Making Play Silks

Play silks have been on my wish list

for a long time.

I didn't even realize you could make your own

until a stumbled on a website that mentioned it.

After visiting several sites, I worked out a recipe

with kool-aid that worked great. If you've wondered

how to make play silks, you've come to the right place.

We picked up kool-aid packets at the grocery store

and the play silks in various sizes at Dharma Trading Company.

The process takes several hours. Here is what we did...

• Bring enough water to boil (to cover silks, but don't add them yet) with a dash of vinegar. Remove from heat. Add silks and let them soak for 30 minutes.

• Mix about 4 cups of water with 1/2 cup vinegar and the kool-aid packs of your choice. Being careful to use a spoon and not your hands! Luckily, I wasn't a smurf for very long. 

• Add your scarf making sure there is enough water to cover the silk. Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Microwave it on high for 3 minutes.  Use pot holders to remove from microwave.

• WATCHING for STEAM, remove the plastic wrap and stir. If there are parts that didn't get stained, repeat the above process. My red and indigo need 2 more times in the microwave. Otherwise, let the silk rest for 1 minute in the dye. Then remove it with tongs to a plastic grocery bag ( use a different bag for all of the silks and watch for holes that might leak onto the counter). 

• Once you've completed all of your silks. Hang on line to air dry.

• Rinse the silks in cold water. If they bleed, repeat until they do not. My sky blue and red had to be rinsed about 10 times each. Dry on low for about 20 minutes in dryer. I put only like colors together so none of them stained the others. Then iron using low or your silk setting.

This time around I used scarf sizes. For my next project, I am going to make large squares in sky blue, green, brown, and rainbow.

I tried out a beautifully done chart to dye and my colors didn't turn out. There may be differences in the water, but I'll tell you what we did.

Sky blue-2 mixed berry

Green-3 lime green and 1 mixed berry

brown-1 grape, 1 lemonade, and 1 orange

red-3 black cherry

orange-3 orange

yellow-3 lemonade

green-3 lime green and 1 mixed berry

indigo-3 mixed berry and 1 grape

violet-2 black cherry and 1 twist

Wishing you homeschool blessings,

Bethany