inspired ideas

Instant Vintage
How to give new polyester flowers from the craft store a vintage look.
by Cindy Baugh

I love to make things that have a slightly worn vinatage look with a little sparkle added just for fun. But sometimes, I can't find vintage floral sprays and may not have the time or inclination to seek out a mail order source.

That was the case recently and I hit upon something I really like and find easy to do so I thought I would pass it along to other crafters. While working on one of my little birdy arrangements I needed some flowers with that look and all I had were garishly bright white polyester flowers from the discount store. I tried tea-dying and coffee dying but as the flowers dried the darker color concentrated in the outer edge of the petals. Pretty, but not the look I was after.
BEFORE:

AFTER:




I had some Jacquard acid dye in 635Brown and thought I would give it a try. It said it worked on nylon so I thought it would probably do for polyyester too. Here are my flowers before I dyed them;

I mixed about a teaspoonful of dye in very hot water, and put my flowers in the dye bath. I had to weight them down with a heavy glass bottle. I left them there about an hour, then I took them out, laid them on paper towels to dry and voila! Instant vintage! See how different they look? Just a little toned down and worn looking as though they had been on an old hat tucked away in Grandmother's closet

You could probably do the same thing with bright pink or blue flowers too and give them that look.

You can probably buy Jacquard dyes at an art supply store, but I ordered mine from Dharma Trading Company. They have every color of the rainbow and offer dyes for other fibers too.

p.s. I don't think Rit Dye would work for this as it is for natural fibers.