I had some fun this morning dying playsilks in Kool-aid!
I want to give them to the kiddos for Valentine's day. They've seen them around drying, but since I'm always doing something weird with fabric, I don't think they suspect that they're gifts. ;)
(Actually, the neighbors probably just shake their heads at me, too: 'What is that crazy lady taking pictures of now?').
I originally wanted purple, green, blue, red and two shades of pink. Well, I bought the wrong flavors of Kool-aid, apparently. The blue was actually red in color, and one of the pinks was red, too. Oh well!
I was shocked by the vivid colors. I didn't expect the Kool-aid to work THAT well (and if freaks me out a bit that people drink this stuff!). The one red scarf is REALLY red. The other red (which was supposed to be pink) I actually dumped out all the dye after the first heating. I added more water to it and it STAYED so red!
It was cool to see the dye transfer. At the end of most of the colors, the dye water was clear! And I've washed these already - none of the color has washed out. They have a very faint fruity scent, too - I imagine this will fade with time.
Details:
I bought the scarves here (I wish I would have bought more as they'd make great gifts) and used this tutorial (via Alisa).
Lessons learned:
- Check the colors of your Kool-aid.
- You don't really need gloves.
- Dye two silks at once (in their own bowls) since they have to microwave and rest for the same amount of time - just keep switching them.
- The end of a wooden spoon works great for stirring them.
- If you want a pink (not red) scarf - go for the pink lemonade flavor.
I wish I would have known about playsilks when the kids were younger. I mean, they are still little, but Princess would have loved having a bunch of these as a toddler. Seeing the illustrations in the Magic Cabin catalog (where I want everything) really made me realize how many different things you can do with playsilks. But dying your own really is so much cheaper - and fun!
