Silk Dyed Eggs

On Tuesday, I shared some of my most recent thrift store purchases, and that included these items:

They are silk ties that I got for pennies on the dollar.  Maybe.  I don't know if that is actually true, but it sounds about right; they were really cheap, because they came from thrift stores.  Why did I want silk ties from thrift stores?  Because Easter is just around the corner.  Last year I found this great tutorial from Holidash on dying eggs with old silk ties and scarves.  It was so much fun that I decided to do it again this year, and to share the results with you.  I will even tell you how to do it, in case you'd like to try it for yourself!  Here's how they turned out:

From the striped yellow tie.

Navy blue polka dot tie

three of the ties that I used

Here are three of the little pretties, up close and personal.

Step 1. Cut the ties/scarves and the white cloth into squares.  Holidash recommends 7x7.

Step 2.  Put the egg on the silk with the printed side touching the egg.  Wrap tightly.

Here's a hint: wet the square of silk to make it easier to work with.

Step 3. Wrap the white square of material around the egg.  Secure at the top with a twist tie.

Step 4. Repeat with all the eggs.

Step 5. Place eggs in a (non-reactive) pot, fill with water, and add 3 tablespoons
of white vinegar.
Boil the water for 15 minutes,  then let it cool down.

Step 6. Remove the eggs and unwrap to reveal the pretty little
surprise inside.  This is the back of the striped egg; the front has
much cleaner lines.  I love the way the stripes look, but I like this too!
Hint- you can reuse the silk squares a couple of times.

Here's the back of the polka dot egg.

And here is the lot of them that we dyed for this project.
The two that look like nothing happened have a very light
pattern.  
So here is another hint for you- the more vibrant the tie, the more colorful your
eggs will be.  If you want eggs exploding in pattern, definitely choose smaller, crazy patterned
ties- that is what we did last year.  There are so many fun ties out there- so many you would
shudder to see on an actual human being, but would look great on an egg!
I chose my ties, even though they were lighter colors, because I loved the way they looked together while they were ties.  I actually recommend choosing your ties individually- don't worry about them matching, because really, the crazier, more colorful the tie, the crazier, more fun the egg!
Having said that, I knew I would have a lot of left over tie after this project, and I am intending on using the remnants, so that also played a part in my choosing those colors and patterns.  Especially the navy blue with polka dots.  I love that one!

*Update: I think I forgot to mention that you should NOT eat the eggs after you dye them using this method!! 

When I went to the Salvation Army today, they were having a sale- all clothes 50% off, including ties, so I picked up these:

  I was really hoping to get a rose off of this one.

And I did!  Yay!!

For your viewing pleasure, here is the Holidash video- I find watching these tutorials makes it so much easier to actually do the project!

~Lori

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