# How to age this costume



## jdubbya

Bought the Twisty the Clown costume from Halloween Asylum. It's really nice and rather well made but very shiny and new. Looking for tips on how to dull it down or dirty it up a bit to give it some creep factor. not sure how with this fabric which is the satiny stuff they make a lot of costumes out of.

The costume as is










The look I'm shooting for










Any ideas will be appreciated!


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## fontgeek

Wash it first, that may take some of the shine of it.
You can dust it with flour or chalk dust for a temporary dulling. Beyond that, the material will probably lose some of it's sheen with use.


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## BillyVanpire

tea staining..?


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## jdubbya

fontgeek said:


> Wash it first, that may take some of the shine of it.
> You can dust it with flour or chalk dust for a temporary dulling. Beyond that, the material will probably lose some of it's sheen with use.


Thanks! Never thought of doing an initial washing. I'll try the dulling techniques as well. Just want it aged a bit for Halloween night to match the mask.


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## tarpleyg

Get some dirt from your yard and mix it into a bucket of hot water and dunk that sucker. That'll dirty it up plenty. Let it drip dry.


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## drevilstein

I would try strong tea or coffee staining, or mixing paint and water to spray or dunk in. A little latex brown paint and a lot of water makes for a good staining agent.


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## jdubbya

Thanks for the replies. I'll give these a try!


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## RoxyBlue

Also check the cleaning instructions on the costume before you try this. Some materials do wonky things when they get wet. Usually a cold water wash is safe for most fabrics but it's worth reading the tag.


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## jdubbya

RoxyBlue said:


> Also check the cleaning instructions on the costume before you try this. Some materials do wonky things when they get wet. Usually a cold water wash is safe for most fabrics but it's worth reading the tag.


That was my first thought and for the life of me I can't see anything on the tag. I might contact TOT studios for advice or as you said, give it a cold wash first.


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## Haunted Spider

I did a staining technique on a dress for my wife a few years back. mix some black paint into water in a ketchup type bottle way thinned down, and do the same with some green. I squirted the water on the dress at the top and it made dark stain lines down. I put alot on so most of the material was wet. I even added some water to soak the thing. Let it dry, the water will draw the paint into the material over time. The stain lines will not stay as they start but will shadow in well.

If you look at my 2012 album you can see the bright shiny dress I started with. if the picture embeds you can see the dingy dress I ended with.


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## jdubbya

That looks great! The costume is polyester and I did a search on dyeing the stuff. Looks like it can be done but I don't want it dyed, just dirtied up a bit. Will try this. Thank you!


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## Lord Homicide

How did it turn out JW? I stained a dress shirt by dunking it in a fairly viscous mud/water combo (as stated above), stirred it, let it sit for a few minutes then rinsed it off. Repeat until done. Tea or coffee would work but you can't really wash out/erase the staining so you're stuck with whatever stains happen.

The shirt I did was for a zombie party so I dirtied then bloodied up the cuffs more than anywhere else. I would imagine if I was a zombie, I would be digging around a lot.


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## JustJimAZ

Would like to see the final result


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## jdubbya

I tried a few of the suggestions but at the end of the day, it still looked pretty shiny and new. Guessing the fabric just didn't want to dull down. We used it as is and it was fine for our purposes. I've since sold all the clown stuff to another haunter right after Halloween last year.


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## Tanker

I made a Jason pt7 a few years back, I used a series of washes. Different brown acrylic paints watered way down and built up. It's the most natural and looks great. It is time consuming, but again looks amazing!!! Your darker browns raw sienna, burnt umber etc. Good luck, and be patient


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## Dan The Welder

I've always had good luck with Rit dye, tea and watered down acrylic paint


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