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I heard that tea can be used for dyeing, too. Not sure how well that works, or whether you can first make a batch for drinking and use the old tea for dyeing, though, but maybe it’ll not get cheaper than that, if you’re a tea drinker.
Tea is a really good dye, so is coffee for that matter. Keep that in mind when you’re about to spill some on one of your creations :-). But seriously, I used tea a lot when recycling 80s textiles in teeth-grinding fluorescent shades, it always worked great. It’s also good to unify/tone down a batch of clashing prints for piecing. Caveat, same precautions apply as for any sort of dyeing, if you want uniform color you must soak ahead thoroughly, and stir carefully. The idea of ‘old tea’ doesn’t seem quite right, first because if the tea is good you’ll drink it, second because if it’s strong enough for obvious dyeing you probably won’t want to drink it unless you’re Scottish or adjacent, third because you need quantities not usually achieved for drinking purposes. On the other hand you don’t need good or expensive tea, so any stale old lipton you can scrouge will work fine. The good thing about tea is that it works equally well on animal and cellulose fibers, with no mordant whatsoever. But it is a bit acidic, so from a conservation point of view it’s not great on cellulose long-term unless you really thoroughly wash it out. But that’s mostly an issue for quilts rather than a shirt that’s going to be washed frequently for instance.