Fit to be Tied...

Did you know that you can actually dye Easter eggs without using vinegar?  AND you can do it in an amazing pattern as well!

Supplies needed: Raw eggs, silk cloth, cotton cloth (6 inch squares), rubberbands, kitchen pot

1.  Step one, go to your local Goodwill and buy the cutest, least disgusting ties you can find.  Try not to think about the fact that ties are the dirtiest item of clothing that humans have.

2.  Take ties home, remove tags and cut them apart into about 6 inch strips.  You really only need the wide part of the tie, so go ahead and toss the skinny part.

3. Take a raw egg, and wrap the egg tightly with the silk fabric.  I twisted the ends of mine like a giant piece of candy.  Then, fold the ends over and place in the center of a cotton piece of fabric (mine was about 6 inches square)  Pull up all the corners and secure with a rubberband.

 4.  Take all of your little packages and put them in a pan big enough to hold them all.  Fill the pan with water until it covers the top of your eggs and boil for 20 minutes.  You'll notice that the water in your pan changes colors--don't worry.  I found that this did NOT affect the coloring of my eggs.

5.  After the 20 minutes, rinse your eggs in cold water as you unwrap them--I was too excited to wait until they cooled off!  Check out these beauties:



Just a few hints: 

1. I found that if you choose NOT to wrap your silk covered egg in a cotton cloth, the ink colors will bleed and you will be left with a less distinct pattern.

2.  Feel free to use multiple patterns within the same pot--the colors don't bleed between eggs.

3.  You can reuse the silk egg after egg.  I've put mine away to use next year too.

Hoppy Easter!