If you’re looking for reasonably priced Waldorf toys, how about making your own DIY Waldorf Play Silks! They aren’t hard to make and your kids will love these Waldorf rainbow play silks. So get your crafty on and make your own Waldorf toys instead of buying them!

Homemade Play Silks Make Beautiful & Inexpensive Waldorf Toys

If you’ve ever looking online for waldorf toys, you know that they are expensive! We love high quality toys a lot, but not the big price-tag that goes We all got together on a rainy spring day and worked together to craft the most beautiful play silks. These silks were used in my house for years and we still have some!

How to make your Waldorf play silks

First, you will need to source silk. Our group found a killer deal for bulk silk on-line. I highly recommend that you go in with a group to keep the cost down. We got our silk from Dharma Trading Company for a reasonable price. You’ll need to 10 yards of silk per scarf so it doesn’t take that many people to end up with a bulk order.

Once your silk arrives, cut to the right size. Again, you’ll need 1 yard of silk per scarf, so measure and cut the bolt into 1 yard pieces. Please note, we did NOT hem the edges of the silk. We just cut it and kept on going. It probably goes without saying that an adult should cut the silk, but just in case, it’s probably a good idea that young children do not do this step. 🙂

Added years later: After years of use, it did not really fray much at all so I think hemming is not necessary.

After you cut your silk to the proper size, you’ll need to soak it in vinegar and hot water. Simply mix three cups of vinegar with a kettle full of hot water and soak for ten minutes.

While the silk is soaking, mix up a kool-aid dye.

How to make the Kool-Aid Dye

Mix 3 packets Kool-Aid with
2 cups hot water
2 cups vinegar

The color should be pretty and vibrant. Then, line up bowls of color and start soaking! You’ll want to soak the silks in the dye/vinegar mix for at least 2 minutes, but probably more like 5 minutes. You’ll want to do this on a covered table or even outside to avoid getting kool-aid dye all over the place. If your kids are little, you’ll probably want an adult to supervise.

Then, take the silks to the kitchen or bathroom, and rinse the silks in cold water. Keep rinsing until the water runs clear. It will take quite a while, but persevere.

Finally, hang them out to dry!

Want to make rainbow Waldorf play silks?

We also tried our hand at making tie dye AND rainbow Waldorf play silks! To make the rainbow, we just lined the bowls up in ROYGBP. Then we soaked only a portion of the silk at a time in the right bowl. It took a little coordinating but worked very well! order and soaked only areas of the silk to achieve the rainbow coloring. This was a bit tricky, but not too hard at all!

My little stinker wouldn’t cooperate well for the pictures, but you can see that we achieved a rainbow! After you’ve dyed your rainbow, make sure to rinse and hang per the instructions. So gorgeous! And the kids LOVE playing them…

Yield: One play silk

Make Your Own Waldorf Play Silks ~ A Tutorial Using Kool-Aid!

Lovely DIY Waldorf Play Silks for a fraction of the cost to buy.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Active Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 3 hours

Total Time 3 hours 20 minutes

Materials

1 yard silk
3 packets of kool-aid
2 cups vinegar
2 cups hot water

Tools

bowls, silk, spoon, sink, line to dry

Instructions

Cut silk into 10 yard pieces
Mix 3 cups vinegar with hot water to cover and soak for 10 minutes.
Mix kool-aid, vinegar, and water well in a large bowl.
Soak silk in the kool-aid mixture for at least 2 minutes.
Rinse until the water runs clear.
Hang on a line to dry.
Wash cold at home (alone to prevent colors from bleeding on any clothing).
Line dry.
Enjoy!

Want more Waldorf homeschooling inspiration? Read these posts:

How to Make a Waldorf Star

How to Host a Waldorf Solstice Spiral

How to Make a Waldorf Wheat Grass Basket to Welcome Spring

If you make your own DIY Waldof Play Silks or Rainbow Waldorf Play Silks, let me know how it turns out!

Basha

Sunday 23rd of January 2022

Hi, silk looks great. Im gonna try it...but just a quick question, is kool aid the punch drink in a sachet or sth else? I cant see anything called kool aid dye an uk amazon

Michelle Marine

Hi! Yes, it's a drink powder, not a dye. :-) Here's a link so you can see: https://www.koolaid.com/en/products/powders Good luck!

Audrey Morlock

Monday 1st of March 2021

Hi there love your group and all your great ideas you share thanks so much I have 8 grandkids and would like to make them for Easter but there is so many silk at the site I know it was 100% silk but do you know witch one thank you so much for your time

Brittany Daley

Wednesday 8th of April 2020

What kind of silk did you use?

Michelle

Thursday 9th of April 2020

100% silk. I think I linked to it in the post. :-)

Lisa M

Tuesday 10th of December 2019

I am going to try this! Quick question first- once the silks have been dyed, rinsed and dried, do they bleed if they get wet again? Thanks!

Hi Lisa, After it's been dyed, rinsed, and line dried, you will want to machine wash and dry it alone to set the color. Then you should be good! :-)

Gabby

Tuesday 1st of October 2019

I’m a bit confused it takes 10 yards (as in 30 feet) of fabric to make 1 silk?! I haven’t seen any sills this size and I’m a bit confused on how the kids would be able to play with a silk that size. Please advise if I’m interpreting this correctly and give the dimensions of you finished product. Thanks!

Ymt

Sunday 24th of November 2019

Hi, I would love to try to make a rainbow color play silk for my kiddos. Which silk did you use? There are so many and I have no idea....

Wednesday 2nd of October 2019

Yeah, 30 feet is not right! The finished silks are 3 feet long! So, It's off by a factor of 10. I will correct!