I learned How to Tea Stain fabric when I owned a bridal shop. Natural Silk is not pure white but it is not the creaminess of off white either. That is a little more yellow. Before tulle companies got smart and started making tulle in silk white we would tea stain white tulle to make it match for veils. I have been working on making some Halloween decorations. This year I am going with an off white and black theme for my mantle. The ribbon I bought was bright white and I wanted it a little more off white.
This is one of the easiest tricks ever. You need to use regular tea bags, not green tea it is too light. Here in the south, we are pretty judgmental about our tea. Sweet tea is a southern staple and you don’t want it cloudy or stale tasting. I only use Luzianne. When I was in high school we lived in California, my Mom would have Luzzianne Tea sent to us by the case she refused to use anything else.
All you do is take one large tea bag and add 4 cups of hot water. Dunk your ribbon, flowers or fabric down into the tea and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. You may need to go longer. The flowers I did only took 5 minutes the ribbon took about 30. You can also make the tea and water mixture more concentrated to get it darker.
Lay it out to dry and that is it! Come back tomorrow to see how these turned out and how I used them.
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