DIY: Dye Easter Eggs with a Man’s Tie!!

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They say scent is the strongest sense tied to your memory. Every time I smell vinegar I think back to dying Easter Eggs when I was a child. Now I love that I have my own children to continue with the tradition and make new memories with. When I saw this idea on how to dye Easter eggs using old ties I thought it was brilliant. They looked so elegant and interesting. I still want to do the tradition egg dying kit with the kids. But this new way is just for me!

This project wasn't  hard to do. But it took me some trial and error to find out what worked and what didn’t. At the end of the instructions I've included some tips to help you. Learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them!

What you need:

• Eggs
• Silk Ties, they must be made from silk
• Twist ties or string to secure the fabric to the egg
• Light-colored scrap fabric; old shirt, pillowcase, sheet…etc
• Vinegar

First check your ties and make sure they are 100% silk and not polyester. Now cut that tie apart! Take scissors and cut the stitches along the back of the tie.

Wrap the egg in silk to measure how much you will need. Cut the silk. Wrap the egg tightly in silk. Make sure the outside of the silk is again the egg, the more colorful side. The silk needs to be against the egg in order for it to work. Secure with a twist tie.

Now take a scrap piece of fabric and cover the wrapped egg. Secure the fabric. I tried doing this with and with out the scrap fabric. It works better with it. It helps keep the silk close and tight to the egg.

Continue to wrap as many eggs as you want.

Place eggs in pot. Add enough water to cover the eggs by about an inch or so. Add ¼ cup of vinegar. See, you still get that vinegar smell!!  Bring to a boil and then let them simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove and let cool. Wait. Wait. Wait!

When they are cool enough to handle unwrap the fabric and silk. Check out your egg! I loved seeing what mine turned out like!

Not all of mine turned out perfect. Some just had swirls of color, but they are still beautiful and different!

 Tips and Tricks:

-I used both blown eggs and normal eggs. I wanted to use blown eggs so that they could last forever. The problem was they floated in the water. If you are creative and can find a away to get them to stay in the water it will work better. I tried putting a colander on top of them to push them down. That helped. Normal eggs worked better. They sank to the bottom and were fully submerged in the water.

-Wrap the eggs in the extra fabric. It seems like a it shouldn't be needed, but found that it helped a lot. It just helped keep the silk tight against the egg.

-I tried different ways of wrapping the silk around the egg. Long ways, fat ways and tie it at both ends like a piece of candy. I didn’t notice any difference. Again, as long as the silk is tight against the egg it works!

– Can you eat the egg afterwards? I guess you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it! You are boiling it with silk and dyes that were not intended for consumption. So I will say eat at your own risk!!

-I found that the more color, contrast and design on the tie better! Deep blues, reds and greens transferred great. Light colors like yellow, pink and light blue didn’t transfer as well.

-You don’t have to use ties. You can use shirts, scarves…anything silk!

-Don’t rub the eggs when they are done. I had one that was beautiful so I want to take a picture. It was still wet so I rubbed it dry. Big mistake! Took the beautiful design right off!

-Securing the eggs with twist ties is best. I didn’t have any so I used wire. Don’t use rubber bands!! I did that at first and they didn’t like boiling hot water too much!

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