Thread: Advice on weathered clothing for props?

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Hey guys, wondering what some of you do to clothes to make them look old, weathered, ect.
I thought about leaving the clothes outside for a few weeks, cutting, ripping, rubbing dirt on them, and stuff like that. Anyone know of a good way to make them look the part.
I plan on making a few zombies (some out of the ground and some not) if that helps at all.
Any help would be appreciated.
THANKS
JACKSON

I went as a zombie last year so I needed the weathered looking clothes myself. I went out back and dug a hole and buried them for a couple of months, The looked the part and smelled the part too.LOL..

Originally Posted by pdcollins6092

I went as a zombie last year so I needed the weathered looking clothes myself. I went out back and dug a hole and barried them for a couple of months, The looked the part and smelled the part too.LOL..

hahaha Did they smell real bad? I might try burying some but maybe not for that long.
THANKS

They had a strong earthy smell to them but I would also go out there a couple times a week and water the ground where they were buried.

I'm trying out the skullandbones method of distressing clothing this year. We went to goodwill and bought a bunch of clothing, dug a hole behind the shed, added some bio matter and now we wait! He mentions the smell too so maybe I'll have to hose them down before I put them on my skeletons
skullandbones distressed clothing

I've had good results with a razor blade. You just kind of score the fabric until it tears away. The advantage is that you can expose the parts of the prop/costume that look best, and hide what didn't come out as well. Then you can smear some mud or brown paint around.

back to the cutting, you can mix and match sections of parallel strokes, holes, and flaps. It's actually kind of fun

I used paint, sandpaper and a wire brush (like to clean a grill) to age clothes.
(my hubby was going to be wearing this all night and we didn't want to get dirt all over the house)

I washed the clothes in the washer using a bit of RIT color lifter to lighten it (it was a pair of dark overalls) and then took sandpaper to the cuffs, collar and hem to wear out the threads. Then I used some paint (black and brown acrylic) and used rubber gloves and just lightly smeared the glove and grabbed at the clothing and dragged down, and used a spray bottle of water to make the paint spread out and soften the edges of it as it soaked into the cloth. Once dry, I went at the typical wear spots with the wire brush and sandpaper.

If rips are wanted, I'd wear the cloth almost through with a brush or sandpaper, (along the edges and seams) then pull on the cloth to get a natural tear started and go at that again with sandpaper to get it to pill up and fuzz - pulling threads out and extending rips and tears as needed.

I personally bury them in my compost pile, it only takes about 2 weeks if the compost is good and active. But beware! Compost smell makes just burying them seem tame, you will need to rinse these off really well if you use this method, but the results are definetly worth a bit of stench.

I do the same method as Frankie's Girl Then dress my bluckies and other props.

I don't bury mine because of the mess and smell. I cut them with scissors, wash and dry a few times so that they fray. Then I apply globs of acrylic paint to make "dirt" and "blood".