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Some of you may know that I created a wood bead carrot using green raffia as the carrot topper. You may not know that I hand dye my raffia myself. For one, Colored Raffia is not that easy to come by, and if you do find it, you likely won’t find that perfect shade of color that you’re looking for. Well, now you can achieve the perfect color every time by coloring it yourself with dye! 

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Supplies needed to dye your own raffia:

• Rit Dye : the colors you’ll need will vary depending on the shade you’re looking for. 
• Dish soap
• Very hot water
• Stainless steel stock pot
• Measuring spoons
• Tongs
• Plastic gloves
• Plastic grocery bags or a trash bag
• Newspaper

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Step One: Figure out what color you need.

Did you know there is a color formulas tool on the Rit Dye website? All you have to do is find your perfect color and shade, and it will give you the dye colors and amounts you will need depending on your project. They didn’t have a project specifically for raffia, so I had to wing that part. >>Here<< is the color formulas page if you want to check it out. 

This was a screenshot directly from their website. A skein of yarn was the closest thing to the size of my raffia bundle, so I decided to start with this. You can see here what colors you need and the amounts and also how much water is necessary to dilute the dye. I found my Rit Dye at Hobby Lobby, but you can get it on Amazon >>HERE<<!

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Step Two: Prepare Your Water

I added four cups of hot tap water to a plastic container. This was not hot enough, so either add water just off the boil or use the stove method that I outline below.

The directions on the website tell you to add a tsp of dish soap, so I added that to my water first. 

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Step Three: Start adding your dye colors.

Add the yellow first. You might want to designate measuring spoons just for dying or for crafting in general. I do not recommend reusing the measuring spoon for food after using it for this technique.

Now, the aquamarine. What color does yellow and blue make? GREEN!

Last up, the teal. 

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You can see some of the dyed green raffia that I made here on this button carrot project that I have over on my YouTube channel! I’d love for you to follow me there if you’re not already!

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Step four: Add your raffia to the colored water.

Make sure you’re wearing gloves for this step or your hands will be the color of the water. Lol 

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Now, the waiting game…

The hot tap water ended up not being hot enough, so I did transfer my raffia and dye water to a stainless steel pot. I brought it to a boil and then turned it back down to a simmer. I left this for about an hour and used stainless steel tongs to turn my raffia every 10-15 minutes or so.

Eventually, the dye started to color my raffia. The heat did the trick. 

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Look at that pretty green raffia!

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Step Five: Dry your colored raffia.

Look at that gorgeous green hue! 

What I did for this part was I laid out plastic grocery bags, or you could use a plastic trash bag. On top of that, I laid out newspaper to absorb the liquid from the raffia.

I turned it several times, using my plastic gloves to make sure I didn’t get dye on my hands and just let it sit overnight. By the next day, it was ready to become carrot toppers! 

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That’s it! We have colored raffia!

This is the main reason why I started hand dying my own raffia, for these carrot toppers! Are these not the cutest?! We offer these as a craft kit in our shop, My Eclectic Treasury. Click >>HERE<< or the picture below to see how to make the carrots! 

I hope you found this tutorial helpful for how to dye raffia and I’d love to see your hand dyed raffia! Please join our community group on Facebook by clicking >>HERE<< and share your pictures with us! Make sure you are following us on all social media for more DIYs, live crafting tutorials, and more! Don’t miss out on a thing when you sign up for our weekly email below! Thanks for stopping by! God bless my friend! 

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Check out these other crafting diy tutorials :

• The Easiest Way to Make a Tassel

• How to Make Your Own Jumbo Letter Stamps

• How to Add Texture to Your Painted Projects

• Creative Uses for Empty Ribbon Spools

• How to Do Your Own Glass Etching