Tie Dyed Easter Eggs

I saw this idea last year on my college friend Angie's blog and knew I wanted to try it out!
You dye your Easter Eggs using silk ties!
Last week I headed to the Thrift Store to get some men's ties.
(Or, you can raid your Grandpa's, Dad's or Husband's closet if they have ugly ties that you never want to see them wear again)
The uglier the tie, the better!
I tried using one of Kevin's ties but he got all sentimental on me & said he wanted to keep it.
I got all these ties at a thrift store for about $1 - $1.50 each.

The ties have to be 100% silk for this to work, so make sure you check the labels.
Some of the labels were just on the back of the tie:

Other labels were hidden under a flap:

Here is what you need to do to make your Tie Dyed Easter Eggs.
First, turn the tie over & cut the stitching out.

You need to open up the back of the tie.

Then, you have to remove the inner fabric of the tie.
**WARNING** If you get your ties at a Thrift Store/Good Will Store, etc....hold your breath when you remove the inner fabric. Some of the ties STANK like musty old man smell. *shudder*

Once you come to after passing out from the old man tie stench, go ahead and cut off the bottom part of the tie.

Then, very carefully, wrap your egg in the tie with the right part (shiny) part of the tie touching the egg & tie it with some string. You want to tie it tight (but not so tight that you break the egg)

Your fabric will be inside out looking. Make sense?

Here are my eggs almost ready to go!

Next you need to cut up an old pillowcase & use pieces of that to wrap around the eggs.

(I got a King sized pillowcase at the Thrift Store for $1 and I had enough to wrap up 8 eggs and I had some leftover)Place your eggs (gently) into a pot & fill with water & 1 cup of vinegar.

Cover your pot, bring to a boil and let your eggs boil for about 20 minutes.

While you wait for your eggs to boil, open up some windows in your house because the smell of hard boiled eggs + musty old man smell is NOT good!

After your eggs are done boiling, take the wrapped eggs out with tongs & place on a towel to cool.
I let mine cool for about 20-30 minutes (again...make sure your windows are open!)
After they are cool enough to touch, you can unwrap your eggs to see what your Tie Dyed Eggs Look like!
This is the first one I opened up & I was NOT impressed.
I was thinking I did something wrong, but I think it was just the pattern on the tie that didn't transfer well.

The 2nd one I opened is one of my favorites!

It was so fun opening each one & seeing how it turned out!

I realized that the bigger the pattern = not as good on the egg.

The smaller patterned ties looked much better on the eggs (in my humble opinion)

I originally bought this purple tie so Kate could have a purple egg, but it turned out pink!

This one was a little streaky (I must not have tied the fabric tightly enough around the egg)

Love this one!

So there you have it, Tie Dyed Eggs...a fun twist on dyeing Easter Eggs!
I will definitely be making these again next Easter!

Side Note: I made these when the girls were napping. This was an Easter Project for me.
We use the $2 dye kit from the store to dye their eggs :)

A word of advice:
Don't eat these hard boiled Tie Dyed Easter Eggs. I don't think it is safe to ingest silk dye and you don't know where some of those musty ties have been!
(I don't eat hard boiled eggs anyways, they are in my Top 5 foods that makes me gag)

So instead of eating them, you can just display your Tie Dyed Eggs in a pretty bowl or apothecary jar this Easter!