You can get natural dyes but I think you still need chemicals to process them. I do bright procion dye tie dye and I get all my stuff from www.dharmatrading.com. They have great info on how to tie dye and everything you need for it.
Hey, go there: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/tiedye/ That page was a big help for me when I did it for the first few times. I did it with some liquid we use for cleaning, it's like really strong and it changed the colour of the shirt from black to orange, so it looks quite cool now. I've only used one dye and it wasn't a liquid one, so I'd recommend(sp?) you to use a liquid dye if you can, you should get it at your closest craft shop. I hope that helped, Love, Borut
you can buy tie dye kits... that's probably your best and easiest bet for dying... especially if you're just starting out!
i haven't tried it yet, but i've read that you can use vegetable matter for natural dyes. Beets will dye your fabric shades of red, tumeric will range from yellow to mustard... gee, i can't remember what else. But then you wash the stuff in a distilled water & white vinegar bath to set the color. like i said, i haven't tried it, but it sure beats chemicals. good luck!
I have a tye dye question too. Do you have to buy soda ash to treat the fabric first or can you use washing soda, which also contains soda ash? Or do the other ingredients in washing soda interfere with the process? Does anyone know? I have a bunch of procion dye and a bag of shirts and want to get started! Thanks everyone! Kathy
Washing soda makes it come out really mottled and weird, I would stick with the soda ash. You can actually get it fairly cheaply at pool supply places, or so I've heard. You can also use vinegar if you are dyeing wool or silk, but cotton really needs the soda ash.
Thanks! I went to a pool supply store today and got some stuff called PH up which should do the trick. It really was super cheap. Can't wait to try it out. Kathy