16. Dyed Play Silks

This is an interesting and fun idea that I saw online-- hand-dying silk pieces for your children to play with (or for you to wear!) This project was sooo easy I couldn't believe it, and it used kid-safe ingredients!

I found the tutorial for this here:

http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/play-silks.html

And here is my original pin:

http://pinterest.com/pin/86483255314411719/ 

I ordered 4 silks from here-- with shipping it cost me about $16.  

I was very intent on using things that I had on hand for the dyes. The tutorial said to use White vinegar, but I didn't have any, so I used both Apple Cider Vinegar, as well as White Wine Vinegar, and both worked great! For the coloring part, I used Kool-Aid and food coloring.

This is what the silks looked like straight out of the package. They were very pretty already!

 First, I put 2 cups of vinegar plus 2-3 cups of very hot water in a plastic bowl. This became my pre-soak for the silks.

As I was making the dyes, I let the silk sit in the pre-soak bowl. 

For the dye, I used a combination of different things, including Kool-Aid and food coloring.

First, I took a glass mixing bowl and added 1-2 cups of vinegar. (I didn't want to add as much vinegar as the tutorial said, because I didn't have much on hand. ) Next I added the coloring. For the blue, purple, and red silks I added Kool-aid and about 10-20 drops of food coloring to the vinegar-- for the yellow and green one, I just used food coloring, no Kool-Aid. 

Next, I added a bit of very hot water-- just enough so I would be able to easily cover the silk I was dying. 

 

Next, I added the silk and swished it around until the color began to fade from the solution. Once the water/vinegar was pretty close to being clear I removed the silk and rinsed it in cold water for a LONG time (probably around 5 minutes or so) to get as much of the dye out as I could. 

  

Once I rinsed them as much as possible I took them to the dryer to heat-set them a bit. One at a time, I popped them in the dryer until they were just damp (it only took about a minute each). Then I put them all in the dryer together for maybe another 2 minutes. 

Once they were dry, they looked great! They will be a lot of fun for E for play with now, and imagine with when he gets older!