one way to distress fabric

Thanks for all your comments on my valued pillows. As requested, I am happy to share a quick tutorial on how to distress/bleach fabric. Tara talked me through the process several weeks ago over the phone and was kind enough to give me permission to post about it here. It's fun, quick and it will have you looking at your fabric in a different light. Be careful though, it's a little addictive. You may want to bleach every fabric in sight-just to see what happens!

The fabric is Nana's pantry by Connecting Threads.

11/18/13 edited to add: it has come to my attention that vinegar is NOT recommended for this process. It could cause a reaction that could be harmful to you. Apparently the vinegar bath will not stop the reaction to the bleach and your fabric will eventually deteriorate. Please see the updated instructions below. I apologize for the mis-information. If you want to read more on the subject, please read through this page. If you have completed a project with the technique I shared, I'd recommend that you rinse your project thoroughly in a mixture of Anti-chlor and water to stop the bleach reaction on your fabric.

Supplies:
Fabric
Household bleach-regular or ultra
Tongs or gloves
Anti-chlor (can be ordered through dye suppliers)
3 ice cream buckets or large containers
Water

Set Up:
Prep your fabric. I started with a fat quarter of each fabric and cut them in half to yield fat eighths. Set one piece of each fabric aside (control) and use one piece of each fabric for the bleach treatment.

Take an ice cream bucket (or similar sized container) and fill it 3/4 full of water. Add between 1/2 to 1 cup of bleach. I didn't measure my proportions, so it may take a little playing around. Start on the conservative side. You can always add more bleach if needed.

Fill an ice cream bucket 3/4 full of water, then add 1/2 teaspoon of anti-chlor. Mix to dissolve.

Fill the third bucket with plain warm water.

 

Distress that fabric:
Take a piece of fabric and place it in the bleach water. Use tongs or gloves to swirl the fabric around for a short time....start with only 10-15 seconds....then take it out. Let it drip just a bit, then place it immediately into the anti-chlor and water mixture.

Swirl the fabric and let it stabilize. If your fabric hasn't bleached to your liking, you can put it back into the bleach and water mixture. Some fabrics bleach better than others. Some colors fade faster than others. ALWAYS place the fabric into the anti-chlor bath after it's been in the bleach bath. Don't exceed 45 seconds in the bleach water.

Sometimes it takes a dip into the anti-chlor bath to see the reaction. Once the fabric is to your liking, place it in the warm water bath. Rinse thoroughly.

Hang it on the clothesline (if you have one) and admire the beautifully faded fabric. Isn't that just the prettiest?

Once the fabric has dried, press well and starch if needed. I find it hard to work with pre-washed fabrics. Starching them helps. It was wonderful to play with piecing the bleached and unbleached fabrics together. The values that emerged were amazing! And yes, I mixed unwashed and pre-washed fabrics into the same piece. I don't anticipate any issues with that. (I've done it before without a problem.)

I hope you give this technique a try. It was SO MUCH FUN to experiment and play. I was seriously giddy, and that was in spite of (not because of) the bleach fumes. Speaking of which, ventilation is a good idea.

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments.