Before using fabric or yarn for natural dyeing (or any dye/print works), you need to scour the fiber. It is probably synonym to “washing”.
I am not an expert on this at all and I have to check internet for exact steps and materials every time I have to do scouring. There are also different ways of scouring for cotton, wool, silk… so on.
Some of the go to documentations are the documentation from Maiwa, Botanical colors, Farm and Folk documentation. There are many tutorial for how to do scouring, so you should find the tutorial that suits you online.
I am usually using soda ash that I bought at local supermarket, neutral detergent (I use the one safe for flogs wool wash) and 10L pot to cook. It is always surprising how brown the water become after cooking for 45min. I was wondering what this brown stuff is… it is a bit much to think if this is all the oil form weaving process… after some research, my conclusion is that these brown stuff is pectin from cotton plants.
