'Dirty-Laundry'

5/29/2019

I'm busy working on the travel clothes for Rex and Bianca, and have made Rex's shirt and cravat, as well as an apron for Bianca. But they all looked too new. Definitely too 'new' for people out on an adventure in the wilderness. So I dirtied them up, lightly staining everything with diluted acrylic paint. Kind of the opposite of what people normally do - instead of washing to make everything clean (which I did to the fabrics before I started, to remove any stray chemicals, and make sure all the old clothes were actually clean) I'm making the clothes look dirty and 'lived in'. Now everything is hanging on the line to dry.

By the way, I used cream coloured cotton fabrics for the shirt, cravat and fichu; and a heavier beige fabric for the apron, to give it a natural coloured, homespun look. 'Whites' were never as white in the old days as they are now. The chemically-bleached, super white fabrics available today, did not exist back then. Their 'white' is what we'd consider 'cream' today. Something to keep in mind when making period clothes.

7 Comments

Dorothy

5/29/2019 07:41:08 am

Wow, this was a test of perspective for me. Until I read your captions, I thought those were actual clothing pieces on the line and not items for your characters.
I didn't think about the fact that people's clothing back then would not be spanking clean like ours would be today. They certainly did not have the cleaning machines or chemicals that we do.

Martha

5/30/2019 09:09:45 am

I guess you didn't notice the size of the clothespins then.

Only rich people would have had nice, clean clothes, fresh from the tailor or dressmaker, and even that would have gotten dirty sooner or later.

Poorer people often had to make clothes out of existing clothes or fabrics, and much of that would have been faded or worn. Plus they didn't have the strong chemical dyes back then. Those started in the Victorian period when they actually used arsenic for some of their colours.

I don't know when bleach was invented, but before that the lightest colour would have been a natural cream.

Donna

5/30/2019 10:07:03 am

Even the rich folk had a hard time keeping their clothes looking nice sometimes. The McCord Museum had a fashion-through-the-ages exhibit years ago that had an elaborately embroidered white silk man's court costume with incredible perspiration stains...ugh. I guess if you were rich enough to have owned it, you could have afforded to wear it only once!

Dorothy

5/30/2019 10:15:06 am

Wow, I never thought of this. I knew that poor people wore "hand me downs" but I never thought that their clothing would be in poor shape. It makes sense though.
Thanks for that history lesson. I always know I am going to learn something new on your site.

Donna

5/29/2019 07:17:03 pm

All these extra things you do to add realism to your photos are so interesting! Thanks for sharing all the great tips, I have to admit that it would take all my willpower to deliberately make something look a bit dirty :o)

Martha

5/30/2019 09:12:52 am

Thanks! It comes from my one year in technical theatre school, aging costumes to look more authentic. I lost the skin on more than one knuckle running a Union soldier's uniform over the belt sander in all the appropriate places.

I know most people wouldn't dare stain their doll clothes, but that's what helps it look more authentic. Especially for any historical or Fantasy costumes that aren't royalty.

earthspirits

5/30/2019 09:55:18 am

Always love your attention to detail. That's so interesting (and apt) about the type of clothing / condition folks would have worn back then.

'Dirty-Laundry'

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