Tea and Coffee Dyeing Experiment

Here's a little more about my sons Halloween costume alteration.
Like I said in my previous post, I have a few alterations to make to the clothing pieces I bought yesterday for my sons Hobbit costume.

I was trying to find him dark brown pants but I could only find khaki pants.
My first initial thought was to buy dark brown dye and dye them but tonight I reminded myself that I'm smarter then that!  I remembered I could use tea and coffee for dye.
Yes, sometimes my brilliance doesn't always come to me at once.  I have to sit a ponder at times to reach my full potential.  hahaha (not trying to sound cocky or pompous).

I've never dyed fabric, so before I submerged the khaki pants into a boiling pot of tea and coffee I figured it would be best to test it on an old white t-shirt.

Honestly, I first started out with 15 small tea bag and seeped them in a large pot of water that I boiled and took off the burner.  Once I got the water good and murky with a dark brown hue I put the t-shirt into the pot of water and let it sit for a little over an hour.  The former white t-shirt is now a khaki color so I got concerned that it wouldn't be dark enough for the actual khaki pants. 

The man of my life is terrible about removing the coffee grinds from the coffee filter screen after he's through making coffee so I took the coffee grind basket screen filter thingy and seeped it carefully into my pot of water.  (The t-shirt was removed from the pot at the time of seeping the grinds.) 

Now I have the t-shirt back in the pot of tea and coffee and I think I'm going to let it sit over night and see how dark it comes out in the morning.  I know the longer you set fabric in dyes the darker the color will be, so hopefully I'll be satisfied with it by morning so I can start on dyeing the actual costume pants.

If the t-shirt turns out well I'm going to make a tea and coffee dyeing tutorial on the pants.
Stay tuned and look for more news about it shortly.