Cotton crew sock bundle dyed with blackberries and iris petals.

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 firstly soaked twice in a blackberry dye bath to achieve a purple background colour. The blackberries were foraged from roadsides before being made into a dye bath; these socks were in fact dyed with the exhausted dye bath, which is why the shade is lighter (double dipped for a darker hue). The iris petals were sourced dried from the Olympic Park.

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.