In earlier ages, people were able to dye their clothing in beautiful colors without harsh chemicals that are toxic and irritating. In fact, people have been dyeing cloth for about 10,000 years. Chemical dyes like we have on the market today weren’t even thought of till 1856; William Henry Perkin mistakenly created a clothing dye while he was trying to find a cure for malaria. That first artificial dye was mauve colored.
Before then people used roots, plants, bark and mineral to dye clothing. There is a common misconception, perhaps from the film world, that medieval people wore dull, brown or black clothing. The truth is that browns and blacks were much harder to achieve than brighter reds, blues and yellows so dull clothing was mostly confined to mourners or clerics. Dyeing was looked upon as an art; women usually did the dyeing of fabric and in fact there were certain rules in each country that applied to this craft. In Ireland men were not allowed to be in the room when clothing was dyed and dyeing was done on certain days determined by the women to be lucky.
Even underclothing was often dyed in bright colors. It’s commonly believed that medieval people were smelly and dirty and never bathed but that has been proven untrue. Their undergarments were frequently washed even though their outer garments were not and they washed themselves at the same time. Only later during the Renaissance period was regular bathing considered unhealthy; that belief was the reason perfume was invented as a way to mask unpleasant body odor.
Red colors were made using Madder, Brazilwood, St. John’s Wort, Safflower and Cochineal. Yellow came from Rhubarb, Tansy, Eucalyptus, Goldenrod, Onion, Weld And Chamomile. For blue they used Indigo, Woad, Alkanet and Logwood. Most people used the plants, bark and roots available to them in nearby forests or fields although wealthier people could afford import more exotic dyeing materials like Haritake.
In India they made green dye from Haritake, a plant native to the Himalayas that was also used as a remedy for many diseases. India was also responsible for producing calico from Acacia catechu. Turmeric, responsible for the rich yellow color of their curry dishes, was used for textile painting and printing. India had many sources of dye that produced brilliant colors. For centuries Indian cloth was in demand because of its quality as well as its vivid and exotic colors.
The outer skin of onions was plentiful and produced shades of orange, yellow, rust and brown. Luckily, it did not impart the tantalizing scent of the onion to the material. Pomegranate was used in tropical climates to produce ocher and yellow dyes; the fruit contains tannin that improves colorfastness. Since pomegranates don’t produce very bright colors the dye was often mixed with turmeric root to make the color more brilliant.
The dye artists in olden days used what they had at hand. For instance, dipping wool in turmeric and then indigo would produce brown but if they then tossed the fabric in a pot of urine it would turn a lovely green. You’ll be glad to know that nowadays we use ammonia!
Most dyes need a mordant, a substance that makes the color stick so it won’t wash out. Alum was a common one, used in the dye bath or as a pre-wash. (Only onion, turmeric and tea don’t need mordants to fix their colors.) Copper was also used as a mordant and if they wanted to darken the colors they used iron in the after-bath. Once the cloth was soaked in mordant it was added to a pot of simmering water full of whatever roots, berries or bark was being used. When the fabric was the desired color it was removed, rinsed and hung up to dry.
When berries were used as dye better results were produced if salt was added to the water as a fixative. Luckily, salt was plentiful in most places. With berry dye the fabric would have to be boiled for an hour. Plant-based dyes were often used with a vinegar fixative.
Most organically dyed material these days still has toxicity because chemicals are allowed to be used during the wet processing before the fabric goes into production. “Eco friendly” and “low impact” dye processes use chemicals, about 8000 of them, during sizing, scouring, bleaching, dyeing and printing, dye fixing and finishing. You are not necessarily getting completely organic clothing even if the label says it was organically dyed.