Thread: Costume Advice

Evening Gals & Guy's,

I'm finally starting on embellishing my costume tonight for a new act I've been stewing for what feels like an eternity....

The look I'm going for is tired, torn and dishevelled. I'm planning to half sew on any embelishments attack it with a nutmeg grater and unpick (but secure) sertain seams and trims. It consists of a black floor length sheer chiffiony gown and a silver 'silk' corset, do you have any top tips to help stain, rip or make it look trashed?

I know it'll take a bit of experimentation, but I hope you lovely folk may have some sure fire ideas up your feathered sleeves!

Mama XX

WARNING

Warning: This is an Old Thread This discussion is older than 60 days. information contained in it may no longer be current

ooh yes lovely! Depending on the colour, you can stain it with tea, plains dust (it's a make-up product used for 'dirtying up costumes and the body), even car spray to stain. Also (and this is how I work when breaking down costumes) think about what the character is/what they have been through to get it so trashed as it may help with the way it it stained... for instance my Miss Havisham costume is stained grey (car spray in different colours) with intense staining arond the bottom where she has dragged it along the floor, under the arms and around the neck. The Vikings (and other things I do for The Dungeons) are stained from the point of view of a battle/torture and continuous wear (the under arm and around neck stains and dirty cuffs as well as war...

If you need any more help, lovely, you know where to find me XX

Im going to hijack this a bit and ask if you know how to vintage something? I have a red satin dress which I feel is a little too bright for the edwardian look im going for, but not sure how to do it!

Not sure what you mean by 'vintaging' something; when we want to make something look used/worn/old ( usually called 'breaking down') we use all the techniques described above : the cheese grater, the wire wool, the spray paint; we dip and we dye, but it's usually fairly aggressive and/or specific.
If you just want to knock the colour back a bit, or maybe soften the fabric, I would try just putting it in the wash with a darks load and a lot of conditioner. I'm guessing it's a modern bought dress, and therefore likely to be a polyester or acetate satin rather than silk. Use a delicates cycle, and maybe put it through two or three times. This will remove any dressing and optical brighteners in the fabric, and there may be a bit of colour bleed from the rest of the items, which shouldn't go patchy but just take the whole thing down a bit : just like when your favourite white knickers end up going greige because they got left in the drum just before you did your jeans. Always happens to me, anyway........

Vx