We spent a day with friends dying playsilks for Easter. My friend and I had been wanting to try this with natural vegetable dye for ages and we finally got around to it.
The girls loved stirring all the silks in the colored water.
We used turmeric (yellow), beets (a dusty rose pink), purple cabbage (purple), and coffee (an earthy brown).
My favorite was the turmeric. So sunny and bright!
The little one loved the cabbage. (I wonder why??!)
They look great and I am so much happier with these natural colors than the colors produced by the Kool-Aid method.
To make your own ::
- Collect some vegetables and spices of vibrant colors.
- Soak silks in water and vinegar solution. I get my blank silks from here.
- Cut up vegetables and boil in water until the water turns a vibrant color.
- Drain water to remove vegetable bits. If using spices, there is no need to drain.
- Take silks and put in hot colored water. Turn heat on low and add 2-4 tablespoons of vinegar.
- Stir the silks occasionally. The longer you leave them in, the darker they will be.
- When the silks reach your desired color, remove them from the water and run under cold tap water to remove any residue.
- Hang to dry.
Super easy and super fun. I am so pleased with the results. These will go in the little one's Easter basket. I'm excited about the brown because we often make playscapes with our playsilks and have never had anything to resemble brown earth/dirt. The purple is so very lovely and the yellow is just so cheery. I'm planning on getting bigger sizes and making curtains for her room after dying them with beets. So lovely!
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail me! I hope I explained it well enough here. Happy Friday everyone!!!
