Tie Dyed Eggs

This year we tried something a little different with egg dyeing during Holy Week, and while I was a bit disappointed with the results, the eggs were still lovely and I learned a few lessons, so maybe we will give it another try next year.  I am behind the times on this idea, apparently it has been around awhile, but I just stumbled across it this spring.  So, a trip to the Go*dwill store for silk ties.  It is important they be 100% silk, which is a shame since the really cool outrageous designs are all in polyester!  Here is a look at our ties, before we took a pair of scissors to them.

Cut the ties up into squares, and tie up one egg in each square.  The trick is to have the fabric flat against the egg.  This is where we could have done a better job, too many wrinkles.  

Don't the look pretty?  All dressed up in silk gowns!  The next step is to cut squares of cotton muslin and wrap each egg again.  This prevents the dye from spreading to other eggs.  After they are wrapped a second time, we put the eggs in a pot of water and boiled them for about 20 minutes.  I also added a splash of vinegar to the water.  

Results?  Well, the places the fabric was flat against the egg, the patterns transferred beautifully.  Then, there were a lot of white spots.  In all, they were pretty, just not quite what we expected to see.  Maybe next year?