When tea dyeing, how long do you leave fabric in tea to get a good coloring?

Question

Also do you rinse it and then dry it or go straight to the dryer?

Answer 1

The time is dependent on a number of factors.  How dark do you want it? How strong was the tea to begin with?  Are you dye 100% natural cotton or is a synthetic blend?  

I have only done this with 100%cotton fabrics I am not going to wash such as scrapbook pages or  needlework projects.  For these purposes, I usually steep the tea for 20 to 30 minutes before adding the fabric.  Most of the time, I achieve the depth of color I want in 10 to 12 minutes.  

If you are going to wash this fabric I would actually dye it slightly darker than you want and then throw it in the dryer to set it  

Hope that helps!