Red Dyes Recipe

Madder makes a good durable red, but not a brilliant color. To make a

dye of it, allow for half a pound of it three ounces of alum, and one of

cream of tartar, and six gallons of water. This proportion of

ingredients will make sufficient dye for six or seven pounds of goods.

Heat half of the water scalding hot, in a clean brass kettle, then put

in the alum and cream of tartar, and let it dissolve. When the water

boils, stir the alum and tartar up in it, put in the goods, and let them

boil a couple of hours; then rinse them in fair water--empty the kettle,

and put in three gallons of water, and the madder; rub it fine in the

water, then put in the goods, and set them where they will keep scalding

hot for an hour, without boiling--stir them constantly. When they have

been scalding an hour, increase the fire till they boil. Let them boil

five minutes; then drain them out of the dye, and rinse them, without

wringing, in fair water, and hang them in the shade, where they will

dry. To dye a fine crimson, take for each pound of goods two and a half

ounces of alum, an ounce and a half of white tartar--put them in a brass

kettle, with sufficient fair water to cover your goods; set it where it

will boil briskly for several minutes; then put in the goods, which

should be washed clean, and rinsed in fair water. When the goods have

boiled half an hour, take them out, without wringing, and hang it where

it will cool all over alike, without drying; empty out the alum and

tartar water, put fresh water in the kettle, and for each pound of goods

to be dyed, put in an ounce of cochineal, powdered fine. Set the kettle

on the fire, and let the water boil fifteen or twenty minutes; then put

in sufficient cold water to make it lukewarm, put in the goods, and boil

them an hour and a quarter--take them out without wringing, and dry them

in a shady place. The blossoms of the Balm of Gilead, steeped with fair

water in a vessel, then strained, will dye silk a pretty red color. The

silk should be washed clean, and free from color, then rinsed in fair

water, and boiled in the strained dye, with a small piece of alum. To

dye a fine delicate pink, use a carmine saucer--the directions for

dyeing come with the saucers. It is too expensive a dye for bulky goods,

but for faded fancy shawls and ribbons, it is quite worth the while to

use it, as it gives a beautiful shade of pink.