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How to Wash and Iron Your Cross Stitch Projects

February 20, 2024 by Sarah White

When you’re just making a small cross stitch project such as a bookmark, or something that is going to be displayed in a hoop, you don’t necessarily have to give a lot of thought to finishing it by washing or ironing the project.

Of course if you get it dirty, which can totally happen just from the oil on your hands or if you’re eating (or have pets) around your project, you’ll want to wash it no matter the size. But larger projects that are going to be framed in particular benefit from a little extra attention before you declare them finished.

Notorious Needle has good tips on how to wash your cross stitch, and, if you need to, how to iron it.

It’s actually not that different from how you might wash and block a knitting or crochet project, and it’s really important to do with those big projects even if it doesn’t look like you got grime on it. That’s because the oils from our hands and the skin cells that get on the project while we stitch can discolor the fabric and even deteriorate the fibers in the fabric or the floss.

Washing is also essential if you used any water-soluable ink pens on your project, or if the design was stamped on the cross stitch fabric before you started.

Once you’ve gotten it all clean, if you still find that there are creases where your hoop was holding the project, you can also iron it.

The key with both of these steps is to treat your project with care: use lukewarm water and gentle, clear soap, don’t wring it out aggressively, don’t put a hot iron directly onto your project.

These few steps might seem like a pain when you just want to be done, but they’ll take your project from done to finished and make sure it looks as good as all the work you put into it.

Click the links about to get all the details on how to finish your projects the best possible way.

[Photo: Notorious Needle]

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Have you read?

All About Stitching on Perforated Paper

I recently wrote a post on my blog about using a stitchable journal cover and I mentioned that you can make your own stitched cover for a journal by using perforated paper instead of buying a stitchable notebook.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve never used perforated paper for cross stitch myself. I definitely want to because I think it would be great to use for bookmarks that don’t fray and have a little more stability, for example.

Sirious Stitches has us covered, though, because they did a deep dive into all things perforated cross stitch pattern that is worth the time to read through.

The post mentions that a lot of people use perforated paper for cross stitch because they buy an ornament kit that uses it. I’ve never seen these (or at least never noticed that that is what they were) but it’s a great idea to make small projects like ornaments in this way. It also talks about the pros and cons of using cross stitch paper, where to buy it and how to make your own. 

Making it yourself is an awesome idea because if you already have a pattern in mind you can just make holes in your paper where you need stitches to be and leave the rest solid. This would be ideal for making greeting cards, for example.

In addition to kits and sheets you can often find the paper pre-cut into different shapes you can use to make your own designs, no real pattern required.

The post also includes tips and advice for how to stitch on perforated paper that you’ll want to check out before you try your first project.

I’m super intrigued by the idea of using perforated paper for cross stitch and will probably be trying it out soon. Have you used it before? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Check out the post over at Sirious Stitches for more information.

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

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