Tusken Raider Robes

[RacerX45]

I'm putting together a few Tusken Raider costumes for my annual Halloween display (this year's theme is Star Wars - I've got two Jawa's and a Power droid made already). The fabric I am using is 100% cotton and it an off-white. I've tried to dye it several times but never get the right color it seems. I've used Rit taupe, tan, and now cocoa brown (just used a little) and they all come out looking the wrong color (usually orangish). I removed the dye after each bad dye job with Rit color remover. I've seen a ton a great Tusken's out there and am wondering what everyone uses to dye the cloth. Thanks.

Randy

 

[yakcam]

I just recently did some robes and I used tea......

Oh and there's a strong cup off coffee in there too, just for fun

The results were pretty good......

The strip of material is it's original colour. However, I had already attacked the robes with some primer grey and matt black paint before I did the tea dye.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Kraig

 

[RacerX45]

Tea. I originally was going to go that route and the wife talked me out of it. Thanks. About how many bags did you use?

Randy

 

[yakcam]

Glad to help

I'm not sure how many bags we used, we just bought a box of no name brand tea bags and tipped them all in. At a guess, there were maybe 50? there were a heap of them.

We just put the robes and bags in and filled with hot water, gave it a big stir and left it overnight.

Cheers,

Kraig

 

[RacerX45]

Looks like I'm off to the store. Thanks again.

Randy

 

[yakcam]

No worries Mate, glad I could help


Cheers,

Kraig

 

[Prop Nut...]

Good idea, I gotta try it now.

 

[RacerX45]

Here's a good tutorial on how to dye with tea that was sent to me by redavhtrad.

How to dye with tea

Randy

 

[yakcam]

Cool thanks for sharing

I loved this bit from the Q&A...

<div class='quotetop'></div>

Can I tea dye my couch?

Sure. All you need to do is brew up a couple hundred gallons of warm tea, make sure to use extra teabags to make it strong. Get a container large enough to hold your couch, and soak overnight. In the morning, after the tea has cooled, remove the couch and let it drip dry. You may need help as the cushions and fabric will have picked up a lot of weight from the tea and will be heavier than usual. [/b]

:lol

Cheers,

Kraig

 

[Skaught]

I tried using tea bags but couldn't get it to take. I rubbed it in mud and let it dry...again - no stains. Of course, if I had been wearing a shirt for work and brushed up against a leaf it would have permanantly stained it. Go figure.

I ended up using liquid tan RIT dye, but only a little bit. I started out small and slowly added more until I got the righ color. Worked fine that way.

Scott

 

[stormtrooperguy]

i tend to like the color of coffee more than tea, but i've used both.

for tea i did a 5 gallon bucket of hot water and about 50 teabags.

coffee i filled the grounds area of my coffee pot as much as i could, made a pot, dumped it in on the clothes, then dumped the grounds in, and repeated until the bucket was full.

i found the rit tan dye to make things a bit too pink.

the one in the middle is me, dyed with rit:

then this one was coffee and tea, just a random mix of the two:

 

[RacerX45]

I ended up trying the dye again since I couldn't risk using hot water which the tea would need (the sleeves are a bit short and if it shrunk it anymore they would be way too short). I used warm water in the washer (about 90 degrees) and 3 cap fulls of the RIT liquid tan dye. It came out perfect. Not sure what I did wrong the last time. Thanks for all the help. I'll post pictures once everything is finished.

Randy