I don’t know about you, but dying Easter eggs with children is not something I look forward to every year. Small children and colored dyes just don’t mix. Or, rather, they DO mix. All over the place. Their hands turn purple, their clothes turn blue, the table turns green, and my face turns bright red (though this last one probably has to do with my blood pressure shooting through the roof).
This year I decided to leave the children, a pile of boiled eggs, and cups full of vibrant dyes to my husband. I haven’t told him yet, but I’m pretty certain he’ll take pity on the children if I just refuse to do the job.
I couldn’t just not dye eggs myself though (what would the baby Jesus think?), so I dyed eggs using old silk ties. It was so much fun! Let me show you how.
You need a bunch of old 100% silk ties. I went to the local Goodwill and dug up the ugliest ties I could find. Each tie will make only one egg, so I also grabbed a hideous old lady silk jacket and shirt.
I cut the bottoms off of the ties, just under the tag. You need enough fabric to completely wrap around the egg, so don’t cut the bottom portion to small. Snip the thread holding the tie together to open it up and then cut (or, if you’re like me, rip) off the lining inside the ties.
You’ll also need some old white fabric to wrap around the tie and egg. I used an old white t-shirt, but you could also use a sheet or pillow case. If you have twist ties, use those for tying up the little bundles. I didn’t have twist ties so I used some (rather ugly) ribbon I had lying around.
Tightly wrap a large raw egg in the silk, with the printed side of the silk touching the egg. You can secure the silk with a twist tie or be like me and just hold it tightly closed. Now wrap the white cloth around the silk egg and tie it up tightly.
These little egg bundles are so stinking cute.
Place all the eggs in a pot (enamel or ceramic pots are recommended, but I used stainless steel and had no problems) and fill with enough water to cover. Pour in 1/4 cup of vinegar and bring it all to a boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer for 40 minutes.
Allow the eggs to cool for as long as you can stand and then dig in to the little bundles.
Holy cow! The design from the silk is on my egg! I love Easter.
If you’d like to see the finished product, keep reading.
Cute, huh?
| Tags: holidays 14 comments »
April 10th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
That is soooo cool! I am so not a cool mom. We just hide candy and if the kids are lucky we have a few boiled eggs to eat. Boring!
April 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Instead of learning me, can you just come over and do this with my kids. I will, of course pay you (a minute amount). Don’t spill, mkay?
April 10th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Oh, wait. I just read your Tweet that you don’t like other people’s stinky little children….nevermind
April 10th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Wow! Those came out great. A lot more color on them then what I would have thought.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:07 am
That is teh awesome!! Remind me to do this next year!!
April 11th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Lovely idea!! Creative person you are!
Happy Easter!
April 11th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Fantastic! I think I saw Martha make these on her show, but you made it look easier. Thanks!
April 13th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Holy Cow- this is amazing!! What a cool idea!
April 13th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Well, aren’t you nifty! I guess I’ll bookmark this for next Easter (or the next).
April 14th, 2009 at 8:47 am
How cool is that?!? We might just have to try it for fun!
April 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am
Those turned out AWESOME Karly! I’ll have to remember that for next year! (or maybe I’ll just try it out in July or something – is there a reason I can’t dye eggs in July?
)
April 15th, 2009 at 6:04 am
stinking cute!
April 20th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I did that too! It was so cool and so much easier than dying eggs the regular way!
September 12th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Are these eggs edible? They look great! But can we eat them after we are done admiring them?