Fabric dyeing - suggestions and advice?

[CelticRambler]

I've recently come into possession of about 200 cloth table napkins, pale blue in colour, some looking a bit more washed out than others, and a few that seem to have some kind of water-damage (might wash out, but I don't know yet). Given the number, I suspect they came from a restaurant, so would be some kind of thoroughly wash-resistant material, but there are no labels on them, so I don't know what that might be.

Now unless I start hosting and for catering destination weddings, I don't think I'm going to need 200 napkins of the same colour in the foreseeable future, so what are my options and chances of success if I try to dye some of them? I'm assuming the new colour will need to be dark or very dark, but does it need to be on the blue-green part of the spectrum if I'm starting with pale blue?

[765489]

I'm not even going to ask how you managed to acquire 200 napkins.

[isha]

Put some aside from the 200 and do test dyes on them.
A long time ago I did a fair amount of dye work with raw wool. But I used things like blackberries, onion skins, turmeric. And alum as a fixative. Salt and vinegar are fixatives also. Old urine is a fixative too, but let us presume you are going to stick to modern ways . Buy little test pots and trial different options and then buy a bigger box of the colour you want.

But then you do have to be a little bit careful with other clothing mixing when you wash your new bright cloths in future. I just bought a lovely black harem pants a few weeks ago, presumed naturally that the dye was fixed, and now the colourful towels I washed with it are all grey.

[CelticRambler]

Blackberries and old urine? The cost-effectiveness is most appealing!

[Hairy-Joe]

I'm not even going to ask how you managed to acquire 200 napkins.

Well, I'm about to ask. How the devil did you end up with 200 used cloth table napkins?

[765489]

Well, I'm about to ask. How the devil did you end up with 200 used cloth table napkins?

Must have all blew into his garden from a passing truck.

[CelticRambler]

Well, I'm about to ask. How the devil did you end up with 200 used cloth table napkins?

Ah lads! Ye're putting me under pressure now to come up with some mad story ...

Let me discuss it with the frogs out in the pond and see if I can embellish the tale a bit before treating ye to an anticlimax.

[Hairy-Joe]

I reckon he "borrowed" them from the local village hall during the night .....

[765489]

I reckon he "borrowed" them from the local village hall during the night .....

More than dancing going on that's for sure Joe.

[CelticRambler]

Well, the frogs weren't much help, so I'm afraid it'll have to be the tediously ordinary explanation: you wouldn't believe the crap that's foisted off onto "worthy causes" and where I work in Alsace, they've been accumulating tons of textiles of various kinds over the years, all of which was heaped up in the corridors of the basement. This year, the new-ish director had had enough of the mess (and the fire hazard) and instructed several members of staff to go down there and not come back up until it was all sorted or binned.

In a separate part of the basement, one of my predecessors had also built up a collection of ... "spare parts" that he thought might come in useful; I was asked to purge the contents of that room. (Needless to say, I now have an increased collection of stuff that might come in useful some day ... but the basement room is empty! )

Anyhow, on one of my trips back and forth, I took a wander down the new "textiles aisle" just to marvel at the massive collection of towels and sheets and quilt covers and ... what looked like a whole collection of table linen. I knew that almost the whole room's worth of material is destined to be used as rags and floorcloths, so I decided to give the napkins a more dignified future. What I thought were table cloths turned out to be sheets ... but sure what's the difference really?

[765489]

Always a nice feeling to get stuff for nothing CR. It will come in useful for something. I was going to suggest rags but probably too good for that. Even my old t-shirts that don't fit me anymore I always have to make a decision which one I'll use to rip up. Even if they don't fit me anymore I still hate doing it. I find it hard to part with anything. If we ever live in a world with some mad max esqe distophian future I'll be the one with the gun pointed out my window protecting all my useful "stuff" ha

[Hairy-Joe]

More than dancing going on that's for sure Joe.

I hope it wasn't horizontal...........

[CelticRambler]

Always a nice feeling to get stuff for nothing CR. It will come in useful for something. I was going to suggest rags but probably too good for that.

Ah, no - these are definitely too good to be used as rags. As it happens, during the lockdown I took it into my head to fish out all my china and experiment with dressing the table for posh events (even the youngest nephews and nieces are getting old now, and the plastic plates and place-mats are unlikely to see much action) and I realised that I was very short of table linen, so bought some new table cloths and napkins. The cloths are mostly white, so I had already intended to get a variety of strongly contrasting coloured napkins. These ones are a pretty good match for the colour of my poshest china (vintage Wedgewood) but I don't have 200 place settings of that!