Traditions and Silk Dyed Easter Eggs

Both my children are big on the Holiday traditions, no matter how old they get.  They still want their dad to hide eggs in the yard for them to find on Easter Morning.  I believe he hid over 100 eggs this year, so the kids really had a challenge finding them all.  They are so competitive,  probably because whoever collects the most gets a $20 bill, plus this year he hid another $20 in one of the eggs.  Danielle has never won, but this year she was determined and more focused then usual.  Zach found the $20 in one of his eggs but Dan collected the most by 2 eggs  :)   That left poor Stephan (Dani's boyfriend) with nothing but a fun time.

I like to run after them and watch the craziness; the pushing and shoving, the yelling and screaming, it's just so good to watch them be kids again.

Usually we dye our eggs with food coloring but this year I read somewhere that silk ties work well to dye eggs with.  Below are a few of the results.

You start with old silk ties that you cut up into one large piece then into squares.  You also cut up the inner white core to use as an outer wrap.

Then you wrap the silk tightly around the egg, using string to bind it with.

Next I wrapped the inner cores around the silk wrapped eggs and rubber banded them up, and into a pot of vinegar water to boil for a good 25 minutes.

I let my eggs sit outside to dry overnight, them unwrapped them the next day.  I love that the cores dyed as well.  I read that you can reuse your silk pieces to make more eggs, that there is plenty of dye in those ties.  I  sent my silks as a gift to fiber artist Nat across the pond.  I used it as stuffing around a fragile ceramic candlestick I sent her.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Next year I'm going to try eco-dyeing my eggs with flowers and plant material.  Should be good, right Kaya!