How to Naturally Dye Easter Eggs and Chocolate Free Easter Gift Ideas

Fresh Easter PJs - An Autumn Family Tradition

Treat the kids to a fresh pair of PJs for their misty morning egg hunts and other sugar-free treasures from our Easter Gift Edit. It’s become a little family tradition amongst many and as winter approaches here in Australia, it’s the perfect way to make the day extra special without the a sugar rush.

There's something truly magical about Easter crafts. We love wrapping freshly blown eggs in flowers and leaves from the garden, then steeping them in red cabbage water or leftover blueberry syrup from pancakes. We also collect grapevine prunings to create homemade Easter baskets. You might even want to try eco-dyeing your own PJ sets using our natural wool long-sleeve tops & long-johns. There are so many meaningful ways to connect and celebrate the harvest season and Easter.

Check out our special selection of PJ sets paired with charming wooden and felt toys to bring your Easter baskets to life - SHOP the Easter Gift Edit.

How to make your own Natural Dyed Eggs

It’s so easy to make your own beautiful natural dyed eggs with prints from the garden and pantry. We do a new batch every year and between Easter's we keep them in a special box, packed away like precious baubles. It's such a joy getting them out each year for our Autumn table decoration and making a new set to add to the collection from whatever is in the garden that year.

Here's how we dye eggs with plants from the garden and natural dyes from the pantry:

1. Choose light/white eggs for best effect. Duck eggs are amazing.
   

2. Tap a nail in both ends and carefully blow out the contents. Keep for your pancakes!
   

3. Collect interesting shaped small leaves & flowers from the garden that can create a resist on the surface of your eggs. Delicate ones that can be flattened easily against the shell work best and create a clear resist or pattern.
   

4. Wet the eggs and lay the flowers and leaves on the surface of the egg and tightly wrap in an old orange net or net curtain or some old sheer stockings and secure with elastic bands - little ones might need helping hands for this.
   

5. Simmer your dye stuffs for 15 minutes in separate pots on the stove top. Try: red cabbage leaves, liquid from cooking frozen blueberries (hello pancakes!), turmeric, strong black tea, beetroot, red carrots….
   

6. When your dye has cooled, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the dye liquid and poor into a jar with an egg or two inside - make sure the liquid is covering the eggs.
   

7. Leave overnight or longer.
   

8. On Easter Morning, enjoy unwrapping your eggs, admiring the prints and colours and polishing them gently with olive oil to bring out the shine.
   

9. To display, thread some string on a button and poke though both holes of the egg and hang them from a branch to make a beautiful table display.
   

Have a gorgeous time together.

Love to hear how you go with it in the comments.

xx Brenna