Witches Stitches - Ageing fabric with Paint and Sanding

Hello all,

I am sorry but this is going to be a short one this week. I am in NJ, (I live in NC), taking care of family business.  

If you are a lover of prim like I am, the more prim it looks the more I like it. There is something so wonderful about a piece of furniture that has peeling paint or doll with a well-worn look. I like to think about who may have used or played with it over the years and what their story is. 

When I make my cloth dolls I tea dye them then I paint and sand them. This gives them a great aged look. Through trial and error this is the steps I use.

1 – Sew and stuff your doll.

2 – Tea dye the doll, making sure you use a heavy coating of tea. You may want to dye it a second time if the first one is not dark enough. You can use instant coffee to get a really dark look.

3 – After the doll is dry paint it with your choice of color. Make sure you water down your paint. Use 2 parts paint to one part water.  The thinner paint will sand easier during the next step.  Dry the doll.

4 – When the doll is dry use a med grit sand paper and lightly sand your doll. Make sure you sand all in the same direction, it just looks nicer when you are done. When sanding make sure you do not sand in one spot to long you will sand right through the fabric.

 5 – How much you sand or how little you sand depends on how old and worn you want your doll to look.

Note – Do not take a short cut and not tea dye your item first. If you don’t tea or coffee dye the item first, when you sand the light color of the fabric will show through and not look as aged as you may want.

This can be on any painted fabric surface. If you want to cover a stool or a book with fabric and have it look old and worn, you can tea dye, paint and sand it and it and it will l look as if it has been round for 100 years.

If you want your item to have an even more worn and well-aged look, you can sand in one spot long enough for it to sand through the fabric. Make the sanded spot small and then take a needle and thread and mend it. After all 150 years ago they did not toss things in the trash it he first sign of wear. They fixed and reused everything they could.  

We can take a lesson from our ancestors, fix and reuse!!

If you want to see what a tea dyed, painted and sanded item looks like just take a look at my etsy site. The link is at the bottom of this post.

Well I guess that was not as short as I thought it would be.

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Faith - The Primitive Black Hat Society

www.etsy.com/shop/PrimitiveBlackHat

The Witches Stitches -- Doll making 101

The Witches Stitches Doll Making 101 Ageing Fabric

Staining and ageing your work.

We all love the look of antique fabric. It has a wonderful aged look and can be used for home decorating or crafting. There are many ways to age your fabric. The best way I found was trial and error. These are the ways I have come up with different ways to age fabric.

1 - 100%coton fabric ages the best.
2 – Be careful how dark you age deep colors. Dark reds and deep blues can look “muddy” if you make your solution to dark.
3 – Ageing solutions
     Instant coffee (2 table spoons to 2 cups of water)
     Instant tea (2 table spoons to 2 cups of water)
     Tea bags – (4 tea bags to 2 cups of water)
     Walnut Crystals – (use one teaspoon to 2 cups of water)

Using Instant coffee and instant tea are the same. The two will give your fabric different smells.  You can add a little vanilla extract to your ageing solution to give it a sweat smell.  Tea bags will give your fabric a light muted look. Walnut crystals will age your fabric darker than the other items. Use less walnut crystals then the coffee or tea.

The instructions for ageing are the same no matter what medium you choose to use. I will use instant tea or coffee as an example, but you can choose any of the dyes.

In a glass bowl pour in 2 cups of very hot water. Add instant tea or coffee. Mix the solution until all the coffee or tea is mixed completely. If you have un-dissolved grains this will leave a dark spot on your fabric. After your solution is well mixed, wet and dip a 4” square of fabric into it. By wetting the fabric first your fabric will soak up the dye faster. Dry the square and if you like the way it looks great. If not add more tea or coffee to your water, repeat the dip test. When you have the right shade then dye the amount of fabric you need for your project.

If you want to dye a doll that is already stuffed, you can paint your solution on the doll. You can hang your doll outside with a thread loop. If you want to dry your doll in the oven keep in mind that the side that faces down will dry lighter. It may also have some dark marks on it where the doll touches the cookie sheet. If you want to avoid this, dye one side and dry it, then dye the other side and dry it. Make sure you do not drip your solution down the side of your doll.

Drying –
You can let your fabric dry in the sun or you can use your oven to dry it.

Sun Drying – Natural is always better. I like the look of the fabric when I let it dry naturally in the sun. Keep in mind that when you dry it outside if you drape it over a railing or drying rack the back will dry lighter than the front and you will have a dark line where the rail or rack touches the fabric. I attach a thread loop to the two ends of my fabric and hang it up to dry.

Oven Drying - If you are drying it in the oven you can use a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Keep in mind that if you do not turn your fabric half way through the drying process the back side will be lighter than the front. Keep your oven temp. at 200 to 250 degrees. No higher.  If you have your oven set to high you will burn your fabric. Worse, you may set it on fire.

After you have found the right color for your fabric and it is dried you can aged it further by lightly sanding it with a fine grit sand paper. Just be careful not to sand a whole in it, unless that is the aged look you want.

Note – If you age fabric and make curtains or anything that will be in the sunlight on a constant basis, your fabric will fade.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions feel free to ask me!!

Faith
The Primitive Black Hat Society
www.etsy.com/shop/PrimitiveBlackHat