What fun we had using silk scarves to dye Easter eggs! I was totally amazed at the result… such stunning patterns on our eggs. These are heirloom Easter eggs for sure! And so easy to make.
All we needed for this craft was:
* egg shells (here is a tutorial on how to blow the eggs out of the shells)
* pretty silk scarves (we found ours at Goodwill. Silk ties also work… but make sure they are silk)
* 2 Table Spoons of Vinegar
* rubber bands
* a heavy rock
Begin by filling a pot with water, adding 2 table spoons of vinegar and setting it on the stove to boil.
While your water is heating, cut a square from your silk scarf (no… you won’t be using it as a scarf again!). The square must be big enough for you to wrap around your egg. Each egg gets its own silk square.
Wrap your egg, making sure the silk scarf square is tight (tight is important) around the egg. Fasten with a rubber band.
Once your eggs are wrapped and tied tightly, use another rubber band to connect them all together and attach the heavy stone.
Put them all in the pot of boiling water. The stone is supposed to weigh your eggs down so that they remain submerged in the water. Alas, our stone wasn’t heavy enough, hence the improvisation of all the other kitchen utensils in the pot too in an effort to keep the eggs under the water. LOL!
Boil eggs in water for 10 minutes. Take out of boiling water and allow to cool.
Carefully unwrap your eggs and marvel at how lovely they are.
Mr T LOVED this whole process but the unwrapping was his most favorite part. He sang “Happy Birthday” as he unwrapped the eggs and delighted in each newly-colorful design.
Oh, they are so pretty! So colorful and intricate.
Happy Easter crafting.
Blessings and magic,
Donni
51 Responses
these are so beautiful. i am off to find some silk scarves…..
thanks for the inspiration
-t
Gorgeous Donni! Wow, thanks!
xo
Neat! Thanks for the tutorial
Wow, great idea! I’ll be sure to try this, maybe next year.
Kelly @ Creating a Family Home
these are really beautiful, thank-you for inspiring me :)
Wow, I love in the last photo how you can see each individual thread from where the silk was
Oh my goodness!!! So clever. I would never have imagined that the colors would transfer so beautifully.
When I saw “silks”, I was coming to say that my sister dyed some last year with ties that were sooo beautiful… I want to do some this year!
They’re so beautiful, Donni. Thanks for the tutorial!
we have been doing this with my mom for the last couple of years!! it is SO fun! she has been saving ties for this year. ;) once we had a tie with little soccer players all over it. it was amazing how clearly they transferred!! happy spring! ;)
waw what a fantastic way of decorating blown eggs. We have to try out for the upcoming holidays.
That is just the coolest thing. I’ll have a look for some silk!
Do you think you could do this without blowing out the egg first? Essentially hard boiling the egg as you dye it?
such cute photos- what a fun project
what a great idea! I think we’ll be trying this one for sure!
Just to let you know I just posted a raffle to help Japan.
http://olivesandpickles.blogspot.com/2011/03/japan-quake-appeal.html
If you are interested on helping you are more than welcome to participate.
thank you : )
Patty
Wow! I had no idea this was possible! I’ll have to try it this year.
Thanks!!
I want to do this so bad! I love it!
You know, I wear a scarf tied around my head every day, and they do end up getting worn and tearing. But they’re so pretty I can’t bring myself to throw them away. Now I know what to do with them, thank you!
Wow. These are stunning.
Thank you for sharing this idea and such great instructions. I’ve been looking for a unique way to go about decorating eggs this year. This is perfect!
Thank you for all your thoughtful posts and great ideas. I really appreciate your blog.
Oh these really are so beautiful and so ridiculously simple! thank you. now to find some silk things….
this is so beautiful! Do you know of any other objects that the dye can be transfered onto?
SO gorgeous!! I think we’ll try this, instead of the traditional dyes this year! Do you know if you can do hardboiled eggs this way?
I’ve also been wondering if the dye can transfer to other objects… I think we’ll do a little exploring to find out :-)
What a super idea to dye hard boiled eggs – imagine an Easter picnic with such gorgeous eggs!!
And… we have discovered that you can use the same piece of silk many times, not just the once. After about the 4th dye, it starts to fade!!
Glad you all enjoy this one.
Blessings and magic,
Donni
Thank you for doing such a beautiful job of explaining this process. Think I will be on the look out for silk scarves! You are right – heirloom eggs. Yours are gorgeous.
WOW…these are just absolutely beautiful! I believe we will take this route this year in lieu of the dye. :) My youngest is “too old” for egg hunting, and will really enjoy this project! Thanks sooo much for posting!
WHAT!?!?!? These are FANTASTIC!!! I can’t wait to try some! I’ll let you know as soon as I do :)
xoxo
Janee
yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com
seriously??!!!!! awesome.
I love this idea! I never knew how you did it, so thank you!
I absolutely have to do this! they are so beautiful!
This is an incredibly beautiful easy idea – and I think kids and adults alike (say, at a fancy Easter brunch) would think these eggs are magical! Thanks for posting this tutorial, I’m getting very excited to try it for myself!
– Catherine at The Spring
These are so incredibly beautiful! Quite the magical process. You said to use silk only so I’m wondering what would happen with a scarf that wasn’t silk?
We have done these. Check them out here http://capcreations.blogspot.com/2010/03/silk-dyed-easter-eggs-oh-so-pretty.html. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
This is such a delightful idea! The leaders over at the Yahoo group StitchMAP have challenged us to make some eggs up as a group project.
I am doing the scarf/egg craft as part of group in stitchMAP. Thanks for putting it out there!
Michele P.
that is amazing I am in awe of the simplicity! need to go to an op shop now – arg – middle of the night! right! tomorrow!
I had time this last week to give these a go and I LOVED how they turned out! See my post here: http://yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com/2011/04/permission-to-enter-armory.html for images. Thanks again for sharing!!
xoxo
Janee
yellowbirdyellowbeard.blogspot.com
I have to try this!! They look so beautiful!
Wow, these are so beautiful! What a great idea!
The rubber bands would work much better than the instructions I followed on another set of directions. You need a tight fit to get as much of the egg smoothly covered. Put the print side against the egg for better transfer of color. L used raw eggs and left them in the water longer than 10 minutes. Solid silk left a water color or marbling type of design. I
These are lovely, but I have to wonder if they are safe to eat? If you buy your materials second-hand, who knows what kind of chemicals (as in dry cleaning chemicals) they might contain. I would worry they might leach into the eggs.
Hi Erica, we don’t eat them. We blow the insides out first so that it’s just the shells we dye with the silks. When we want to dye eggs to eat, we use natural dyes like blueberries, red cabbage and beet.
Blessings and magic,
Donni
Wow! This is such a cool idea. Those are the most beautiful Easter eggs I’ve ever seen.
I bet my nieces and nephew would love to try this out. It’s worth sacrificing a couple silk scarves for.
Hi Ryan, oh my… they are gorgeous. We can never quite believe it’s going to work until we unwrap them and see the pretty patterns on them. It’s such an excitement every time we make them. I’d LOVE to see a photo of your Easter eggs is you make them :-)
Blessings and Magic,
Donni