I decided recently to utilize my childhood seashell collection and decorate our apartment's bathroom. I know that the whole nautical thing is way overdone but with my own spin I think I can make it work. There will be a longer and more involved post later with before and after photos but for now I am breaking down my progress into smaller posts since there is a lot of smaller elements involved.
One of the elements that I wanted to include was a pirate flag but after buying the flag and opening it I found that I didn't like the feeling it brought to the room. It honestly felt like something for a play or to hang over the track lighting in my college dorm room. I realized that this was due largely in part to the flag's condition. It was folded and creased and flat and shiny and new, not what a pirate flag should look like so I decided to age it. Whether you need a ratty looking flag for an awesome school play, want to help yours along before you hang it outside or maybe you have a reenactment to get to and just don't have the 50 years it takes (and a war) for your flag to look accurate. well then this is for you!
Supplies:
1) Flag: $5.99+Shipping: I used a more traditional pirate flag which I purchased from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Jack-Rackham-Printed-Polyester/dp/B0013NRY66/ref=pd_ys_iyr3 You will want to use a nylon based flag, I'm not sure this would work with other materials.
2) Cinder Block: $1.00: Purchased from Home Depot
3) Scissors
4) Iron
Time Spent:
1-2 hours
Process and Progress:
When I opened the bag and laid the flag out it looked like this:
First up I decided to get rid of the folds from the packaging (yes, I wanted it to be creased and messed up but not uniformly!) so I ironed it. Use a low setting and honestly if you burn it that's okay. First I ironed the flag flat then rolled it up and applied heat randomly to make ceases for use later.The most important thing to keep in mind when working on your flag is to be sure to do everything on the face you want showing and down the length of the flag to make it appear that it's been pulled by the briney sea air for years and years.
Now that the creases were out of the material it was time to get to work with the cinder block. The idea here is to stress and wear the fabric, it will tear and you will poke holes, this is what you want. What I did was I applied pressure and raked the flag across the face of the brick repeatedly.