Rust Dyed Fabric - Lampshade
6 Materials
$20
3 Days
Medium
A few months back I had great fun playing with rusty nails, bits and pieces of rusty metal found on the beach and fabric. Rust placed on wet fabric gradually dyes rust colours.
The fabric is soaked in a solution of 50:50 water and white vinegar. Rust items are placed into the fabric, where the rust touches the fabric patterns will form. Alternatively you can wrap rust objects with the fabric.
The process can take between 1-3 days for the rust to form.
Having had fun with rusty nails, lumps of metal and washers creating a variety of patterns was then left wondering what to do with the fabric itself. Time passed.
I had a go at embroidering onto the fabric, adding embellishment to the fabric. But then wondered what to do with the embroidered fabric. After some thought I decided to make a lampshade, the back of the embroidery shone through the shade so I chose to work with just the rust fabric.
Using a lampshade making kit found on Amazon I created a lampshade - more detailsfor how to make the lampshade are in my blog post.
I am delighted with the result. If you fancy a go yourself but have no rust objects then you can atill be a go - find out here.
I would love to know what you would make with rust fabric.
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Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Pillow covers?
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I remember when the metal ribs on the shades would leave rust marks and my mother would buy new shades. How times have changed.
Frequently asked questions
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🤔You do realize you’re going to put all the stain remover companies out of business ... don’t you ?!?! 🙄
I know rust and tannic acid is used to stain oak wood black and to make a type of black ink. What happens if you rinse the rust stained fabric with tea or another source of tannic acid? Do you get a light tea stain over all and black where it was rusted?
I wonder if you can do this with a white cotton t-shirt....instead of tie dyed it would be rust dyed...I bet it would look awesome and be a one of a kind t-shirt...HHMMM I think I may just have to give this a try and see how it comes out ....I'm loving that idea a lot ...thanks for sharing your rusty nail dye idea ...