How to dye feathers

Just because a product says 'fabric dye' it doesn't mean you have to limit your imagination there.

On a family walk along the river, we picked up lots of feathers kindly discarded by the swans and geese, so we tried our hand at dyeing them.

Springtime always makes me want to soften my crafting palette to sorbet colours and soft pastels, so I chose DYLON's French Lavender hand dye.

If you want to try this for yourself, first you will need to hand wash your feathers in the hottest water you can bear, along with a good dousing of detergent - washing-up liquid is fine.  You need to remove the natural oils from the feathers which would repel the water, and prevent the dye from taking.

Once washed, simply follow the packet instructions, and dye them in an old bowl.

After the allotted time, remove, rinse and leave to dry on some kitchen paper.

I found that lighter coloured feathers worked best, showing the pale purple colour off to it's best.

Although, I do like the two-tone results of these pigeon feathers.

Finer, wispier feathers didn't seem to take the dye as well, but they still take on the faintest of coloured tinge.

Try using your coloured feathers to make a 'quill' pen.  Simply snip off the end, cut down a partially used biro-style pen, and insert it into the base of the spine shaft.  A little dab of glue will hold it in place.

Or, you could make a feather headdress, perfect for role play and dressing up.  To make this, I simply used a glue gun and stuck down the feathers inside the fold of some bias binding.

You could use your dyed feathers to add to floral arrangements, make door wreaths, add to dream catchers, make jewellery and corsages...

What would you use them for and which colour would you choose?

Disclosure: Please see my disclosure page.  I have an ongoing relationship with DYLON as my sponsors.  All opinions, photos and ideas are my own.