A set of
playsilks have been on my wish list for Kate for some time. {Never heard of playsilks? Click
here} I’ve been meaning to buy them for her but keep putting it off because they aren’t cheap! I saw
this idea to buy
plain white silk squares and dye them your self using kool-aid for half the price and knew I could pull that off.
It really was very simple. Here is the basic idea: Step 1: Soak the silk in a bowl of cool water and a glug of vinegar. Step 2: Use a wide mouthed jar and mix together your packets of kool-aid (I used 3 of each color) with 1 and ½ cups of warm water and 1 Tbsp of vinegar. Step 3: Put the jars in a pan of water about 1-2 inches high and bring to a simmer. Step 4: Once simmering, put 1 playsilk in each jar. Step 5: This is the only tricky part. You let the silk “simmer” and absorb all the kool-aid. Stir occasionally to even out the color. Once the silk is done the water will look clear and diluted. Step 6: Remove the playsilks from the jars and rinse in a bowl of cold water. Step 7: Hang to dry.
A few notes: I bought the 30x30 inch squares. The flavors of kool-aid I used were grape, cherry, lemon and lemon-lime. I’m still looking for an orange or blue kool-aid to dye one more silk. The trickiest ones were the grape and cherry flavors and I read a few places that most red dyes can be tricky. For some reason the kool-aid takes a long time to absorb and it seemed that the color kept rinsing out when I rinsed it. I ended up running the red silk through the washer (by itself) on the rinse cycle to get out any extra color and it still looks pretty vibrant.
They are for Kate’s Easter basket and hopefully they will be used for all her imaginative ideas once the creative play thing kicks in. For now I think she will enjoy playing peek-a-boo and dragging them around the house. Oh and taking them “in” and “out” of whatever toy box they may be in. Thanks to her new “in” and “out” game, all of my shoes are now “out” of the closet and “in” the laundry hamper.
It really was very simple. Here is the basic idea: Step 1: Soak the silk in a bowl of cool water and a glug of vinegar. Step 2: Use a wide mouthed jar and mix together your packets of kool-aid (I used 3 of each color) with 1 and ½ cups of warm water and 1 Tbsp of vinegar. Step 3: Put the jars in a pan of water about 1-2 inches high and bring to a simmer. Step 4: Once simmering, put 1 playsilk in each jar. Step 5: This is the only tricky part. You let the silk “simmer” and absorb all the kool-aid. Stir occasionally to even out the color. Once the silk is done the water will look clear and diluted. Step 6: Remove the playsilks from the jars and rinse in a bowl of cold water. Step 7: Hang to dry.
A few notes: I bought the 30x30 inch squares. The flavors of kool-aid I used were grape, cherry, lemon and lemon-lime. I’m still looking for an orange or blue kool-aid to dye one more silk. The trickiest ones were the grape and cherry flavors and I read a few places that most red dyes can be tricky. For some reason the kool-aid takes a long time to absorb and it seemed that the color kept rinsing out when I rinsed it. I ended up running the red silk through the washer (by itself) on the rinse cycle to get out any extra color and it still looks pretty vibrant. 
They are for Kate’s Easter basket and hopefully they will be used for all her imaginative ideas once the creative play thing kicks in. For now I think she will enjoy playing peek-a-boo and dragging them around the house. Oh and taking them “in” and “out” of whatever toy box they may be in. Thanks to her new “in” and “out” game, all of my shoes are now “out” of the closet and “in” the laundry hamper.
1 comment:
Thanks. You inspired me to make these for my 23 mo. old daughter. I am sure she'll love them. I already ordered the silk scarves from your resource. Thanks Again! Marie
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