Dyeing Home Made Clothes.

Scientific American 34, 12.5.1849

Wine Color. — One half a pound of camwood is required for one pound of cloth. The camwood is to be boiled in water twenty or thirty minutes. Then put in the cloth and keep it thirty minutes scalding hot; take it out and air it, put it in again and keep it in thirty minutes. Then put into the dye a teaspoonful of vitriol; boil and skim the dye. Put in the cloth, and stir it for fifteen or twenty minutes while scalding hot.

To Color Blue. — For nine pounds of yarn dissolve three-fourths of a pound of alum in water in a brass kettle. Keep the yarn in this solution two hours. Boil three pounds of logwood in an iron kettle two hours. Also boil, in a seperate iron kettle, three bushels of purslain, at the eame time. Strain the li­quid from the logwood and purslain, and mix it together. Put the yarn into this, and keep it boiling two hours; then wash it in soap suds, and rinse it clean.

Madder Red. — The following articles are required to color one pound of yarn or cloth, viz: one-halt pound of madder, three ounces of alum, one ounce of cream tartar, and one‑half an ounce of stone lime.
Manner of Coloring. — Put five gallons of water into a brass or copper kettle; put into the alum, cream tartar, and the yarn or cloth you intend to color. Boil it two hours; then take it out and rinse it well in clean water. Throw away the alum and cream tartar water, and put five gallons of clean water into the kettle. Put the madder in also; heat it moderately until it becomes as hot as you can bear your hand in it. Then put in your cloth or yarn, stir it one hour and keep it scalding hot; then boil it five minutes. Take it out and rinse it in cold water. Put into the kettle a half a pint of lime water, made with the half ounce of lime, then put in your cloth again, and stir it ten minutes, keeping it still hot. Then take it out, wash it in strong soap suds, and rinse it clean.

[The above is taken from the Maine Farmer and as the season is now at hand when many of our readers will be preparing their wool, we presume, that they will be of some use. With regard to their ability we can con­fidently assert that the fullest trust may be re­posed in them. One thing should always be remembered—have the wool or cloth perfectly free from grease and dirt and well washed before it is put into the dye kettle. The wine color mentioned above would be greatly improved by adding half a pound of fustic to the pound of camwood. Half a pound of camwood and one pound of fustic to two pounds of cloth makes a good brown. A little sumac and logwood with about a quarter of an ounce of copperas should be used for the finishing dip in ­the camwood kettle. Boil the goods well instead of mere scalding, the colors will be more permanent. The blue mentioned above is not a fast color but the madder red is, and the camwood brown or wine color, is a very durable color. The fustic gives the wine color a rich appearance of which it is devoid by the use of camwood alone.