Make these relatively simple gorgeous died eggs from silk ties you've got lying around and vinegar!

I've always loved Easter from when I was a kid and my great-grandma would send money for my mom to buy me a hat, white shoes and a pretty dress. It felt so special somehow. When I moved to NYC in my 20s I saw it as an excuse to have a fancy brunch - and brunch I did!! 

Fast forward to my 30s - I never thought I'd change my last name with marriage but when I met Mr. Easterday there was no resisting. The name somehow actually makes people happy and I wanted a piece of that. I couldn't wait to celebrate 'our day' as my Father-in-Law says. I'll never forget my first brunch as an Easterday. I checked in with the hostess and said "I have a reservation for Easterday" and she just stared blankly at me like "Yeah, you and everyone, honey."

As predicted, Easter has become a high holiday in our house. We throw an annual fondue party, invite way too many people for our tiny house and host an epic egg hunt in the backyard. It's always been my son's favorite holiday (more so than Christmas!) and he draws pictures of Easter themes every year for months between Christmas and Easter.

My son cried forever a few nights ago when I broke it to him that there would be no village Easter egg hunt this year. This kid who never cries bawled his eyes out and it broke my mama heart. I knew I had to do everything in my power to make this Easter shine like no other.

A quick tour of Pinterest last night showed me just how deeply inadequate a parent I've been. That's the point of Pinterest, right? There are so many ways to color Easter eggs that you could really do one method a day for a week and not run out. We're, luckily, flush with eggs right now so I decided to see how far we can get. 

This silk tie method is actually one I tried many years ago pre-children when I had all the time in the world to try fun things. I was originally inspired by this post.

The world was a different, more socially-immersive, place back then (pre-COVID-19) and I went to the thrift store to buy every silk tie I could find for $2 apiece. Lucky for me, I'm a major hoarder and I still had them stashed away. Hopefully you have something lying around too. It doesn't have to be a tie but it does have to be 100% silk for the pattern transfer to work.

Some patterns work better than others so try to use a variety if you can. One of our patterns didn't transfer at all, which was quite disappointing to the kiddo who chose it.

How to make Silk Tie Colored Eggs for Easter

What you'll need:

• White eggs - uncooked (I think other colors would work, just not as well)
• Silk fabric (neck ties work well - 1 tie will cover 1-2 eggs)
• Plain white fabric
• Twist ties or rubber bands (2 per egg)
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 1 gallon pot for up to 12 eggs
• Water

Instructions:

1. Cut a piece of silk fabric to cover each raw egg. Wrap it as tightly around the egg as possible in one layer, avoiding wrinkles as much as you can. Wrinkles will cause tie-dye-type patterns on the egg, which is fine but not idea. I tried to make the narrowest end and side the prettiest, flattest part for the photos.
2. Use the twist tie or rubber band to close up the edges of the fabric nice and tight (without cracking the raw egg!).
3.  Cut a piece of white fabric and wrap it around each egg. You don't have to wrap it as carefully, since it just serves to keep the dye concentrated on that one egg. Close this up with a twist tie or rubber band as well.
4. Add the eggs to the pot and cover them completely with cool water. Add vinegar to the water. 
5. Bring the pot to the boil then let it simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the eggs from the water and let them cool to room temperature on an old kitchen towel.
7. Carefully unwrap each egg and prepare to be amazed!

I definitely wouldn't recommend eating these eggs since the dye could have anything in it. It broke my heart a little to waste five perfectly good backyard eggs on it but so fun to see!

Eggs ready to be covered in plain cloth

We captured part of the great unveiling on video.

Here are some of our eggs and their corresponding silk fabrics.

This was one of my favorites - it really came out cool!

This was cool too and I was really surprised by how well the yellow came through. Bummer about the beige.

This one is even cooler in person than the photo shows. Such a classic beauty!

I can't help but think if I had tied this one tighter, it could have been incredible!

This one was a real disappointment. We were so excited to see the cheetah pattern come through but nothing did at all. You win some, you lose some!

I don't know if I'll manage to post all of our egg attempts here but we'll be making eggs all week. What does your family do? Have you tried this technique?

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