easter eggs in 1856

During the week I work full-time at Anatomy of a Skirt, sewing & designing, responding to customer questions…. well, doing everything, ’cause it’s just me! But on weekends, I go to my other job- working as a historical interpreter for a local living history museum. This weekend, being easter, we worked on some historically-accurate easter activities, like making easter cheese, and dying and scratching eggs. Pictures and instructions below:

Prepare the dyebath: collect onion skins, boil them in water for about 10-15 minutes (longer for darker/blacker colour). Remove all pieces of onion skin (draining it through a collander lined with cheese cloth seemed to work best), or else you’ll have dark spots on your eggs!

dye the eggs: using room-temperature eggs, gently place them into the dye bath, and hard boil them…. making sure there is plenty of dye bath to completely cover the eggs at all time. Adding some salt or vinegar will help set the dye on the eggs, and keep it from transferring onto your hands while you are scratching them.

create a design: using a pin, or a sharp sewing needle, gently but firmly scratch your design into the egg. This will take some time- you’ll likely have to go over your line a few times to make it visible; this is the easiest way to do it without breaking your egg (once it’s cracked, it’s almost impossible to salvage).