Instructions on dyeing with Queen Anne’s Lace

Learn how to make a beautiful range of yellow colours with this free tutorial on dyeing with Queen Anne’s Lace. Not only do I provide clear, step by step instructions on how to use Queen Anne’s lace flowers for natural dyeing, but also how to identify them, where and when to pick them, and how to get more than just one colour from your dye pot.

What you need to know before dyeing with Queen Anne’s Lace

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Queen Anne’s Lace dye colour

There are a variety of colours you can achieve by dyeing wool with Queen Anne’s Lace, from day glow yellow to a rich gold to forest green depending on the modifier used. Using only alum to mordant your wool or silk, will get you a day glow yellow. If you use washing soda (or chalk or soda ash) in the dye bath your dye will turn a gorgeous deep gold. If forest green is what you are after, just add your wool to a copper or iron after bath (without the washing soda treatment).

To learn how to make your own mordant using the instructions in this article. To buy mordants and save time, click here.

How to identify Queen Anne’s Lace?

According to Plants of the Pacific Northwest, Queen Annes’s Lace (Daucus carota) grows to an average of 20 – 120 cm (up to about 4 ft) tall. The plant is hairy with a single stem. The flowers are whitish, but often have a pink or purple center flower when they first open.

A defining feature is that under the flower head there is a lacy collar of green.

When they go to seed the flower head curls up into the shape of a birds nest, hence their additional common name bird’s nest. Other common names include wild carrot, and bishop’s lace.

Where to find Queen Anne’s Lace?

According to Wikipedia, Queen Anne’s Lace is native to the temperate regions in Europe and southwest Asia, and has become naturalized in Australia and North America.

Its habitat is generally low elevation, along the side of the road, moist clearings, and unused pastures and fields.

Tip: If you are unable to find Queen Anne’s Lace where you live, you can grow it in your garden. You can purchase seeds here. However, please be aware that this is an invasive weed in many parts of the world. Do not let it escape your garden or go to seed!

What part of the plant should I use?

In theory the whole plant will produce dye, but the flower heads is where the best dye potential resides. For this tutorial I used only the flower heads.

Is Queen Anne’s Lace poisonous?

No, but it belongs to a family of plants (the carrot family) that contain some poisonous species that look very similar.

One such species is the deadly poison hemlock, which you will want to make sure you do not use accidentally. Poison hemlock has a hollow, hairless stem that branches freely. On the other hand, Queen Anne’s Lace has a solid stem with hairs that is a single stem.

Two other poisonous plants are Douglas’ water hemlock and Giant Hogweed. The former does not have carrot like leaves like Queen Anne’s Lace, and Giant hemlock is huge. When in doubt consult a plant guide book.

Note: Although Queen Anne’s is not considered poisonous, it has been known to cause skin irritation in some people when skin contact is made with the foliage. Given this, you may want to wear gloves when you pick Queen Anne’s Lace.

When to pick Queen Anne’s Lace for dyeing?

When it is in bloom in late summer. I picked in early September while there were still lots of flowers out and not yet gone to seed.

Dyeing with Queen Anne’s Lace instructions

Note: The entire process will take a few days to complete.

What you will need

To get a list of the items needed for dyeing with Queen Anne’s Lace, look at the list in ‘What is natural dyeing and how to make natural dye‘ article.

Steps 1 to 4. Preparing and mordanting the fiber

Follow steps 1 to 4 of How to make natural dye with avocado pits and skins, this will guide you through the process of determining how much fiber to use for the amount of dyestuffs you have, how to prepare your fiber for dyeing, and how to mordant your fiber.

Note: You must mordant the fiber with alum or another mordant first or the dye will not take to the fiber.

Warning: When using mordants always wear personal protective equipment, such as gloves, safety glasses and long sleeves.

Step 5. Prepare the dye bath

Add the Queen Anne’s Lace flower heads to the dye pot, then fill the pots about three quarter full with water and slowly heat to about 70 – 85 degrees Celsius. I used 600 grams of Queen Anne’s Lace flower heads to 112 grams of fiber (wool and silk).

This is almost a 6:1 ratio which is much more than necessary. A 3:1 ratio would likely be enough to get similar results.

Your dye will look pink!

Warning: Don’t overheat the dye, i.e. don’t boil the dye while extracting the dye or while dyeing the fiber.

Note: Heating Queen Anne’s Lace can produce a very strong smell that isn’t altogether very pleasant. You may want to heat is outside or on a warm day when you can open your windows and doors to ventilate your house.

Step 6. Strain the dye solution

To avoid bits of Queen Anne’s Lace in your wool or other fiber, you must strain the dye bath. To strain, place a colander lined with gauze over a bucket and slowly pour your dye solution into the bucket

Step 7. Dye the wool with Queen Anne’s Lace

Now the Queen Anne’s Lace dye is ready to use. Take your wet mordanted wool or other fiber and place it in the dye pot. Remember the dye solution and your wool should be the same temperature. Just like the dye extraction stage, bring it very slowly to a gently simmer (do not boil).

Here you have some options, you can leave all the fiber in for as long as possible or you can vary the time each item spends in the dye bath. By leaving your fiber in for different times, you should be able to get a few different shades of yellow.

After simmering for a few hours, turn off the stove and let the dyebath soak over night. Your fiber will take up as much dye as it possibly can.

Tip: If the dyebath still has colour to it, you can add more fiber and simmer it for a few hours for a second dye bath.

Step 8. Add washing soda to deepen the colour

To get a deep rich gold colour from the dye, you will need to add washing soda to the dye bath, this will increase the pH and allow the dye to bond with the fiber. Adding the washing soda can be done at any time. I chose to dye some wool without the washing soda so I waited until the next day, however, if you know that you only want a gold colour add the washing soda during step 7.

I used 82 grams of washing soda. To dissolve the washing soda, add it to a separate container and add a few cups of boiling water. Stir until it is dissolved and then add it to the dyebath and stir it in. The water will instantly turn a dark green and several minutes later you will see your fiber turn golden yellow.

After a few hours of simmering on low. Turn the heat off and let it soak over night.

Idea: To learn more about why it is necessary to increase the pH of your dyebath to obtain a deep golden yellow, check out The Effect of pH on Yellow Dyes from the Garden by Catherine Ellis.

Note: This will smell quite a bit while cooking, and the washing soda makes it stink the next day, so keep a lid on it and if possible keep it in a shed.

Step 9. Use modifiers to obtain different colours (optional)

If you would like to obtain a deep forest green, use iron or copper mordant on your wool that was not treated with washing soda. However, if you are looking for a yellowish-green, use the washing soda treated wool with iron or copper mordant.

Step 10. Dry and cure the fiber

After the fiber has been soaking in the dyebath or modifier overnight, take it out and wring all the water out. Then place it on an old towel or hang it up and leave it to cure in the shade. Let it cure for a few days before rinsing it, this will help fix the dye.

Step 11. Rinse the fiber

After a few days of curing, rinse the fiber in fresh cold water. You may lose some dye while rinsing but the colour shouldn’t change much. After rinsing, hang the fiber up to dry in the shade.

You’re done, congratulations!! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to make a natural dye from Queen Anne’s Lace.

Colour pairing with Queen Anne’s Lace

If you’re planning on crocheting or knitting something from your natural dyed wool, try pairing your Queen Anne’s Lace dyed wool with other naturally dyed wool colours such blue wool dyed from black beans, and pink and grey from avocado natural dye! 

Other plants in the Carrot family you can use for dye

Carrot tops, and Cow parsnip. Cow parsnip has a hollow hairy single stem and large lobed leaves. According to Farveuglen, cow-parsnip makes a nice yellow too, and if you use the plant before it flowers you can create lime.

Other tutorials you might like

Books on Natural Dyeing

If you are interested in learning more about natural dyeing, check out these books. They include Natural Dyeing by Jenny Dean, The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing by Eva Lambert and Tracy Kendall, and The Art and Science of Natural Dyes by Joy Boutrup and Catherine Ellis.