Silk dyed Easter eggs

Today technology was my friend. I finally got my laptop AND my camera working. I've had images trapped in my camera for over a year now. Oh happy day! Since I'm able to download images to my computer, I thought I would share a little tutorial for dyeing Easter eggs with silk neckties.

Hubby doesn't wear ties that often, or ever, so I went to a thrift store and found a few colorful patterned ties. I thought they would be a bit cheaper (they were $4.00 each) but I guess even the Salvation Army needs to make some money. I knew the ties needed to be 100% silk (or some said "all silk") in order to work.

First I dissected the ties and removed the guts. Yep, I said it. You have to cut away all the inside fabric from the silk. Then I cut them up into sizes big enough to cover an egg.

I wrapped the eggs in the scraps of silk and used a rubber band to secure them tightly. As I got to the skinnier part of the tie it became more difficult to wrap the egg in an entire piece. I improvised and made a cross shape which seemed to work out fine.

Some of the tutorials I've seen online say your next step is to cover the entire egg in thread or to cover it with a piece of fabric such as an old pair of pantyhose. There was no reason given for this so I skipped it. I feel like if you can't tell me why I need to do something, then I won't. I'm pretty damn stubborn that way.

Next I placed the eggs into a pot of boiling water that had about 2 tablespoons of vinegar added to it. I didn't measure exactly, I just poured. :) I let them simmer for 20 minutes. I read that for better results you can simmer longer, up to 40 minutes. I needed to be somewhere & I was pressed for time so 20 minutes it was.

After the eggs have simmered for your desired time, allow them to cool and unwrap them. I have to admit, I was like a kid on Christmas. I was so excited to see what each would look like. I placed the eggs on a paper towel until they were completely dried.

Here are a few tips I've learned:
1. Make sure you buy your eggs the day before Easter. It was slim pickings at several grocery stores near me. I literally bought the last carton of eggs in my neighborhood. Of course they were the expensive organic, extra omega something or others...but they were eggs none the less.
2. I think covering the eggs with the tread might have been a good option. I assume it may have helped the silk to stay in contact with the egg a little better, thus transfering a better pattern.
3. I still have no idea what the hell the pantyhose does.
4. You shouldn't eat these eggs. They are for decoration ONLY. I saw some fiber artist talking about how it's not a good idea. Also, she says that you should dye these in a separate pot that you would use normally. Luckily I had an old dye pot from when I was in school for textile design.

Here is the final result. I think they look so pretty on my table in the DIY thriftstore dessert stand I made.  :)

Happy Easter everyone. Hope the Easter bunny is good to you!




For some reason my button isn't working..so I'm linking upto the  bunny-hop Easter link party with Happy hour projects and Mrs. Fox's sweets.

The hunt for a headboard

Wow, it's Sunday night already! Where did the weekend go?? They always seem to fly by. *Sigh*

We got our new bed delivered last weekend. We really wanted a Tempur-pedic bed but it was waaaaaaaaaaaay outside of our price range. We settled on another brand memory foam bed but it was still pretty darn expensive. Since we already have a bedroom set, I didn't want to buy a new headboard. I'm pretty insane with things matching. I knew nothing would match our set perfectly so we bought some new sheets for our bigger bed and called it a day.

The bed, by the way, is heaven.

For the past week I kept looking at the bed and wrinkling up my nose at it. It just doesn't look quite right without a headboard. Ugg. So this weekend was spent on a hunt for a headboard. We have gone to every furniture store, import store and thrift store in our neighborhood. We even drove down to Ikea in South Philly. We found nothing that I liked. Absolutely nothing. I also spent hours looking online. Nothing there either. The few things I did find were way too pricey and I'm not paying $300 for a headboard. That's just crazy to me.

Solution? I'm going to attempt to make a tufted headboard. Travis hates them but I think he will get over it once he sees how cool it looks. Or I hope so anyway. I will keep you posted on my progress. It should be interesting to say the least. Here is my inspiration:

It can be found on Home Decorators. (By the way, for a king size headboard it is $499 plus $80 shipping. Hahahahahahahaha!)

Well, I'm off to spray paint. I will fill you in on some other projects I'm working on shortly. Hope you had a great weekend!