Natural Easter Egg Dye with Onion Skins

Learn how easy it is to make an All Natural Easter Egg Dye using only Onion Skins and Vinegar.

This is how my German Grandmother dyed her Easter Eggs! Back then, they didn’t have all of the fancy egg dye tablets and decorating kits that we now use.

No, back then people had to make do with what they had. In the case of Easter Egg dyeing, they had to learn how to extract the color from natural materials such as onion skins.

Simply simmering your eggs in the onion dyebath gives you a lovely, warm brown shade.

However, I am going to take this tutorial a step further and show you how to make awesome and unique Marbled Easter Eggs. So, start saving your Onion Skins! You will need quite a few.

Since Easter is literally just around the corner, this tutorial on how to marble dyeing eggs with onions is super late. But, I have been wanting to share it for years now, so here goes.

Table of Contents

• What are Onion Skin Easter Eggs?
• Egg Dyeing Supplies
• How to Dye Easter Eggs with Onion Skins
• Wrap the Eggs in Fabric
• Set the Natural Dye
• Unwrap the Dyed Eggs

Over the years, I have shared several other Easter Egg decorating techniques from Coloring your Easter Eggs with Silk Ties, how to Decorating Easter Eggs with Yarn and how to make Wool Felted Easter Eggs.

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I am sure all of you have already finished your all of your Easter decorating and Egg dyeing, right? Well, if not, this is a really fun, natural Easter Egg dye technique that kids enjoy also.

The best part is unwrapping these little pieces of art.

 

 

How to Dye Easter Eggs with Onion Skins

The steps for making onion dyed eggs are very simple. Basically, all you have to do is cover the eggs with lots of pieces of onion skins and then cover this bundle with some fabric.

This fabric will create close contact between the egg and the onion peels and hold everything in place. Then, all you do is boil/simmer the eggs the same way you normally would except that you add a little white vinegar to the water.

 

Wrap the Eggs for Dyeing

To begin, cut the fabric pieces into approximately 8″ squares, one piece of fabric per egg.

Now, take a piece of fabric and place it on your hand then add a bunch of onion peel. Make sure cover the fabric with the peels. Also, the more variation in color and size of the onion pieces, the more marbled your egg.

Next, pick up an egg and place it top of the onion skins and add more peels. The idea is for the egg to be completely in contact with the onion.

Finally, carefully, wrap the fabric as tight as possible around the egg, making sure all parts of the egg are covered.

Then, tie off the top of the fabric tightly with the thread. Again, you want firm contact between egg and peels so make sure the egg doesn’t move around too much inside the fabric.

Now, repeat the entire wrapping process with the rest of your eggs.

(Note: You can add small leaves and greenery for additional design but when I tried it this time, they didn’t make much of a print.

 

Set the Natural Easter Egg Dye

Now you are going to fill your pot about half way with water and then add about 1/2 cup of vinegar.

Carefully, place your wrapped eggs in the water, making sure they are completely covered.

Bring the water to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the eggs to cool completely.

 

Unwrap the Dyed Easter Eggs

Now comes the fun part … unwrapping your marbled eggs!

Aren’t they beautiful? What’s more, you can even make your onion skin Easter Eggs shiny by rubbing them with a bit of oil.

Also, since you are using an all natural dye, the eggs are perfectly edible. Just make sure to store them in the refrigerator.

These colorful eggs also make beautiful Easter table decorations.

Enjoy 🙂
Annette

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More Easter Egg Dying Ideas:

How to Print Easter Eggs with Silk Ties
Yarn Wrapped Easter Eggs
Felted Easter Eggs
Easter Egg Decorating Ideas for Adults and Children
How to Dye Yarn with Easter Egg Dyes

Natural Easter Egg Dye with Onion Skins