Sunday, April 24, 2011

Easter Eggs

Dear Mom,
We tie dyed our Easter Eggs again this year, and before they are all gobbled up I took a picture to show you how 6 neckties from the Goodwill and a couple of rejects from My Hero's closet,a little vinegar and simmering water decorated our eggs. I love the way these eggs turn out and may never color eggs with food dye again. Plus it is exciting to unwrap them and see how the patterns and colors transferred to the eggs. In the photo above, I placed each egg on top of a scrap of silk from the necktie that produced the egg design.
This one is my favorite-
But this one is pretty good, too-


I linked to the how-to for this last Easter, but I'll review here.

You need silk neckties, an old t-shirt you can cut up (or two depending on how many eggs you are gonna dye), uncooked eggs, a little vinegar, some rubber bands and a big pot of water.

Neckties must be 100% silk. The brighter and wilder the print, the better (in my opinion.) Goodwill neckties at $1.99 each are perfect for this project.
Cut open the neckties, discarding everything but the silk part of the tie. Cut the tie into pieces that are big enough to wrap around an egg. You can get several eggs out of one necktie. Wrap eggs in the silk with the right side (bright patterned side) of the silk against the egg. Cut a square out of the old t-shirt that is big enough to go around the silk-wrapped egg and wrap the egg in it. Secure the t-shirt closed with a rubber band. 
Once you've covered all the eggs you want to tie dye, place them carefully into a big pot of water. The water just needs to cover the eggs, but the pot needs to be big enough to let the eggs move around a little. Add 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar to the water. We dyed 24 eggs and I used about 1/4 cup vinegar. Slowly bring the water to a boil and let the eggs simmer for 25 minutes. Once cooked, lay the eggs out on a flat surface to cool. When they are cooled off, you can open up the wrappings and find your pretty eggs!

Hope you had a Happy (if rainy) Easter. One of the first dentists I worked for, who was a big time golfer, always said "If it rains on Easter Sunday, it will rain on the next seven Sundays". We'll see if it is true this year.
Love,
Kim