You can make beautiful, lasting color from food scraps you’d normally compost (avocado pits and skins, yellow onion skins, black beans, black tea, and coffee) all work reliably on natural fabrics and yarn.
Natural dyeing with food scraps is one of the most accessible ways to get started with plant-based color, and most of what you need is probably already in your kitchen.
Hi Creative Mamas! In this post I’m sharing 7 food scraps that work well as natural dyes, what color you can expect from each, and a couple that are better left for the compost bin.
Whether you’re brand new to natural dyeing or just looking for a low-cost dye to experiment with, your kitchen is a wonderful place to start.
What food scraps can you use for natural dyeing?
The best food scraps for natural dyeing are ones that contain strong natural pigments or tannins. Avocado skins and pits, yellow onion skins, black beans, black tea, mate, and coffee are all reliable choices that produce colour you can actually keep on fabric or yarn.
I’ll walk you through each one below — what colour it gives, which fibres it works best on, and any tips to help you get the most out of it.
In this post I’ll cover:
- Avocados (skins and pits)
- Yellow onion skins
- Black tea
- Black beans
- Mate
- Coffee
- Turmeric powder
- Red cabbage (and why I’d skip it)
Grab the FREE NATURAL DYES LIST
Complete the form below to download the FREE list of the best 40 dyes to use in natural dyeing! Save time and frustration!
Can you dye with avocado skins and pits?
Avocados are one of my favourite food-scrap dyes — and the colours they give on natural fabric are genuinely beautiful. The key is knowing which part of the avocado gives which colour.
Avocado skins produce a soft blush pink. Avocado pits produce a deeper, more saturated pink. Use both together and you’ll get a rich, warm rose tone that looks stunning on silk and wool.
Avocados work best on protein fibers (silk, wool) but also give lovely results on mordanted cotton and linen.
The more avocado material you use relative to the weight of your fabric, the deeper the color — so save your skins and pits in the freezer until you have a good amount before you dye.
Check out the full tutorial on how to dye with avocado → Plus: my best tips for avocado dyeing.
How do yellow onion skins work as a natural dye?
Yellow onion skins are one of the most reliable natural dyes you can find — and since most of us have them around after cooking, they’re a brilliant entry point into natural dyeing.
The colour you get is a warm, golden yellow on mordanted fibres. On wool and silk the colour is especially vibrant and rich.
With an iron modifier you can shift it toward a lovely olive green, which makes onion skin a surprisingly versatile dye plant from something you might normally throw away.
Yellow onion skins also work beautifully in bundle dyeing — the saturated yellow really comes alive against other plant materials in the bundle.
Read the full tutorial on how to dye with onion skins here.
Does black tea work as a natural dye?
Black tea is one of the easiest food-scrap dyes to start with, especially if you want to dye cotton or linen without mordanting first.
Tea is naturally high in tannins, which bond directly to cellulose fibers — so you can skip the mordant bath for a beginner-friendly first project.
The color range runs from warm tawny beiges through to rich brown, depending on how much tea you use and how long you steep. The longer the fabric sits in the dye bath, the deeper the tone.
Read the full post on How to dye fabric with tea here.
Tea is also a beautiful way to give fabric, lace, and trims a vintage or antique look — I’ve used it to revive old napkins and create that timeworn, hand-dyed feel on cotton and linen.
Read the full tutorial on How to give fabric a vintage look here.
And if you love paper crafts, black tea on paper creates the most gorgeous aged, earthy pages for journaling or eco printing.
I have a step by step tutorial on How to dye paper with tea here.
Can you dye fabric with black beans?
Black beans are a bit of a surprise in the natural dye world — they produce soft blue-grey and lavender tones, which are genuinely rare colors to achieve from kitchen scraps.
If you’ve been searching for a cool-toned natural dye, this is one of the few you’ll find in your pantry.
The method is different from most other food-scrap dyes: you don’t cook the black beans. Instead, soak them in cold water overnight and use the soaking liquid as your dye bath.
The indigo-like pigments in black beans are heat-sensitive — heating the liquid turns it grey and muddy, so cold is key.
Black beans work best on pre-mordanted protein fibers like wool and silk. The colour is on the softer side — a dusty blue-grey or muted lavender rather than a bold blue — but it’s one of the few natural dyes from the kitchen that drifts cool rather than warm.
Worth experimenting with it but please note that this is not a dye that I work with myself because its not meeting my colorfast standards, and as a teacher i only teach with dyes that will provide you the most reliable results on wearable items.
What about mate, coffee, and turmeric?
Mate is a wonderful dye I started using thanks to my fellow Argentinean dyers. It gives a range of soft yellows and greens, particularly on silk and wool.
I’ve had the most success with protein fibers — mate on cotton and linen tends to give paler, less predictable results.
Full tutorial: how to make natural green dye with mate.
Coffee gives warm, earthy brown tones, slightly cooler than black tea.
I love using leftover coffee grounds with the solar dyeing method: pop them into a glass jar with pre-mordanted yarn, fill with water, and leave in a sunny spot for one to two weeks. No stove, no fuss, beautiful colour.
The yarn at the front is marigold and the one at the back is the coffee dyed one.
Read the full tutorial on how to dye using solar dyeing method here.
Turmeric produces a vivid, bright yellow — but I want to be honest with you here: turmeric is a fugitive dye, which means the colour fades over time even with mordanting.
I use it as an enhancer alongside other dyes (particularly madder root) rather than on its own. If you want a lasting yellow from the kitchen, onion skins are a far better choice.
The photo below shows the color obtained by combining madder root with turmeric on silk and wool.
I like using turmeric powder in this way because its bright and it enhances the oranges from the madder dye.
Is red cabbage worth trying?
Red cabbage is all over beginner natural dyeing content, and I understand why — the initial colour is dramatic and the pH shifts are fascinating to watch. It gives a light purple on mordanted fabric and shifts to green or pink depending on whether you add an acid or alkaline modifier.
But I’ll be upfront: red cabbage fades badly. The colour won’t last on fabric or yarn, even with mordanting. It’s a lovely experiment for understanding how pH modifiers work, or for dyeing with kids who love the colour magic — just don’t use it on anything you want to keep.
If you’re searching for a lasting natural purple, black bean dye or a weld-over-indigo combination are much better options.
Do you need to mordant when dyeing with food scraps?
For most food-scrap dyes, yes — mordanting makes a real difference. A mordant is a mineral that prepares the fibre so the dye can bond properly, giving you deeper colour that lasts through washing and light exposure.
The good news: alum (aluminium sulphate) is the most beginner-friendly mordant, it’s widely available, and it works beautifully with all the dyes in this post.
The exceptions are black tea and mate, which are naturally high in tannins and can dye cellulose fibres (cotton, linen) without a separate mordant step. That said, mordanting first will always give you more colour depth and better longevity — so if you want the best result, it’s worth the extra step.
Read: What is a mordant? Complete guide for natural dyeing.
The full mordanting process — scouring, mordant ratios, and timing for different fibres — is something I teach step-by-step inside my Natural Dyeing courses. It’s one of those foundational things that makes all the difference between a colour that lasts for years and one that fades after a few washes.
Remember too: always use a stainless steel pot for your dye bath, not aluminium, as the pot material can affect your final color.
Grab the FREE NATURAL DYES LIST
Complete the form below to download the FREE list of the best 40 dyes to use in natural dyeing! Save time and frustration!
FAQ- Frequently Asked Questions
Avocado skins and pits, yellow onion skins, black beans, black tea, mate, and coffee are all reliable food-scrap dyes that produce lasting color on natural fabrics and yarn. Red cabbage and turmeric can be used experimentally but both fade quickly and are not recommended for lasting results.
Avocado pits produce a beautiful deep pink on natural fabrics like silk and wool. Avocado skins give a softer blush pink, and using both together creates a rich warm rose tone. Results are most vivid on mordanted protein fibers.
Yes — black beans produce soft blue-grey and lavender tones on natural fabric, especially on mordanted wool and silk. To use black beans as a dye, soak them in cold water overnight and use the soaking liquid as your dye bath. Do not heat the liquid, as the pigments are heat-sensitive and will turn grey.
For most food-scrap dyes, yes. Mordanting with alum opens up the fibers and helps the dye bond so the color lasts through washing. The exception is black tea, which is naturally high in tannins and can dye cotton and linen without a separate mordant step. Mordanting always improves depth and longevity.
Black tea is the easiest food-scrap dye to start with because it does not require mordanting on cotton or linen. Yellow onion skins are a close second — they are reliable, widely available, and produce one of the most vibrant natural yellows you can achieve from kitchen scraps.
Yes — coffee makes a gentle natural dye that gives warm brown tones on natural fibers. It works especially well with the solar dyeing method: place pre-mordanted fabric or yarn in strong coffee in a glass jar and leave it in full sun for one to two weeks for an earthy, soft brown result.
Turmeric is a fugitive dye, meaning its pigment breaks down with exposure to light, washing, and time, even with mordanting. It is best used as a color modifier alongside more stable dyes like madder root or onion skins, rather than as a standalone dye.
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