Youtube-Inspired Frenzy

I watched like five Youtube videos of people dyeing fabrics and printing on shirts using natural dyes like turmeric, teas, wildflowers, leaves, coffee grounds, etc. and felt inspired to try it out myself. Like an absolute madman, I impulsively threw together some loose tea leaves, instant coffee and white shirts that I had sitting around the house. I didn’t even measure how much tea/coffee I put into my hot water nor did I follow the proper dyeing techniques.

Do you ever get into that creative frenzy where you just do things based roughly on some instructions you skimmed over and you don’t care if you’re doing it correctly but you just do it anyways? No? Just me? Cool.

I felt like some kind of witch mixing around her potions while I was swirling my coffee and tea leaves in a pot of hot water. It’s the same feeling you get when you’re seasoning your food and feel like some sort of renowned, Food Network chef. Anyways, I threw in some turmeric last second and in retrospect, I added waaaay too much turmeric (two tablespoons) because my first shirt turned out mustard yellow. I was going for a coffee-brown color but I’m not mad at it. I diluted it by adding more water before dyeing my second shirt and it came out a soft, lemon yellow. After the shirts dried, there was random streaks and splotches of a rose-brown color. Maybe it’s from the rose-tea leaves and coffee I threw in there. Either way, I like how it gave the shirts more dimensional and a soft, tie-dye effect.