Halloween- Bloody Bandages

Stained and blood splattered bandages will add a nice bit of creepiness to any room.

Things you will need-

• An old pillow case or other piece of white/cream/yellow cotton
• Scissors
• Saucepan
• Coffee grounds
• Salt
• Red and brown acrylic paint
• Paintbrush or old toothbrush

Cut your fabric up into long strips. I suggest making a variety of widths for a more homemade feel.

Fill your saucepan with enough water to cover the bandages and add 3 parts of coffee to 2 parts of salt. Salt is a fixative that will help the dye from the coffee stick to your fabric. I used heaped tablespoons as my unit of measurement but you can adjust that if you have more or less fabric to dye.

 Bring the mixture to the boil and let it simmer for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally with a metal spoon. (Do not use a wooden spoon as you may accidentally dye the spoon too.) If the water level drops below the top of the bandages you can top it up with freshly boiled water from the kettle. 

Once your fabric has simmered in the dye for 30-40 minutes turn the heat off and leave the fabric to sit in the dye overnight. Then take out your strips of cloth and rinse them out in cold water until the water runs clear and hang them up to dry.

Finally water down some acrylic paint and splatter the bandages. This can be a bit messy so you might want to put down some newspaper first. Red acrylic paint tends to be too bright for a realistic blood colour so try mixing in a small amount of brown paint to tone down the brightness. I used plain brown paint by itself as well to get a range of 'old and new' blood stains on the bandages. You can get small paint splatters with a toothbrush or paintbrush by flicking the bristles with your finger and the larger splats are created by flicking the whole brush with your wrist. The more water you use the more the acrylic paint will blend out into the fabric. 

Once your bandages are finished and dry you can either use them as part of your Halloween costume or use them to decorate your house by draping them over the backs of chairs or wrapping them around the banister etc.