyes can be extracted from the leaves, stems, and flowers.

After chopping, you need to boil the fresh plant ingredients in water and simmer the mixture for a few hours. Then, you need to make pulp for a thick color rinse.

If dried, you can create a powder for a solution.

The dye is suitable for all-natural fibers, including cotton, which is often difficult to dye.

5. Onion Skins (Allium cepa)

Onion, what?

Yes. So, don’t throw the onion scraps or waste from your kitchen from now on.

Onions can produce colors including orange, yellow, rust, and brown. The dye quality depends on the onion type, the age of the skins, the season, and the amount of dyestuff.

While yellow onion creates browns and yellows, red onions make a greenish dye.

Purple and yellow onion skins provide slightly different shades, you can try mixing skins together for unique colorants.

I find the skins work well with cotton and silk.

6. Avocado Pits and Skins (Persea Americana)

You can get soft pink to peach colorways from different types of avocados.

Adjusting the dyeing process can also help achieve the desired color. For example, I often use the Hass variety, which has deep green or brown skin and a round pit.

Try experimenting yourself to know which color appears from a fruit available in your local area.

I want to tell you one thing here. Avacado has a facility to store tannins, which are natural mordants, so you need not pour additional ones to dye textiles.

I suggest you use the fresh skins and pits to get a more intense color.

It doesn’t mean you cannot use dried stuff. You can keep the dyestuff at room temperature and the freezer for later use.

7. Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)

Black Walnuts are also a versatile source of natural dye with tannin.

I always enjoy watching these eyeballs cascading on the ground in the late summer and early fall.

The yellow-green outer hulls contain the fruit and dye. Once you simmer the hulls to create a dye bath, you will notice that the colorant has a juglone property.

The hull gives you a rich, warm brown hue.

The dye will be darker and more profound when you use the nuts without the hulls.

Also, black walnuts can produce rich black if dyed with deep indigo on silk and wool.

8. Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria)

I have used my garden coreopsis flowers to dye cotton and linen clothes.

They display dark red petals in the middle and yellow outer edges. Also, you can grow the plant for your garden and have fun with dye experiments.

These flowers contain rich dyestuffs and yellow and orange pigments such as morin, luteolin, and quercetin. So, you can expect a beautiful, warm pumpkin orange to bright yellow color.

The process is the same as making the dye bath.

After you have finished the first round of baths, there can still be orange to soak the skein of yarn. That’s how you can get an orange-cream shade.

9. Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus spp.)

Not from Eucalyptus, then where else?

It doesn’t matter where you live; Eucalyptus is everywhere, and it has more than 700 varieties. You can use most of it to dye textiles.

The dyestuff is extracted from almost every part, including leaves, bark, seeds, and twigs, for several earthy natural colors.

Depending on the species and seasons, you can create a range of colors from soft pink and orange to brown.

You can use the fallen leaves and avoid harming the trees for dyeing.

The more time you soak your textile, the stronger the dye your clothes get.

10. Mushrooms (Various species)

Initially, I have to warn you not to touch the toxic mushrooms, and Amanita phalloides is one of the fatal ones.

I recommend this dye plant for only those foragers who have botany knowledge or who can identify safe mushrooms in the forest.

It’s safe to use the farmed mushrooms if you’re not into the expertise.

Anyway, mushrooms can give a range of dye colors, from yellow, green, and pink to brown and purple, depending on the species.

The colors also depend on the age and maturity of the mushrooms.

You can use the entire mushroom, caps, or stems for the dyeing process. Mushrooms work well with wool, silk, and linen textiles.

11. Marigold (Tagetes spp.)

Another flower is the Marigold; you can snip off the plant, simmer it, and be ready to dye.

Marigolds can offer rich and vibrant golden yellows, green yellows, and oranges.

Thanks to dyestuff called lutein that creates egg yolks yellow shade. The compound can give strong and clear yellows ranging from pale lemon colors to dark sun yellow.

If over dyed with indigo or woad, marigolds also give beautiful greens.

It works well with animal and plant fibers, including cotton.

You can use fresh flowers and dried and ground flower heads, depending on your resources.

12. Pomegranate (Punica granatum)

I find pomegranate fruits one of the most sustainable and strong natural dyes.

If the pomegranate is small, you can use the whole fruit. If it is large, you can eat the juicy pulp and use only the rinds to extract dye.

While immature fruits produce pale yellows, ripe ones offer golden yellows.

Many dyer friends purchase chopped pomegranate rinds.

Anyway, the fruit yields soft yellows to green yellows. Also, tannin in the fruit helps improve the light and washfastness of a dye.

You can experiment by dipping the pomegranate in a weak indigo bath and getting a teal shade.

It also gives slate grays if sadden with iron after dyeing.

13. Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Nettles have been used since ancient times for herbal medicine and dye.

They offer green to gray shades on the natural fibers. Countrymen often dye their embroideries and ropes for different colored items.

However, the colors vary based on the quality of the plant.

You can experiment with more colors by collecting fresh shoots rather than the older parts. The easy way is to harvest the fresh leaves and stems from the garden.

And simmer the parts and make a dye bath.

14. Logwood (Haematoxylum campechianum)

Logwoods are found in tropical forests.

Generally, they produce royal purples, and offer blues if dyed with copper. But they also give greys and blacks when mixed with iron.

Thanks to a purple pigment called hematein, the chopped wood yields saturated colors without much difficulty.

You can use the heartwood to create a dye bath.

If not available, woodchips or sawdust powder are on the market. I have used both dyestuffs on yarns and haven’t found any visible difference.

15. Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)

You know, safflower is best known for oil extracted from seeds.

But the petals also create magic in dyes. They can yield yellows, sharp pinks, orange-reds, and corals when extracted for dyes.

I find the reds are pretty with the silk and cotton and don’t need a mordant.

If you try silks, they can take red, yellow, and orange.

Bonus

Final Thoughts

I really have fun with the dyes and fibers, especially when I grow and use the best of them.

No doubt, pure natural dyes have low washfastness, requiring fabrics to dye soak every few days frequently.

But this still gives an opportunity for creativity and sustainable and eco-friendly fashion.