Weathering fabric: What to use?

I've got a white shirt that I want to make look like it's been worn for years, out in the open, so I want it to be stained and dirty, maybe a little ragged. Does anyone have experience using coffee or tea to stain fabric? How about watered-down acrylics? Any tips?

I'll experiment with some extra fabric, but if anyone has tried it already, it may save me some time and materials and I'd appreciate it.

I'm also wondering if there are any special tips or tricks. I'm guessing dry brushing and just scuffing up the clothes is the basic jist? I'm about to work on a cowboy type custom and want to give him the desert look. Any help is appreciated!

dont water down acrylic , it results in stiff clothing and takes away from the natural look of the fabric , instead go for dry bushing some dirt areas and maybe tea staining , thats pretty basic and just dipping in the clothing in some tea... if you do some dry brushing, use multiple shades of colors including black as the base or a darker tone of the paint that you will use, and then add the final color on top...

Thanks, Fanger. I'll try out some dry brushing next.

I'm doing something similar to you, mmmmBrains (not a cowboy, but dusty). I've been experimenting with tea staining, and it seems to work very well. I have been using a single tea bag in hot water, then dipping the fabric very quickly into it to get a base coat. Then I take the tea bag out, squeeze it mostly dry, then dab it around on fabric. This gives areas of darker stain. I think with the tea stains and the dry brushing, it will probably give the result that we're both looking for.

fanger54 said:

dont water down acrylic , it results in stiff clothing and takes away from the natural look of the fabric....

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If you thin the acrylic paint well enough so you get a thin "layer" on the clothes, then it doesn't make it stiff, only if you build up to much layers or too thick paint!

l slightly wet the clothes on my figure, then add thinned down acrylics. Because the clothes are wet, they dry up very realistic on your figure!
This is ofcourse not the only method, other methods can be aplied on top of this too: tea, pigments/pastel powders, dry-brushing, etc, etc.

Thanks, necronomicon. That's an excellent tip!

Ok, what about tearing/ripping clothes? How do you make it look like he really just climbed out of a briar-patch or something?

sand paper work well

For rips and tears you can use sandpaper, like clparker said. I use sandpaper for the worn spots. For tearing it up l use different tools, depends on the job:

-a #11 exacto blade, by scraping/scratching it very tiny bits, almost on the same spot, you can make great looking bullet holes for instance.
-a "thing" wich name l don't know in english (buttonhole cutter?), but in Dutch it's a torn mesje....This little thing is razor sharp LOL I use it a lot!! for rips, tears, you name it!



Hope this helps a bit.

necronomicon said:

For rips and tears you can use sandpaper, like clparker said. I use sandpaper for the worn spots. For tearing it up l use different tools, depends on the job:

-a #11 exacto blade, by scraping/scratching it very tiny bits, almost on the same spot, you can make great looking bullet holes for instance.
-a "thing" wich name l don't know in english (buttonhole cutter?), but in Dutch it's a torn mesje....This little thing is razor sharp LOL I use it a lot!! for rips, tears, you name it!

Hope this helps a bit.

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That would be a seam ripper... and yeah, that should work great for tearing clothing!

twik25 said:

That would be a seam ripper... and yeah, that should work great for tearing clothing!

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thx for helping out!!

Black, white and brown pastels (chalk) work great. After that wash it lightly and the pastels spread in the fabric and give it a good worn dirty look.