How to dye eggs with old silk ties or shirts!
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Each year we let the kids dye eggs for Easter, but we try and do something unique each year. Did you know you can dye eggs with silk? It seems kinda fancy, but is actually really easy and gives the eggs a beautiful pattern. No two will ever be the same. They are so pretty you might want to blow out your eggs first and just dye the shell so you can display them all month.
You will need 100% silk in order for this to work. Below I talk about the best places to get silk if you don’t have some hanging in your closet. You can get them for cheap so do not cut up your expensive stuff, Dad might not be to happy if he comes home to find his favorite ties chopped up in the middle of the kitchen. BUT I bet if you ask, there is a good chance he has some old ties that are stained up or getting a little fuzzy and would be perfect for this project.
For dying eggs with silk you will need:
Eggs medium or small (raw or already blown out and just the shell)
100% silk ties, scarves or shirts
Scissors
Cotton string or rubber bands
White cotton fabric ( I used an old sheet)
White vinegar
Cooking pot
Start by taking your tie apart. You will need to take out the filler fabric and just use the silk. Once you open it up there will be enough silk to wrap about 3 eggs. Small to medium eggs work best for this project since the width of the tie is not very wide.
Take them out of the boiling water (careful they will be HOT). You can allow them to cool on their own, or run them under cold water if you are in a hurry. Take off the rubber bands and fabric and see the beautiful patterns that have transferred to the eggs. I do recommend only doing a few eggs in each pot, and try and keep darker colors away from lighter colors. Some fabrics will bleed, which will make your colors kind of look “muddy”.
If you do not have silk ties or silk shirts, head to your local 2nd hand store. Just look for tags that say 100% silk. I was able to find a bunch of “ugly ties” for $1 at my local Dessert Industries. Some of their nicer ties are $3-$4 but if you dig you can find a bunch for $1. I looked in the men’s shirts and found several island themed 100% silk shirts for $3 which would give me enough fabric to do about 25 eggs. So the shirt was a better investment.
You can use the same piece of silk to dye different eggs over and over. Each time it will get a little lighter, but we have used the same piece up to 5 times. Some silk works better than others, but you can almost always get at least 2 dyes out of one piece.
Since we do not know what kind of dye was used to dye the fabric these eggs are more for decoration instead of eating.
If you like this post, you might also like these Easter ideas:
How to dye Easter Eggs with nail polish and water
Melted Crayon Easter Eggs, Bold Bright color with melted wax
Minion Eggs, quick and easy Easter Craft
Easter Chicks ~ Deviled Egg Chicks
How to peel an egg in less than 5 seconds with a glass jar.
I’ve done this. Works great, just not sure you should eat the eggs afterwards.
Yeah, I’ve seen this idea before – http://itsafabulouslife.com/how-to-dye-easter-eggs-with-silk-ties/
Assuming you mean shirts. :p
What a great idea!!
What a creative idea. My kids will dig it. Thank you.
You can get them at thrift stores for about $1, or look for silks skirts or shits they are normally about $3-$4 and you get a LOT more fabric
YIP, just make sure they are 100% silk
Thanks, we sure had fun making them
Right…. pretty eggs 🙂
Tell Ike to HIDE is ugly ties or they might turn into and Easter egg lol
Thank you, I love how they turned out!
Thank you, they sure were fun to make
This is amazing! Now I can put my husband’s old ties to use! Thanks!
I wonder if my husband would let me use some of his old ties! I’ll probably just hit up a local thrift store instead though.
I love this idea! So pretty.
Shared to Just Plain Marie!
This is so cute! What a cool idea!
Fun project! I love I could get rid of some of my husband’s old ties too!
Great idea! I love the idea of having eggs that look like adults made them! 🙂
Wow!! I didn’t know you could do this! I’m going to have to check out the thrift store to see what I can find!
These are SO cool!!!
It seems impossible to get that dye off hands, I could imagine trying to get it out of carpets.
If you want to keep them out for display think about blowing your eggs out first
Yes no chance of SPILLING dye for little ones 🙂 Seems to happen every year at out house lol
It was a fun project, they turned out so much better than I thought
It is really fun to see how they each turn out
It was fun the kids loved it!
I want to try to do something different with the kids, so I might try this!
Love these patterns, so pretty! And it look like less of a mess, than traditional egg dying. Thanks for posting!
Time to clean out those ties with stains on them. Looks like a fun thing to do!
That’s really cool! I’ve never heard of this before. It would be fun to try it out 🙂
Thanks it was a fun project to make
This is such a cool idea!
I love the patterns these make, gotta try this
You can find all the info here http://athriftymom.com/how-to-dye-eggs-with-old-silk-ties-or-shirts/