Now lets antique what we stitched!

I am bold....and have no problem jumping into a project with a positive "it's going to turn out fine" attitude. So for me....I love how this turned out. This took me 5 minutes to do! You could antique the fabric first...but I like to do it after so I can put some over the stitching to truly make it look old.
I don't use coffee or tea......I don't care what they say...acid is acid...and if you are an archival buff.....you don't put acid to stain fabric unless you are going to wash it out. I use Ranger Archival, acid free, permanent and waterproof inks. I used Sepia and Coffee on this one. You can see how it looks when I was half done with the Sepia. Then I added the coffee color. I used the ink pad as an applicator (I told you I was bold) and then I used a paint brush to rub in areas with softer or darker color. I also dabbed these colors on the cotton twill hanger. Using ink on fabric will require a drying time of 24 hours or more. You can then heat set it with your iron if you like.....it doesn't require it. You just want to make sure it is good and dry before you handle it.
***If you have ever stitched with over dyed floss and the color has rubbed off a bit too much on the fabric, you can use this technique to shade the fabric and around the lettering. You can use a very light ink or go dark and drastic for a really grungy and primitive look.
The end result is a bit darker than these photos. I tried using the flash as you can see....and I just can't capture the rich color of the ink. I should buy a really good camera. One of these days.

I thought I would share that with all of you. There are so many nice fabrics out there...but if you have one that is too light you might consider this technique. Practice on scraps first.....so you don't get mad at me!!!! LOL
Nancy