DIY Coffee Dye

I love my cloth napkins. They’ve saved me so much money by not having to buy paper napkins or paper towels. However, they do get stained quite easily. Read on for steps and tips for a DIY coffee dye for your cloth napkins!

Here are the supplies needed and steps to take:

Large pot

3 gallons Coffee (cold or old is fine)

24 Cotton Napkins or Towels (white, beige, or other light color)

2 cups Vinegar

1. Pour all coffee into large soup pot. On high heat, bring to a boil.

2. Remove from heat. Submerge towels into coffee. Stir to allow towels to open up and get fully coated with coffee. Let sit for at least 2 hours, overnight if preferred. 

3. Strain towels. Set coffee aside if desired (plants love coffee!).

4. Put towels in a large bowl. Pour vinegar over towels to set the color.  Let sit for 2 hours.

5. Dehydrate towels (put them in the dryer or hang them up in the sun). Shake off any leftover coffee grinds, fold, and serve.

Tips:

• Collect your leftover coffee and store in the refrigerator until you need to use it

• Save leftover grounds and just add water. Use this if you drank all of your coffee!

• Use clean, dry towels

• If you have any grounds in your dye water, it will stick to your napkins. Simply shake them off outside.

• Use this method for dying other fabrics (natural fabrics work best for soaking up the dye)

Do you have any cloth-dying tips or projects? Let us know! And for our blog post this Thursday (Jan. 22nd), check back in to read about Five Items You Can Reuse—-Instead of Tossing Out.

Thanks for reading!

💜

Laura