dyeing silks in the snow

My 3.5 year old daughter and I spent this snowy weekend making gifts for friends and family.  I had seen a few tutorials online about dyeing play-silks with kool-aid and wanted to check it out.  

It worked like a charm and was a great project to get my toddler involved.  To take advantage of the newly fallen snow, add some fun, and save my sink from any suspected staining we did our rinse cycle in the snow together.  It was a blast and they came out great!  

I got to thinking that this would be a fun activity for a special needs class or after school group.  You could really get up close and personal with color mixing!  Silk is a fairly expensive material so in most instances, small groups would work best.  

Look below for the tutorial.

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SILK DYEING in the snow
1. Start with 100% silk fabric.  I ordered mine from dharma trading company
2. Soak silk fabric in warm tap water with a few glugs of white vinegar for a half and hour or so.  Make sure it's a glass bowl.
3.  Mix two packets of kool-aid with 12 oz. warm tap water + 4 oz. white vinegar.  I used mason jars for my smaller sized silk fabrics and it worked beautifully.
A kook-aid color mixing chart can be found here
4.  Squeeze out excess water/vinegar mixture from your fabric and plop into the colored mason jar.  Mix around a bit - if you're feeling daring, put the top on tight and shake with your toddler.
5.  Micrwave for two minutes
6.  Stir, maybe let it sit for a minute or two then repeat in the microwave again.  
7.  When you're ready to cool it down bundle up that little person and hit the snow.  Dump out your hot mixture to the cool, powdery snow and work together to cover the fabric up.  If putting on a hat does not sound like a grand idea, just rinse in cool tap water.
8.  Hang to dry.
9.  Iron to set. 

Package in super cute packaging if you're planning on gifting - otherwise let them play.  

My daughter uses these for a variety of pretend activities.  We dress up dolls, ourselves, build forts, tye them together to make ribbons, and just wave them through the air like we just don't care.