Bundle Dyed Cotton Crew Socks - Buddleia, Marigold + Cosmos.
Bundle Dyed Cotton Crew Socks - Buddleia, Marigold + Cosmos.
Cotton crew sock bundle dyed with buddleia, calendula, African marigold and cosmos.
Bundle dyeing is a type of eco print using fresh or dried plant material and minerals. It creates an unexpected pattern on textiles. The socks are mordanted with alum before dyeing, which helps the natural pigments bind to the fibres.
This pair were first soaked in an exhausted buddleia dye bath for a light yellow hue, and then in a hot calendula dye bath for further saturation. The African marigold has made the seaweed-esque pattern, and the cosmos has given the blue speckles.
The buddleia was foraged during pruning when already dried, and simmered in a dye bath. The calendula flowers were harvested from my garden and dried before making a dye bath (pinching out the dying flowers promotes new growth). The cosmos was used dried from the fallen flower heads, and the African marigolds were taken from dying street planting.
MATERIALS.
The socks are 75% Cotton/20% Polyester/3% Nylon/2% Elastane from Muji. I would prefer to use organic, but these were effectively left over from the workshops I run.
Each pair is dyed with a curated selection of plants to achieve the colour and pattern, which also means each individual sock has slight variations. These colours will naturally fade over time, due to sunlight and washing, even with mordant solution applied.
For this reason, it is advised to purchase these socks with full awareness that they are ephemeral - however, with every purchase of a bundle dyed item, you'll receive a PDF guide via email to help you bundle dye your own items.
I make a point to utilise materials that would otherwise be wasted, such as the plant materials. I limit my use of materials that have been imported.
SIZING.
The socks are a small, suitable for UK sizes 5-7 ideally (EU 39-41), but they do have stretch and are ribbed so could be ok on a little bigger foot.
The image of a leg wearing a sock is for reference; this is not the specific sock for this product page and is a pair I made for myself with dyer's camomile using the same sock style.
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Wash where possible with a pH neutral detergent to protect the colour, but failing that try to use a gentle soap. I recommend soap nuts as an affordable and more eco washing option. 30˚C is great. Hand wash if you like! But don't be afraid to wear and wash; the beauty is that they'll change over time.
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The socks come with a card wrap hand-stamped and with a sticker. This can be recycled.
The socks are also hand-stamped with fabric ink on each sole.
The item will be shipped in either a flat mailing bag or a slim cardboard box, dependent on if you purchase additional items.
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→ Socks - £3.95
→ Plant materials - essentially free but require foraging/processing/drying time
→ Mordant - negligible, though still something
→ Energy/water - hard to quantify
→ Labour (approximately 1 hour including mordanting + steaming of multiple items, composing/bundling/steaming/drying/rinsing this item) - LLW £13.15/h
→ Packaging - £0.09
→ Bundle dye guide - retail price £5.00
Obviously it is cost prohibitive to charge a cost of £22.19 + markup for the other materials + overheads, but this is the realistic value attributed to a hand-finished item made from a non-wholesale stock. For this reason I have gone for cost price of £4.04 x4 markup to cover labour, additional materials + overheads. -
Royal Mail Tracked 24 or 48 are available services for UK customers. Royal Mail International Tracked is otherwise used.
Returns are discretionary.
