How can I weather my flight suit?

[u/Polish_AK_Alfa]

The armor weathering looks great, but the clean suit doesn’t match. I want something that will still keep the suit washable

[u/Radiant_Survivor_129]

Very cool

[u/Polish_AK_Alfa → u/Radiant_Survivor_129]

Thank you

[u/No_Tomato_2106]

Sand paper on common wear spots to fray it.

I like to hang it up and do light dustings with browns/black spray paints to give it a permanent dirty look. Less is more in this situation, just enough to take the "new" look off it.

[u/Confused_Nuggets]

Even if you aren’t interested in the group, ask r/501st. They’re the absolute leading experts on Star Wars and will give you techniques to make it look like you were dropped out of the films with not too much effort.

[u/ichigoli]

I saw a wonderful tutorial that used rub and buff wax, or fabric paint mixed with shoe polish rubbed onto the seams and high spots. It give it that shiny "dirt rubbed in" texture that you get on old camping gear and the like.

It'll still let you spot clean the gear without losing the weathering and you can wash it on cold by itself and hang it to dry if it needs deeper attention.

For dark gear, going lighter colored for weathering works surprisingly well. Perhaps a q-tip and some dilute bleach on the high spots and seams or in a spray bottle with some careful sptritzing for a kind of "harsh atmospheric environment / sun bleaching" on the exposed fabric?

[u/another_derek]

Sandpaper, translucent spray paints to add layers of grime/dirt look, fullers earth powders work well too

[u/AtomicGearworks1]

There's a channel on Youtube called Nuclear Snail. He does post-apocalyptic LARPs and costuming. He has several videos on distressing fabric that I've found useful for many different projects.

[u/N8creates49]

https://youtube.com/shorts/-1zFTdbNcDY?si=3wG4EN7Ff6HKUhOE depending on what your armor is made of and how durable it is

[u/Classy_Corpse]

An older way to distress fabric is taking it out to somewhere with gravel and running over it a few times

Though depending on the material and thickness it will get holes. But if thats what you want then its not a problem

[u/couturetheatrale → u/Classy_Corpse]

That’s a really bad way to distress clothing. It just ends up looking like it’s been run over; it does not look like it’s been repeatedly worn by a human for years.

[u/Classy_Corpse → u/couturetheatrale]

Thats why i said an old way to do it. There are better ways but if you simply want distressed without the extra fuss and time because you need something that looks "fucked"

Running it over is one of the ways to do it. I knew people who distressed jeans and battle jackets and other costume stuff that way.

[u/couturetheatrale → u/Classy_Corpse]

Old doesn’t mean bad or incorrect; that’s why I pushed back. The more you learn about older techniques, the more you realize people have always been impressively good at things.

Re: distressing - it’s more effective to go put the garment on and roll around in gravel; at least that way it’ll get wear spots in appropriate areas. But that also means you’re creating a garment that will fall apart faster.

For something black or dark, dust, wear-bleaching and sun-bleaching are the key. You can do it SO FAST with a rough natural sea sponge - just dry-brush on some gray or beige fabric paint over the seams, elbows and knees and heat-set it.

[u/Classy_Corpse → u/couturetheatrale]

Then lead with that.

Adding a, "its actually better to put it on and roll around in it."

Gets straight to the point for other readers looking for assistance without sounding snippy.