Cleaning finished pieces
Mary Diggins
I'm hoping for some advice: I've just moved to a new house. There is a
whole-house water softener system in place, functioning properly, as well
as two whole-house water filters, one white paper, the other the charcoal
type. The softener system is for excess iron and manganese in the well
water. I have a box of completed x-stitch projects, all on aida cloth. I
need to clean these pieces in preparation for finally mounting & framing
them (I'm doing the snoopy dance!) HOWEVER... i'm concerned about the
softener system possibly causing staining, now or in the future as the
pieces age. Am I being too paranoid- should I wash with bottled water? What
type of soap should I use? Thank you for your help.
Mary
John or Jenn Ridley
Mary Diggins wrote:
> HOWEVER... i'm concerned about the
>softener system possibly causing staining, now or in the future as the
>pieces age. Am I being too paranoid- should I wash with bottled water? What
>type of soap should I use? Thank you for your help.
You're being paranoid...the softened water is *MUCH* less likely to
stain your pieces than unsoftened water...especially with the iron &
manganese you mention (Fe and Mn are what cause most water staining).
Bottled water, unless you use distilled, is probably of a lower
quality than your tap water.
I use Synthrapol to wash my pieces if they're grubby...otherwise I
just rinse them to get the wrinkles out. Other people in the group
use Orvus (quilt/horse) soap.
jenn
---
Jenn Ridley
jri...@ix.netcom.com
The Cooks
Ty soaking the piece in warm water with a little wool lite.
M
CatsEwe2
Along the lines of cleaning cross stitch/needlepoint pieces, I'm appealing
to the collective widsom of this group to offer advice to me re: cleaning
old xst pieces which have been hanging for years. The pieces in question
were my mothers - and were hung either framed, but with no glass - or
alone, as in bellpulls.
The *one* I've tried to clean was extremely difficult to unattach from the
foamcore/blocking medium - and the accumulated dirt and dust remains, no
matter what I do. The fabric, which was once a light cream color is *now*
the color of strong tea - but definitely a dirty, dingy color.
The bellpulls aren't nearly as bad - but hung against nearly white walls
they, too, look dingy.
Any suggestions, please - for cleaning, as well as for future maintenance
of the bellpulls? TIA
Anne
KPaules531
In article <5vallp$h...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>, The Cooks
<mco...@worldnet.att.net> writes:
>
>Ty soaking the piece in warm water with a little wool lite.
NEVER, NERVER, NEVER use Woolite. Might as well use bleach! Use Orvus
wash to wash your needlework with. Others will agree, I'm usre.
JoAnn (she who's not quite awake yet)
Suzanne
Stay away from Woolite! I use just a few drops of regular
over-the-counter antibacterial liquid hand soap, in a big bowl of cold,
cold water. Swish and soak, swish after awhile again, soaking it up to a
day. this gets the oils from your hands off. Then try very hard not to
touch it with bare hands again, if you have to, touch only the edges. Iron
on a fluffy towel, on top of the ironing board, face down. use a light
touch so the stitches puff out a bit when drying. Also: ironing does not
remove all traces of moisture, so hang on a pinchy hanger in a quiet place
for a day, at least, before framing. Good luck!!
--
Suzanne
XXXXXXX
Love is all you need.
DANCINGNDL
>NEVER, NERVER, NEVER use Woolite. Might as well use bleach! Use Orvus
>wash to wash your needlework with. Others will agree, I'm usre.
>
>
Jancie Love recommends Orvus for washing most of your needlework.... In
her book, Linen and Lace, she also recommends the following recipe for
badly stained items and attributes it to the Valentine Museum (Richmond,
VA) via Marion Scoular.
2T Ivory Snow ® and 1T Snowy Bleach ®. Add to 1 gal tepid water. May be
soaked in this solution for up to 3 weeks.
I have not tried this with pieces that have been stitched with colored
threads/yarns other than ecru or white. The ecru pieces that I washed in
this manner remained ecru - they did not "bleach" out to white.
Perhaps others may have tried this recipe and can share some thoughts?
Lori
Dancing Needle Designs
http://members.aol.com/dancingndl/
"When she told me I was average, she was just being mean."
Hank & Anne Reintges
>
>Along the lines of cleaning cross stitch/needlepoint pieces, I'm appealing
>to the collective widsom of this group to offer advice to me re: cleaning
>old xst pieces which have been hanging for years. The pieces in question
>were my mothers - and were hung either framed, but with no glass - or
>alone, as in bellpulls.
>Any suggestions, please - for cleaning, as well as for future maintenance
>of the bellpulls? TIA
>
>Anne
I'm sure you'll hear this from lots of folks, but my advice is:
try soaking them in Orvus. If this doesn't help, an old remedy
for whitening linens is to rinse in lemon juice and set in the sun
to bleach. (Never tried it, don't know if it would harm fabric,
but "old wives" used to do it). Don't know what to say about
maintenance of bellpulls. I just hang mine on the wall.
HTH
Anne/ NC
Address has been altered to block junk bulk mailers. To send an E-mail
delete the ".uk" on the end of address. hgrei...@skybest.com
*** Please DO NOT include my name or E-mail address in any mailing lists
unless I explicitly make the request. In addition, please do not send
me ANY unsolicited advertisements via E-mail.