J'adore....To Dye For Easter Eggs

 

Dana Gallagher 

Using foliage and flowers gathered from the garden. Blogger Sonia Bauer (bigsislilsis.com) of Oceanside, California, placed a flower or a leaf facedown against each egg, then wrapped the egg in a four-inch square of panty hose and secured it with a twist tie.

To achieve deep earthy hues, Bauer whipped up her own dyes using purple cabbage, yellow onions, and cranberries.

 

I couldn't resist having a go and collected a selection of leaves and a couple of very small flowers on yesterday's afternoon dog walk.  As the weather has been so cold I couldn't find many flowers!

 

I made the dye with onion skins which resulted in a gorgeous deep reddy brown colour.  Unfortunately the patterns weren't anywhere near as beautiful as Sonia's.  
 

I cut up a couple of pop socks (which I hate and had bought by mistake!) and wrapped a section right around each egg and tied with a freezer bag tie.  I now have four beautifully coloured eggs with a faint pattern and patches of colour. I think that I probably didn't tie the sections of hose tight enough.  Don't let me put you off....give it a try, the recipe can be found on Sonia's blog (bigsislilsis.com)....it's amazing to see what colours can be achieved using natural products around us...so cheap to do and it would be a fun activity for kids to try. 

I'd love to know if you have more success than I did with this dyeing technique.  Please let me know how you get on.