How To Bundle-Dye With Botanical Flowers on Silk and Linen

by Marie Miao May 25, 2021

I'm excited that we finally launched our DIY Bundle-Dye kit thanks to all of your interest and support! The kit provides everything you need to do this project right away, with detailed instructions.

If I've learned anything during the pandemic, the process of making art has such a healing power for our soul. Each piece of cloth will come out differently and uniquely perfect for you. I hope you enjoy the process!

Materials Needed:

Natural fiber cloth washed and mordanted (kit includes pre-mordanted piece of 20 x 20 silk and linen hand towel). Silk is the easiest fiber to work with for beginners if you don't plan to mordant your cloth.
About 10g each of your favorite dried florals. Fresh florals work as well! (Organic dried Marigold, Chamomile, and Saffron included in kit)
Cotton Twine (included in kit)
Steamer pot (not included in kit) or cheese cloth over a pot works as well.

NOTE: Our kit includes separate instructions for the silk bundle-dye. Below are the steps taken to bundle-dye our linen hand towel that is included in the kit as well. These linen come pre-mordanted so that your colors are deeper, brighter, and lasts longer.

With any natural dyeing process, the beauty is the changes in color over time. Depending on what look you're going for, and whether or not your fabric is pre-treated, the outcome may look different.

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Gather Your Flowers

In our kit, we include enough organic dried marigold, safflower, and chamomile to work on two projects (silk and linen). You can also use live flowers. I've had great results by using pansies from our garden. You may want to look up which flowers produce certain colors.

Place Flowers On Fabric

Scattering the flowers is the fun part, and I encourage you to do what feels fun and right for you. Feel free to fold and lay out the fabric as you wish! The way I did it is just one possible way. However, below are the steps we took to bundle-dye the linen to produce what is pictured above. For reference, the green and yellow were produced by the marigold, the dark yellow buds were produced by chamomile, and pink from the safflower.

dried marigold, saffron, and chamomile are scattered on top side of linen

Fold The Fabric

Scatter dried safflower, marigold, and chamomile at top of hand towel (about 2 inches below hook).

Fold the linen in 2" increments to cover the flowers that were just scattered. Scatter another layer of dried flowers and fold again. Once you have folded it twice, you should have the bottom half of the linen left.

Repeat the same steps starting from the bottom of the hand towel.

Your folds should now meet in the middle.

Scatter another layer of flowers and fold one last time (below).

Tightly roll the fabric like a "burrito" as evenly as possible.

Tie the bundle with the cotton twine (provided in kit). Run the bundle under luke warm water until the entire fabric is wet. This is to keep moisture and bring out the colors of the flowers. Place in steamer for about 1-2 hours. Let cool and open the bundle or let it sit overnight for an even deeper dye (which we did).

This was our finished product! Heat set with an iron before use. Alternatively, you may put it in the dryer (for the linen).

I hope you enjoyed the bundle-dyeing process and results. Once you start, it's quite addicting and we encourage you to try these methods with other natural fibered items in your home! For videos, check out our video reels on our IG page @shopirroirro. And don't forget to tag us with your finished projects!