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Intentionally Aging/Distressing Garb - 2005/04/06 08:31
Grendel was talking bout making zombie garb and the difficulty of making it look good over in the applique thread.
i spent about 2 weeks in college learning and practicing something that should transition quite well over to zombie garb. I was the assistant costume designer on a production of Oliver. so we need a dozen or two costumes that looked like they had been worn for years and beat to all hell.
first, lemme state, that these processes will result in fabric that will look good and aged and dirty, but will actually survive regular use. they will not be movie quality. movie costumes are built to last only long enough for hte shoot. they fall apart all the time. to the extent that many movies make multiples of each costume so that they can be trashed when they age.
there are two things we concentrated on. staining and wearing out portions.
first though... your fabric is key. synthetic fabrics don't stain or age easily. we'll have polyester bellbottoms fro mthe 70's until the end of time. use natural fabrics, preferably with a low thread count. the lower thread counts fray better, have more texture to them naturally, and just generally look more rugged.
Stains
the real key is to have stains that are multiple colors, with soft edges, and just generally give an air of "grunge".
first wash your garb. but don't dry it. it needs to be damp. this will smooth out the edges of any liquid stains you add, allowing them to bleed a little more naturally,
get an old pillow case. one you will NEVER use again. a durable trashbag or two would prolly also work. stuff the garb i nthe bag. now add a handfull or two of used (and still wet) coffee grounds. throw in some fresh grass clippings. make three of four cups of tea and throw i nthe wet teabags. mix everything up really well i nthe bag, smack it around, stomp on it, punch it a bunch. rough it up REALLY good. leave it for a day. gome back and do it agian the next day.
then open it up. pull out the garb.shake it off a bit. but leave some of the stuff on it. lay it out. look at it. rub some of hte grounds and grass into other spots a little more.
by this point its prolly a bit dry. spray it down with a mister to get it damp again. get your coffee and splatter, drizzle it on in places. do the same thing with the tea. then get soe black ink, water it down TREMENDOUSLY. drybrush it on in random spots. drizzle it on in som others.
shake it all off really good. get it as clean as you can without actually washing it. then throw it out in the sun for a few days. or in a car (it will kinda stink things up). or in an oven on the lowest setting. you want to effectly bake those stains in.
for roughing up edges. grendel doesn't like the idea of sewing squres and frayin them to make holes... don't use squares.
for natural looking holes you need to make natural holes. get a wire brush and scrub the fuck out of a single spot tile the fabric wears through. THEN sew around it. sewing the edges will ensure that it doesn't fray out too large. but you have to use the right stitch and the right color thread. the thread must match exactly or you'll see it. and the stich should be a straight line stitch with the distance set to something very close to the thread spacing. you want it as invisible as possible. for tears, actually tear it first. then use the wire brush again, to soften things up. sew down the edges again. but the real key is to make the the parts you sew curvy. straight lines and sharp corners will look out of place. round everything.
thats bout it. with practice you can turn out something that looks like it was worn for years by a bum in new york city, buried and then rose from the dead a year later. though i'll warn you, practice first. we ruined the first two costumes we tried this one, and the last ones looked ten times better than the first ones. don't grab your grab you sewed for hours and screw it up. practice with a yard of fabric a few times first.
"But right now I'm a little concerned about my pants, since I don't know where they are." - Valathina Nailo |
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