# How to zombify a dress & a suit?



## Halloween Princess (Sep 23, 2008)

I have some pictures saved on my other computer that currently wont charge... Search for Christina Aguilera in costume. Her & her husband did an amazing dead bride & groom one year. The pics might give you some ideas.


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## the dogman (Jul 8, 2007)

Tea or Coffee will add an aged look to clothes. The longer you leave them sit in the brew the darker the color.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

I've aged plenty of clothes. 

Materials:
Acrylic paint (browns, blacks and greens (and red if you're doing blood)
medium weight sandpaper
scissors or knife
dye remover or bleach OR darker color stains (tea/coffee works too)


First thing I do is bleach or dye remover. I fade out the fabric just enough to look old and used - so this process is one that requires constant checking and immediate washing to stop the bleach/dye removal. If it's a really light colored piece of clothing, then I'll do the tea staining or use really watered down acrylic paint (like a bucket of water with a small amount of brown or black paint mixed into it.

I then go at the clothing in the places that would become worn or threadbare - collars, cuffs, knees, arm bends - with sandpaper. I roughen until it looks good and worn out and pull out the threads until it looks good to me. It helps to have a small block of wood to wrap the paper around so you have a good grip.

Then I go at it with a knife (you can use scissors too). I do small cuts and then TEAR the fabric along the bottoms of skirts and jackets and put a few strategic tears in the places that make the most sense. I'll also pick out and cut seams and hems at this point and rip them more by force to get the threads to hang out. I also sandpaper sometimes once the tears are made to get them really ragged looking.

Paint is applied very sparingly, but it's usually along the cuffs, bottom of the jackets and edges (where they'd come into contact with skin) and light smears across backs of jackets. I use my hands and a large brush to just lightly touch and then smudge the paint and also keep a bowl of water to dip into and fling paint/water at the clothing. I'll do light layers and let it dry and then come back and do a little more until the layers of paint look good.


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## wackychimp (Jul 16, 2009)

We did this for my daughter last year. We zombified a cute poodle skirt costume she got for free.

I tried dousing it in watercolors and that didn't "hold" like I would have expected. We used black spray paint sprayed from about 16-20 inches away to give it a dingy look (use light gray for your husband's suit). The watercolor paint we _did _use was dark green so that gave it a slight mossy look.

We also discovered while trying to dry it with a hair dryer that we could melt it in places. This made some cool "organic" looking holes in it. Not sure if your costume will melt or not. This was Halloween costume polyester. 

She also used a few realistic spider tattoos from http://www.fxtattoo.com/creepytattoos.php


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## Stoo (Sep 19, 2010)

Burning in small holes with a candle can work too, plus the smoke can add more grubiness. After I burnt my shirt I had to give it a good wash in softener to get rid of the smell of the smoke though.

I also found that some leftover woodstain (from staining the garden fence) mixed in water gave a nice dirty effect on the white shirt.


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## Howlyn (Sep 28, 2004)

Thanks everyone! I knew you guys would have some good advice! 

Both the gown and the coat are dry clean only so I'll have to use something that isn't too smelly or do it asap so they can air out. lol

Halloween Pricess...I did a search and found a photo of Christina Aguilera & her husband in their corpse wedding costumes and you are right...very good inspiration!


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## Zombierepellent (Sep 29, 2010)

I used sandpaper to weather my jason costume, I also buried it, spraypainted it, dropped rocks on it, stabbed it, and hit it with a baseball bat, it comes up with some pretty nice results


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## Shenanigans (Sep 23, 2010)

An easy but messy way I drudged up my old Zombie costume was to literally drag it on the ground in the background through the dirt and let it get tattered from dragging it around...rip at it.. 

OF COURSE... It will be very dirty by the time you're done but it's really easy and if you know what your dirts made out of (i.e. no animal poops) there shouldn't be a real scare..
But that is what me and a friend did  It's easy and you're utilizing what's right infront of you


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