How to: Reuse Silk Ties for Egg Dyes

by Kelly Rand April 8, 2009, 9:34 am 7 Comments

Have you ever come across a craft project and just couldn’t wait to go home and try it? For me it was this simple and really cool project from the queen of craft: Martha Stewart. Perfect for Easter egg dying or just because.

Using silk ties that are destined for Good Will, a bit of scrap fabric, and boiling water, you can dye eggs. Yup, dye them with the ties! It is sort of like magic, or chemical reactions even.

Take your silk ties and cut a swatch of the fabric, enough to cover your egg. Get out your scrap muslin or plain cotton and cut the same swatch of this fabric. Cover the egg with the silk fabric, then cover with the scrap muslin.

Martha’s instructions call for twist ties to tie up the fabric, but I used scrap yarn. Place your egg bundles in a pot of boiling water (non-aluminum/non-reactive pot) and boil for 20 minutes.

Here are a few close ups of my favorites from my attempt at this project.

This one I used an old silk scarf. But you can pretty much use any silk for this project. A blouse, ties, boxers, scarfs, if it’s made from silk, it should work.

I learned that you should cover your silk completely with your muslin fabric or you’ll contaminate your other egg packets. My pink tie got a bit of blue on it, but it still turned out ok.

For the complete instructions check out Martha Stewart. We’d love to hear how your eggs fared!

Written by Kelly Rand

Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.

Kelly helps organize Crafty Bastards: Arts and Crafts Fair, one of the largest indie craft fairs on the east coast and has served on the Craft Bastard’s jury since 2007. Kelly is also co-founder of Hello Craft a nonprofit trade association dedicated to the advancement of independent crafters and the handmade movement. Kelly resides in Washington, D.C. and believes that handmade will save the world.