Antique Your Fabric and Spice Up Your Project

One of the fastest ways to create a more interesting project, be it quilting, cross stitch or needlepoint, is to use an "antiqued" or hand-dyed fabric. While most hand-dyeing involves messy dye that can really stain, you can easily create an antique-looking fabric at home with a little time, and your favorite brand of coffee or tea!

Start by brewing up your coffee or black tea. Pour three or four cups into a large bowl and allow to cool to the point that you can comfortably submerge your hands. While waiting for the liquid to cool, wet your chosen fabric with water, and ring out any excess.

Next, place the fabric in the bowl. If you prefer a more even result, make sure that all of the fabric is submerged in the liquid. If you are looking for an uneven result, then scrunch up the fabric so that there are peaks out of the liquid. You can also use rubber bands to create a tie-dyed effect. Check on the fabric every ten minutes and stir, until you reach your desired shade.

If you prefer a more splotchy or spotted appearance for your antique fabric, wet the fabric with water as above, and then spray the tea or coffee on the fabric using a spray bottle. If you are using tea, you can also touch the tea bags directly to the fabric. This can result in a polka-dotted appearance, however, so unless this is what you are looking for, its best to combine the direct tea bag dyeing with either an overall dyeing in a bowl, or with a liberal spraying from a spray bottle.

Once you've achieved your desired look, hang up the fabric to dry, and iron afterwards. If you are unhappy with the fabric after it dries, you can either re-dye it to obtain a darker shade, or wash the fabric in a stain remover to remove the dye and start over.

This dyeing method can be used on your fabric before or after you've stitched your design, and on any color fabric. You may want to dye a small piece of the fabric you plan to use for your project first, so you will have an idea of how long it will take to reach your desired look. If you choose to dye your fabric after stitching, just be sure that your thread is color-fast, or you will end up with more than tea or coffee dyeing your project!