Tie Dyed Easter Eggs

It’s been almost 2 weeks since Easter, but I wanted to get this out ever since I tried it. This year I stumbled on various ways to decorate eggs other than the standard Paas dying kit from my childhood days. One I found from a friend who did her eggs a la Hungarian style. They are absolutely stunning, but when I heard about the process and figured that each egg may take an hour to decorate I thought to myself “maybe another time, like when I retire.” I’ve been a fervent reader of buzzfeed.com for pop culture and such. One day in my browsing I came across a fascinating way to spruce up my Easter eggs. It was to use silk ties. Yes! Silk ties! This was the ticket. Silk ties came in all sorts of paisley and striped patterns and even some off the wall ones. On an Easter egg that would be worth conversation. So I sought out how to do this. My first batch was a trial and I made many errors. I refined them and the second batch turned out great with still some lessons to learn for next time. Here’s how I did it: 

Step One: Gather materials. You will need silk ties, twine or string, eggs and white vinegar. Find some silk ties. I had some of my own, but I only wanted to use 2. I went to Goodwill and there were a plethora. Any ole silk ties will do as long as they’re 100% silk. These are going to be cut up and pretty much destroyed so you want to get some that you don’t mind losing.

Step Two: Cut the ties up and remove the inner lining. The inner lining is what you’ll use once the eggs are wrapped in the silk to protect the water mixture from becoming a bloodbath of dyes. 

Step Three: Cut the ties up into small pieces so you have just enough to wrap around the eggs. These pieces I found are reusable. :) Set the cotton linings aside and prepare a solution of water and vinegar. I filled the lower part of a glass with an inch or so of vinegar and the rest with cold water. You’ll want to moisten the tie fabric with the solution before wrapping. 

Step Four: After moistening the tie fabric wrap the egg in it with the outside pattern touching the egg. The inside pattern will usually be duller. I wrapped mine in sort of a taffy style with extra cloth at both ends and tied each end with twine after twisting. The picture shows just one end. 

Step Five: Wrap every inch of the egg in string or twine. I used twine. Martha Stewart says you need only wrap enough to make sure the fabric has contact with the egg. However when I did this the pattern only transferred where there was good contact. On my second batch I wrapped every possible area in twine. 

Step Six: Get the water boiling in a sizable pot for the amount of eggs you are dying and in a solution of vinegar and water. I used about ¼ the vinegar area in the pot for vinegar. You really want to force that pattern to bleed so the more vinegar the better. While the water is heating up get the eggs ready (once all are bound in twine) by wrapping them in the cotton lining you saved from cutting up the ties. These can be loosely bound in the cotton.

Step Seven: Boil the eggs for approximately 20 minutes. This is usually a good enough time to transfer the pattern and cook the inner egg. 

Step Eight: Cool the eggs in an ice bath for another 20 or so minutes. Unwrap and enjoy! Remember, the tie fabric is still reusable so put that and the lining aside to dry while you admire your eggs. 

Some lessons I learned are that flimsy silk ties transfer much better than thick silk ties. I guess they just wrap better. The moistening of the ties before wrapping the egg really helped with managing the fabric. 

Here are my eggs:

Here are my favorites:

Here are some from the heavy ties:  














Some from the first batch:

Oh and yes you can totally eat these. Martha Stuart and other professionals don't recommend eating them because the dye on the silk ties is not "food safe" to their knowledge. I have eaten the eggs and nothing has happened. They are perfectly delicious eggs. You may not want to eat them because they are so pretty. I find the prettiness wears off after the holidays as with any decorated edible item. I'm sure they can't endorse eating them because they have a professional opinion and have to stick to the guidelines. Enjoy!