Rusty & Musty

 I like to call this project my rusty musty collection, but I'll probably have to give that re-think soon to make it sound more appealing! 

I have been looking into eco-friendly ways of applying design to fabric and for this I  have been experimenting with rust dying and up-cycling used garments.

 These first two examples started life as plain men's shirts. 

I took the pattern from one of my original charity shop rag bag finds (left) and given that I could not bring myself to cut or dye the orginal I made a brand new, well not strictly brand new, top in the same style with a bib front and gathered in waist. 

 To be truthful the first example was a complete revelation! Feeling slightly disheartened with my work at the time I made this mock up out of an old shirt and literally shoved it in a bucket full of damp rusty nails. I forgot about it for two days and when i took it out it revealed this beautiful rusty pattern. I then used shibori to gather in the fabric and give it a crumpled effect.  

So after my first success I tried a different approach and made a second top out of another mans shirt and laser cut into the collar and edges to make a slightly lacy looking finish and brought the waist in with a couple of carefully positioned stitches.

 Further developing this idea; I began using iron fillings to create the rust and a paper stencil to produce more intricate patterns on the fabric. This is something I am still experimenting with and will have more examples to show soon! 

To this i wanted to add colour. An  eco-friendly way of doing this is heat transfer printing. These are some examples where i tried combining shibori, transfer print and rust dying onto found bits of polyester.

The trouble with using clothes I have found in the rag-bag is that the fabrics they are made from indefinitely determine which techniques I can use on them. As it turns out people don't give away nice silk shirts or cotton blouses... Most of what I come across is dreaded polyester! But it does present an interesting challenge and is something I want to persist with. Being a man-made fibre it does not breakdown at all and therefore it is essential that it is re-used as much as possible and not just thrown away. 

and in any case I have come across so many interestingly shaped garment it is an exciting challenge to make them into something new and desirable.