Tie-dyed eggs

We tried a new method for dying Easter eggs this weekend. I saw the tie method on Pinterest and I thought I had pinned it, but apparently I didn't, so I don't have the link....sorry.

I instantly remembered it from when I was a little girl.  Our babysitter made these one year and I either didn't see her gather the supplies or perhaps she only had us help wrap the eggs and then we were sent to play while the eggs were done.  I'm not sure, but either way, I didn't know exactly how to make them, I just remembered having helped make them as a kid.


Anyway, you need men's (or boy's) ties.
The ties must be 100% silk or apparently, this method will not work.
You will need either eggs (right from the fridge), or the egg shells once you've made a small hole on each end and blown out the contents.
You also will need some sort of either thread or string or very thin strips of rags to tie the ends of the tie to the egg.
The hubs told me I could have his ties for this project (!) but I refrained from taking him up on the offer, so we headed to the second-hand store.  These are the ties I bought from the Arc store.  Arc is a local Goodwill kind of store and I paid $1.50 for a couple of them and about $2.50 for the others.

 For the last month we've been carefully cracking our eggs whenever we cooked some and rinsed them out.

 You begin by completely dissect the tie and cut a piece of the tie that fits completely around the egg.  Oh, and the "right" side of the tie must face the egg so the pattern transfers correctly.

I used some thin strips of white fabric I had on hand to tie both ends and the center of some of the eggs.
They you simply boil them in water and 3 tablespoons of vinegar for about 25 minutes.

I carefully placed my crockpot lid on the eggs upside down to weigh them down so the eggs were entirely submerged in the water.

After the 25 minutes and allowing them to cool down so I could unwrap them I ended up with this:
Aren't they beautiful?!  I think Yes!

This next few pictures show the egg with it's corresponding tie so you could see how nicely the pattern transferred.

The blue and yellow polka-dot ones are my favorites!

I made 20 eggs total.  Sixteen of the eggs were the shell only and the other 4 were right from the fridge.  I totally discourage using the whole, fresh egg though.  I made these two days ago and I'm ready to throw them out because although I've kept them refrigerated, they STINK. Bad.  I plan on making more in the next week or so and we will only use clean EMPTY egg shells (:


I have a huge test to take today and another one tomorrow and then I have a workshop on Friday evening.  Hopefully I'll have my Easter decor pics up by Saturday.  Fingers crossed!