Tips for Cleaning Cross Stitch Projects

Sometimes it happens that a cross stitch project is set aside for a long period of time. Maybe you were stitching something for a holiday and didn’t quite get it done in time. Or maybe you just wanted to start something else and it took you a long time to get back tot he other project.

It would be great if we always put our projects on hold in a safe place, like a bag, where they will be protected while we aren’t working on them. But stains happen, whether while we’re working on a project, while it’s in storage when we aren’t working on it, or even after it’s finished.

Cleaning a cross stitch project isn’t always easy, and there are no guarantees, but these tips from Leisure Arts on cleaning cross stitch projects are really helpful. The highlights: use cold water, be gentle and be persistent. But check out the post for more details, as well as how to store projects so you can prevent stains in the first place. (DMC has a great page on cleaning cross stitch, too, by the way.)

Have you ever successfully removed a stain from a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear what worked for you.

[Photo via JB Cross Stitch.]

One of the easiest ways to make a cross stitch project more personal is to add text to it. Whether you’re adding the names of people getting married to a generic floral cross stitch design, birth information to a project on theme with the new baby’s room or just adding a word or phrase that’s meaningful to you, adding words to cross stitch projects make them that much more special.

But if you’re not working with a project that already has text built in, or you want to change the text that’s there, that can feel a little daunting.

Caterpillar Cross Stitch has a great guide to adding names and words (as well as numbers) to projects, which talks you through what to consider and how to actually go about adding text to a cross stitch project successfully.

You’ll need to think about what kind of font you want to use and if you’re using back stitched letters or larger filled letters, how much space you need and how the letters work together in the text you’re planning to make sure it’s readable.

Their post includes common pitfalls such as running out a space or ending up with text that’s off center and how to avoid them (spoiler: chart out your text before you stitch!).

The whole post is really helpful if you’ve never added lettering to a project before and don’t know where to start. I like to use block letters in back stitch when learning how to add text to cross stitch, but of course there are tons of lettering options. Check out this collection of cross stitch fonts if you want to see some different things you can try.

And head over to Caterpillar Cross Stitch to get more tips for how to successfully add lettering to your cross stitch projects. They also have their own alphabet and number charts you can buy to add text to your stitching.

Have you ever added text to a cross stitch project? I’d love to hear how it went!

[Photo: Caterpillar Cross Stitch]

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