Dyeing silk playcloths

[ShannonCC]

I have an idea for my dd's birthday party and silk playcloths would fit right in. Unfortunately, the already dyed ones are very much NOT within my budget for a party of 10 kids. I keep thinking of how inexpensive the plain ones were on Dharma trading (like a buck or two each if I remember! - depending on size of course). I could definitely afford those! But can I dye them? I know you can dye them, I mean can *I* dye them? :LOL

I want the low down on dyeing. Is it hard? Is it really messy? Does it work (as in - does it fade out and stain everything it touches for months?)? Can an inexperienced person with a toddler underfoot do it?

Should I come up with another party idea that doesn't involve play silks? :LOL

[jmreinke]

You can dye silks with Kool Aid - which might make a great craft for your party.

Do a search on here about playsilks and Kool Aid. You should be able to find a few posts that tell how to do it. I don't remember off the top of my head, or I'd tell you.

HTH!

[ma2maya]

I second the Kool aid suggestion, especially if it is with younger kids. Though using procion dyes would be o.k. with kids of elementary age or 4/5 years old, littler ones have a tendancy to test everything in their mouth.

Have fun! Remind everybody to not wear their favorite clothes

[ShannonCC]

Oh, I'm not planning on doing them with the kids! I meant I wanted to dye them myself before the party. It's just that I rarely get to do anything without at least a 2 year old hanging on my ankles For some reason I'm just really nervous about the idea of dyeing. It sounds scary : I'll have to think some more on this.

Thanks for the responses!

[Ember]

You can definitely do this! Koolaid dyeing is easy.
I haven't dyed silk yet (keep planning to though). But I do dye a lot of yarn. I use both koolaid and Wilton's food dyes.
The method is the same. In fact, I'm thinking the silk scarves would be easier because you don't have to deal with winding up the yarn and worrying about it getting tangled.

Here's some info on koolaid dyeing.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...threadid=74201

Good luck! I think it's a great idea for a party.