fruity silks

i have a list a mile long, i my head and on paper. it's of all of these cool and inspiring ideas for handmade kids gifts. i have been psyched for months to make things for christmas. now that it is closer i am finding that the balance of time, motivation and organization is a bit tricky. but nevertheless, one night last week i got down to business and made some sweet play silks, dyed with kool aid!

i dyed 12 silks, ordered from dharma trading. i found the kool aid at a few different stores. i used cherry (red), grape (purple), lemonade (yellow), orange (orange, hello!) and pink lemonade (pink!). i also had some sweet blueberry kind and like a dummy i added a bit of this other weird kind that i though might be blue too. turns out it was red and it totally turned that whole batch purple. so, i ended up with extra purple. i wish i had more of the pink lemonade because it's the bomb. and oh wow, that stuff sure smells good. but now that i see what it can do to cloth, i am hesitant to ever drink it again for fear of what it will do to my insides!

i used directions from a few different places. most had similar instructions. in short, what i did was about this:

• soak silks in water (1gal.) & vinegar (1/2 cup) for about a half hour.
• using 2 large, microwavable bowls, made up kool aid dye (3 packages of kool aid, 2 cups water, 1/2 cup vinegar, per silk. use gloves, or be VERY careful!
• i usually did 2 silks per bowl, so i just doubled the recipe in each bowl. 
• rotate bowls in the microwave: 3 minutes "cooking", 3 minutes "resting", with a little stir in there too.
• do the cook/ rest routine 3 times each.
• rinse in the sink, although not too much dye was leaving them after three rounds in the microwave.
• air dry
• iron when dry.

i'm so excited about how these came out. i plan to give henny a set, and give the others to some of our other special little ones. i love the idea of open ended toys like this and i can't wait to see what henny and bee come up with to use them for. bee is on board to give them to henny, but i think that she is just super anxious to get her hands on them. i can't wait to see her clipping one on henny for a cape, or the two of them sitting down to a felt food picnic on one. the possibilities are endless!