Aging or antiquing fabric
 

I am planning an art wall quilt of a flag. The only fabric I am using on the top is solid navy and solid gold. I would like for the fabric to look aged but I have no idea where to start.
I looked through this board but I may not have been searching correctly. If there is another thread somewhere, please feel free to point me to it.
Thanks for any suggestions!

There are several ways you can "antique" fabric. Basically you can soak it in tea, coffee, or tan dye. I actuyally prefer coffee since it gives it a brown look. If you use tea make sure it is black tea since other types will give it a red tint. It may be hard to get navy to look old but the gold should be no problem. Of course test fabric first to see which look you like best. an easy way is to use ritz tan dye in the washer. you can either pre dye the fabric or dye the whole thing after it is done. Either way fill a sink up with hot water and about 30-50 black tea bags or lots of instant coffee. Let the tea bags steep for about 15-20 min and then soak the items until the desires color remembering that color is darker when wet. You may be able to do search on "how to tea dye fabric".

I was going to suggest a tea dye also.

You will also want to make sure the fabric is covered completely. My aunt used to tea dye. She would dunk it up and down in the dye a couple times to make sure it soaked through the material. After a few minutes she would do it again. She did this in the bath tub to make sure she had plenty of water.

I love tea as well as coffee dyeing , I often do this with scrap quilts to tone them down , I save leftover coffee in the fridge and dye scraps as I go .

This may add some useful info on tea dyeing.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1...ic-t49978.html

Tea dying! Great idea. I've done this before with paper.

I think I'll try bleaching some navy fabric scraps to see if I can get the navy to look more worn. Thoughts?

Cheers!

I suggest the tea dye. I finished a quilt that my grandmother started in 1947 and had to make one block out of muslin. The tea worked pretty well.