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labricoleuseYesterday i had to distress two jackets and vests for our upcoming show, Stones in His Pockets. Here's a quick photographic overview of the first step in this process, soaking and weighting:
Here you can see how i've set up an area for this in the dye facility, with a large vinyl tarp to protect the floor from runoff. To the left of the photo outside of view is a large bank of vents for our dye hoods, which suck air up and out of the room, and to the right (also outside of view) i had set up a box fan--this way, the airflow across the garments would help them to dry quicker. I also mummified the two dress forms in plastic so they wouldn't be damaged by my processes. One place i worked, i had a dedicated "distressing form" which was really just the crappiest form in the shop, but I like plastic-mummifying whatever shape form i need better than making-do with whatever cast-off crappy form there is.
The garments were then saturated in room-temperature water (room temp to avoid shrinkage of wool and wool-blends). I let them "bleed out" over the steel sinks until they were no longer shedding water in running trickles, then put them onto the forms. The designer wanted them really deconstructed and bagged-out, totally slouchy and sad and worn-forever-looking, so i put these heavy metal clamps in the pockets:
I used these instead of normal pocket weights (anything heavy will do--marbles, stones, half a brick, etc) because i wanted them to really yank down and open the tops of the pockets. The garments sat overnight on the forms with the airflow setup cranked up to high, and this morning, I removed the clamps and voila, they were sad, slouchy old clothes. Until i got my hands on them, one of the jackets was brand new and unworn!
Here you can see how i've set up an area for this in the dye facility, with a large vinyl tarp to protect the floor from runoff. To the left of the photo outside of view is a large bank of vents for our dye hoods, which suck air up and out of the room, and to the right (also outside of view) i had set up a box fan--this way, the airflow across the garments would help them to dry quicker. I also mummified the two dress forms in plastic so they wouldn't be damaged by my processes. One place i worked, i had a dedicated "distressing form" which was really just the crappiest form in the shop, but I like plastic-mummifying whatever shape form i need better than making-do with whatever cast-off crappy form there is.
The garments were then saturated in room-temperature water (room temp to avoid shrinkage of wool and wool-blends). I let them "bleed out" over the steel sinks until they were no longer shedding water in running trickles, then put them onto the forms. The designer wanted them really deconstructed and bagged-out, totally slouchy and sad and worn-forever-looking, so i put these heavy metal clamps in the pockets:
I used these instead of normal pocket weights (anything heavy will do--marbles, stones, half a brick, etc) because i wanted them to really yank down and open the tops of the pockets. The garments sat overnight on the forms with the airflow setup cranked up to high, and this morning, I removed the clamps and voila, they were sad, slouchy old clothes. Until i got my hands on them, one of the jackets was brand new and unworn!
