I've just purchased a dark brown (almost burlap weave but much softer) fabric for my son's cloak. He wants me to make him a video game monks robe for Halloween. My question is, now that I have this pristine bit of fabric, how do I make it look old, worn, dirtied, variations in shading, etc.?
*just to clarify, he does want this robe done before the end of fest so he can wear it this season*
A finishing sander with fine grit paper. Tumbling it with gravel will work, too.
A quick google found this: http://www.alleycatscratch.com/lotr/Fabric/Distressing.htm
Bury them in the garden for a few days and then hang them up outside for about a month.
Seriously.
Dragging behind a car or 4 wheeler is fun and useful!
I've always told mine to put them on and go play rough outside and wear it down that way.
I have dragged a shirt behind the car to rough it up. Once around the block does quite a bit!
Are you near a body of water? Back in the 70's, before jeans came prewashed and soft, I used to buy Levis, tie a rope around them and throw them in the canal in our back yard. Left them in for a week, took them out, laid them on the dirt and gravel driveway while still wet and drove the original Chiquita back and forth over them about a dozen times.
Then rinsed them off with the hose and threw them in the washing machine and dryer 3 or 4 times. It worked.
something tells me that people are having a bit to much fun with this topic, its funny to read ;D
Another jeans treatment from days when I was younger & skinnier: Put on jeans, sit in hot tub, adding more hot water as it cools, go outside & lay down in the sun letting the jeans dry on your body. Or jeans so tight you would have to use a pair of pliers to zip them.
Just to drag things back to the 'sane' and 'normal'...
Kate's Notes on Distressing Fabric*:
The aim should be to make something LOOK worn rather than to wear out the fabric, to make it LOOK grubby rather than be dirty... You want it too look old, but retain the strength of the new fabric.
Yes, scruff up things and wear them by grating, rubbing, and otherwise wreaking the fabric - but then stabilize the wreaked areas so they get no worse! You don't want the garb to fall to bits off your back - you only want it to look as if it's about to do that!
A good fabric for stabilizing worn areas is silk organza: neatly patched in behind a hole or thin area, it will be almost invisible. And you can cut a hole in it to match the outer fabric hole and then hand stitch it to the edge of the hole, fraying in the edges of the silk to match the outer fabric frayed area, but leaving both fabrics no room to ravel further. Use a good quality fine silk thread in a colour that matches or blends well, and no-one will see the darned edges of your careful rips!
Scrub worn or holed areas into something and then use old fashioned hand darning to fix it: you get the wear and the mend making the whole thing look more authentic!
Make sure that your worn and ripped areas are in likely places... Ragged cuffs and hems, worn knees and elbows, worn waist areas, and the occasional split armscye seam look much better than random holes. Remember to stabilize the ends of the split seams. And the seam allowances...
Dirt marks, scorches, and stains can be made with the careful application by air brush of thinned acrylic paints and fabric dyes for hand dying. Remember to heat set them. These will have the advantage of not washing out when the garment needs to be laundered. For health and safety reasons I would never advocate real dirt...
For oily stains, yes, use a light and careful application of something inert, like sewing machine oil. If you wash the garment gently, you'll leave the stain still there for several washes, and when it finally fades, it can be renewed with more oil... If you want black oily stains, use black acrylic paint and then, once heat set, drop oil on top carefully.
Some food stuffs, such as turmeric, can be used for temporary dying, but you are better off using the dyes and paints, as these tend to be less prone to fading. Tea dying to different strengths can be very effective at aging fabrics, especially silk. Tea is mildly acid, and therefore a good one for silk: it stays in for several washes and is easily re-done when it finally fades.
Once you have aged the garment to your satisfaction, launder it gently (if the fabric will take it), drip/line dry, and shake madly to soften, rather than ironing. When laundering, use a non-biological detergent without optical whiteners. You whites will eventually take on a slightly dusty look like old cotton, and the powder won't eat the fabrics or any tea dye used. Look for it in the planet saving/hand-knitted yoghurt brigade shops.
Scruffy eejits of the world unite! ;D
*Gleaned from all over the place when researching distressing methods for a wedding gown for Miss Havisham! It ended up with holes, 'scorch' marks, grubby areas, and a tangle of withered roses caught in the hem!
Wash it. Use some lemon juice on it and let it dry outside for a couple of hours. Scrubbing it with an SOS pad can be amusing too but I like the dragging it behind the truck idea better.
Wonderful ideas from the fanatical to the practical. LOL
Thanks everyone. I should be able to incorporate several ideas to get the look he wants.
Quote from: Kate XXXXXX on August 24, 2009, 10:38:33 AM
*Gleaned from all over the place when researching distressing methods for a wedding gown for Miss Havisham! It ended up with holes, 'scorch' marks, grubby areas, and a tangle of withered roses caught in the hem!
OK, you know we have to see pictures of that! ;)
Nope - not for public consumption, at the client's request. Sorry. :(
Quote from: Kate XXXXXX on August 25, 2009, 02:49:28 PM
Nope - not for public consumption, at the client's request. Sorry. :(
:'(
a friend recently asked me to help him make a dirty pirate look. so i told him to put on some of his pirate gear , lay in the front yard and let me stomp on him for three hours.......he said no :-\
A cheese grater is your friend when distressing, I agree that it must be applied to areas that would be subject to wear on a garment - not just randomly. Mineral oil also works to make things greasy because it will not go rancid, like where you might wipe your hands on thighs or around the collar. Put heavy rocks in the pockets of coats when they are wet and allow the rocks to distort the pocket's shape when drying. You can also knock the color down with a very light bleaching. However, you MUST experiment first with scraps and check both bleach concentration and time in the wash to get it where you want. I have mixed both bleaching and dying to get the transition of color I wanted. I like to hang the garment on the line and use spray bottles of dye to give it a more natural look because I can control the placement of the dye.
For my pirate garb, I tore up my shirt cuffs and after washing it, I hang it on the line and use home made walnut dye in a spray bottle from the elbow down on the sleeves. The color tends to settle into folds and gravity draws it down the sleeve and because the shirt is wet it tends to move via osmosis and looks good. It looks like they have been drug through tar. I soak walnuts in the husks for a week or better to get the dye. I dilute it a bit and just repeat after each washing and it gets darker each washing. It is kind of fun to have a slightly different shirt each time.