I saw these a few weeks ago in a Tasty/Tipsy/Totsy Facebook video. I don’t remember where the video was from, but these eggs looked amazing. There was doubt on my FB feed that these could possibly be real. When I Googled, I found several blog posts that pointed me to a 2006 episode of Martha Stewart, where she and a staffer made them. That link has all the directions. And they looked 100% real. So I decided H and I would try them this year.

This past week I went to a local thrift store to look for silk ties, because these only work with silk (according to the interwebs). They were actually having a 50% off sale on ties for Easter, so I got 12 ties for $18 total. It turns out one of my ties, an actual Liberty of London tie, is cotton lawn and not silk. So I ended up with 11 designs to test. I cut and prepped the ties ahead of time so we were ready to go.

These work. They absolutely, 100% work, and H thought this was the best. She’d picked out a Paas kit at the supermarket last week for dying eggs, so I’d gotten a dozen eggs for Mommy’s decorating and a dozen for hers. But in the end, she could not have cared less about the Paas eggs. I ended up decorating those by myself.

She was so into the silk eggs, and the whole process!

Adam was out for the afternoon today running a photography errand, so we boiled a set of eggs for her Paas kit. And she helped me wrap up my set of eggs in silk ties.

You wrap up the ties with the outside of the tie fabric up against the egg, then wrap a piece of plain white cotton fabric around that, then twist and tie up the whole little package with twine or ties.

You put all the eggs in a non-reactive pot (this was Martha’s advice), fill it with water, add at least 1/4 cup of white vinegar, and bring to a boil. When the pot is boiling, lower it to a simmer and leave it alone for 20-30 minutes.

Take out the egg packages, let them cool for a bit, and then open your beautiful little egg presents.

I cut off all the twine, but H insisted on actually unwrapping each egg. I had explained to her that we were “printing” the eggs, but I didn’t know if she understood. Whether she understood or not, she knew that unwrapping them was something special. She was so excited to do it, and so excited to see each design. There were lots of adorable whispered “wow”s. And when we’d opened all the eggs to look at our handiwork, she said, “I did it!”

We are so doing this again next year. I’ve already hidden all 23 eggs around the backyard.

My two favorites.

If she spots them when she and Adam get back from the playground, I’ll let her go hunting. If not, they’ll be out there when she wakes up tomorrow to go and find.