Onion Skin for Natural Dyeing

We sell onion skin as a product as we understand that not everyone eats onions. Our onion skins come from onions grown locally, the farmers and market sellers separate the outer layers for us, we check if the peels are thoroughly dry and clean, and package them here at Themazi for you.

Onion-Allium Cepa L is a bulbous plant. As the onions become fully grown, the foliage dies back, and the outer layers of the bulbs turn crispy and papery. It is the peels that are used as a natural dye. Onion is one of the easiest dyestuffs to use as it does not require a mordant and can safely be used in your kitchen.

Color effect of onion skin dye: Yellow and orange/brown shades and soft olive greens with the addition of iron.

Do you use Mordant for onion skin dye:

A mordant isn't required, particularly when working with cellulose fibers like cotton or linen.

How to dye with onion peel:

Ensure your fiber/fabric has been properly scoured before use. 

Use two good handfuls of onion skins to make a dyebath. If you want to be scientific about it, approximately 30g of onion skins will give strong color on 100g of fiber. Place the skins into a pan and cover with water, enough to ensure your fabric/fiber can be moved around easily for even uptake of the dye. Bring the dyebath to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes.  Remove the skins if you wish. Add your wet/damp fibers and simmer the dyebath for a further half hour. Allow the dyebath to cool for several hours or overnight, stirring occasionally.  

A second and subsequent use of the dyebath can be made, which will result in paler shades than the first dyebath.  Simply reheat the bath and add more fibers/fabrics.  

For soft olive green colors, dyed fibers can be dipped briefly into an iron solution.  Rinse fibers thoroughly after the iron dip.  You can make the iron solution from iron sulfate or from rusty metal which you have soaked in 50:50 water for a week or so.  

You can watch our friend Billynou dying with onion skins.   

Buying onion peel in bulk:

Themazi sources onion peel in Turkey and you can purchase wholesale onion peel from us. The MOQ for wholesale onion peel is 10 kg. For wholesale inquiries and price offers please click here.