Tabard Twiddling

So

A lot has happened this week. I think I am going to concentrate on one thing per post, though. And today I am going to talk about...you guessed it...the tabard. I did do a mock up tabard to figure out how to make it work. I learned what does work....and what doesn't.

I found 2 sheets on Amazon for cheap. Fabric is flippin expensive these days. I think I paid around $10 for both together. One was red, one white. I think that those will be enough to make the white center and the red strips on the sides. I am an idiot when it comes to sewing, so I decided to use the frabic glue strips I used for Aoifa's skirt to hold it together.  I cut the white bit a little too short, so I decided to use it to test the construction and weathering techniques.

I then cut some of the red into strips. One side of the sheet was already sewn, so I decided to try to use that. I put the freyed side out though so you can totally see the cuts.

I just placed the tape on one side, then lined it up with the white piece and removed the backing. I messed up a few places. You can see the puckering.

See that puckering? So bad. I will be more careful on the real one. The puckering makes it look uneven. I think that was resolved a little bit with the weathering, but it is still noticeable and bugs me.

After I did both sides, the next thing to do was to practice weathering techniques. I have seen many YouTube videos of people doing it. I thought I would try tea staining, rubbing in dirt, and adding paint blood spatter. Some of it worked, some didn't.

The first thing I did was to cut the edges and frey them. I did not get a picture of that or the process. Sorry. But I just cut it up with scissors then rubbed the hell out of it with a steel wire brush. Just a quick note here, when I can I always get my supplies for this at the local dollar store. My scissors came from there and they are still reasonably sharp after a year of abuse. I also got a set of wire brushes from there. The set had a steel, a brass and a plastic bristle. I used the steel because I felt it would do the most damage in the shortest amount of time.

Next I tried tea staining. Instead of putting the whole garment in a boiling pot with tea, I opted to make strong tea in a mug with salt and blot it on to make the staining less than uniform. Apparently I don't know what that means because it turned out way too uniform. Next time I will make it much blotchier.

It isn't too bad, but I was going for the long worn look. Stains don't happen evenly. Here it is after I was done. I don't know why I missed taking pictures while I was staining. I did livestream it on Periscope, though, if you wanna watch what I did.

Next I put potting soil in a tub and rubbed the hell out of it.

It literally made very little difference. I may try hitting it again with dirt, just to see if I can get some to stay in the fabric. Also, the red does not show the dirt at all. that is annoying. I need to figure out how to get it darker on the red parts.

The next part I had to wait a few days. I tried to use the paints I have, but none of them had the right color. So I went online and found a paint for DnD minis called Dried Blood. They also had a Dark Rust and Fresh blood, so I got those too. I couldn't find where I put the fresh blood one, but it looks roughly the same as these two, with the exception of the title and a slight variance in the color. I added a bit of water to make it runnier, and tried it out. To be honest, this brand's dried blood is a bit too burgundy. I added some of the rust paint to the dried blood color and it came out perfect. It was roughly one drop rust to 2 drops dried blood.

I tried dipping my fingers in the blood and wiping it on the tabard, to make it look like she had wiped her hand on it. It was a good idea, but the streaming goes the wrong direction. I should have put it on before I tired it. Ah well. Live and learn. The real one will look better.

So overall, I think I know what I am going for now and how to create it. When I do the next one, at the same time I will also do the side pieces for the belt that are meant to match. I need to figure out how wide to make them. Do I make them the same width as the tabard, or wider? I dunno. We will find out. :) I still have no bloody clue how I am going to make that belt work either.