Aging fabrics - method 1: Tea

Aging and coloring fabric, clothes, lace etc is really simple. As a result you get a brown-tinted fabric that looks really vintage. All you need are tea bags, water and salt. Salt isn't mandatory, but since it's traditionally used in the coloring to opens up the pores of the fabric and allow the dye to be absorbed better, it won't hurt to use it here too.

I do all of my large-scale hand-colorings in a huge steel sink. In the example I'll be coloring my pale blue jeans.

1. Put hot water in a container, bucket or sink. There has to be enough water so the fabric you're dyeing will be completely submerged in water.
2. Place tea bags in the water. The amount if tea bags depends on how dark you want the end result to be. Also note, the more water - the more tea-bags are needed. I put 50 bags in 20 liters of water.
3. Add salt. I put 500 grams of salt. Mix it in.
4. Let the tea simmer for about 30 minutes before adding fabric.
5. Wet the fabric and place it in the mixture. Wetting the fabric will allow the tea pigment to spread more evenly.
6. Mix and turn the fabric once and a while when dyeing. I had my jeans in the water for 12 hours becouse I wanted the tea tint to really show.
7. Wash the fabric in 40°C degrees (about 100°F), normal wash.

Note!
- Don't remove tea bags from the water untill finished. The tea bags release color all through-out the progress
- To get an even result, try to avoid folds and keep the fabric submerged at all times.

before

after