Making a Dirty, Bloody Apocalypse Shirt

This tutorial is for making a shirt look dirty, old, and bloody, something a zombie or survivor would wear in the apocalypse.

Note: I forgot to take a before pic of my white shirt! I would recommend hitting up goodwill/thrift stores or Marshall's for cheap, white shirts.

Materials: shirt, tea bags

1. Fill a big pot with enough water to submerge a shirt in (3-4 quarts). Bring the water to a boil then add at least 6 tea bags. You want to go with black tea because it'll stain darker. This will take the brightness out of your shirt and give it an even, aged tone.

2. Turn off the stove and put the shirt in the pot. Allow to sit for at least 30 min or longer. Stir occasionally, making sure all parts of the shirt are submerged.

Note: I've only done this on white cotton shirts! I'm not sure how it will work on other colors.

Note: I only had sleepy time tea on hand, so it didn't stain as dark

Materials: high grit sand paper, low grit sandpaper

1. Place the dried shirt on a flat surface. Take your sand paper and run it vertically along the part of the shirt you want to tatter. High grit will pill the fabric and make it look worn (will tear small holes!). Low grit will tear bigger holes in the shirt. The more you sand, the more holes/bigger holes.

2. I sanded a lot along the hem of the shirt with low and high sand paper. A tattered hem pulls the look together. I also sanded the seams with high grit sand paper to make them look worn and pilled.

3. The rest is up to you! How many holes you want, where you want them, how big

Note: Anywhere a bone protrudes, add some wear and tear. These are high friction areas will wear at faster rates (ex. shoulders).

Note: I like to do this step before staining the shirt with coffee, but it doesn't really matter. You can just as easily make holes after the shirt is stained, or add more later.

Materials: black coffee, coffee grounds

1. Brew a cup/pot of coffee. Put your coffee in a spray bottle. Do this step outside: Start spraying the shirt. The closer you are, the more concentrated the brown color will be (pic 2). Farther away will produce lighter, more spread out mist effects (pic 3).

2. I like to focus the coffee on the hem to make it look really dirty. Also, the neck line to mimic sweat and anywhere there are seams on the shirt. Let the shirt dry or throw it in the dryer and then start again (it did not stain my dryer or make it smell, but that doesn't mean it can't happen!). You can layer the coffee spray for a darker color. I recommend spraying the shirt at different distances to get an unevenly dirty effect.

3. You can do this step with a wet or dry shirt: take the coffee grounds from brewing coffee and rub them hard into the shirt. This will stain like concentrated dirt. Brush off excess coffee grounds. I like to rub the grounds into the holes/tears to give them a slighter darker look.

Note: I had to hang the shirt outside for a solid week or two to air out the coffee smell

Materials: black paint, red paint, Citadel Color Technical Blood for the Blood God

1. Mix your red paint with a small dollop of black paint. My red tends to apply purple when I do this, so make sure you get the ratio right! I generally use the darkened red paint as a base coat for the Citadel Color Blood.

2. Start applying where ever you want! I like to start at the neck to mimic blood dripping down from a biting attack (pic 2). You can outline the holes in red (pic 3). You can douse your paintbrush in red paint and flick it at the shirt to mimic blood spatter (pic 4). Layering the blood paint gives it a wet look.

Note: the Citadel Color Blood paint is pretty viscous, I had trouble spattering it. You might add a few drops of water to your paint to make it splatter better.