Help!

Is the FABRIC partly white and partly beige? Or the thread on the spool? Or the thread in the fabric?

I'm sorry, I should have been clearer. I have stitched some areas with DMC Blanc, which has now, in comparison to the thread that I have left, turned beige.

(The fabric is actually beige, and the thread now matches it perfectly, which I find ironic. The UFO in question is actually a stitch-a-photo, and the white is the *very* white siding on our house, that my mother is hunched in front of. And yes, this project was too difficult for me 5 years ago, when I started it. But as I've recently finished a small UFO with great ease, I figured I had made progress, and it was time to have another go at it.)

Sorry if anything is still unclear, but English isn't my native language. (note to self; maybe I should make that part of my signature?)

I think you're going to need to remove the thread that has turned color, and replace it with the color you want.

I disagree. When it comes to washing etc. DMC thread is as tough as old boots. Assuming the fabric color is as fast as DMC thread, wash you embroidery in whatever it takes to make the used DMC Blanc the same color as the unused. Orvus, detergent, oxyclean, bleach etc. HTH.

If there are other colors, bleach may be too strong. However, I think Jim is right. Before you spend hours frogging (unpicking), try washing in something like Orvus, (it has a commercial name in sewing shops). Or try any dish detergent, as long as it doesn't have color added to it. If you use Orvus, soak it overnight. You might be surprised by the result. You really haven't lost much if it doesn't work, and may save yourself a whole lot of heartache if it does..

Gillian

BTW, your English is very good!!

Thanks for the advice everybody! I will try cleaning a small area first and see how it goes.

And if it doesn't work, I've suddenly discovered I have loads of thread to do it over if I decide to unpick. The chart that DMC has made for me, calls for a total of 9 skeins white, which I have dutifully bought all in one go to make sure it's all the same. It looks like I've used a little more than one, and have done virtually all that is supposed to be done in white.

Arnhild

HMM -- if soaking and soap don't work, I wonder if lemon juice would help restore the white floss back to white again. Bleach is nasty stuff and even washing and rinsing numerous times often doesn't stop the chemical action of the stuff. Lemon juice is much gentler. HMMM -- what happens if you use a solution of 10% hydrogen peroxide, I wonder? Never used the stuff except for gargling when I had a sore throat or for coloring my hair. If a mild solution is OK to gargle with, I would assume it would be OK on needlework that was 100% cotton. Any comments on that -- I'd like to know, OK? CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I agree, although I would think an oxygen based bleach would be OK.

Dora

I agree - try a quick bath first!

Cheryl

Frankly, I think everyone is worrying too much. Haven't you ever seen white cotton items which have been stored too long and turned yellow from storage? If the project were mine, and I KNEW the piece had been worked from the skeins still in the kit, I would just finish it up, then wash everything AFTER the project was complete.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Chiming in - I'm sorry to agree, but this is one of the problems with white in large areas. Trying to match the now biege will end up aging to different colors. Personally, I think you're just going to have to pull the white and redo it. Unless you have some way to kind of intermix it so that there isn't a definite line of different color.

Having seen my SIL have to replace a bunch of white on a NP, and experienced this a bit myself with a Snowman piece, I chenged my habit. Now, I do white last (if it's a big piece, or big areas, etc) to avoid this problem. Unless it's soemthing I KNOW I'm going to crank right through. Though, even then, I tend to do the white last just before knots, backstitching and beads.

Sorry - but good luck.

The only other option - depending on the rest of your piece - you could try and wash it and see how it works - just do the swish in coolish water with plain, Ivory dish soap (the white stuff) or similar for needlework, and some white vinegar in the rinse. Then roll to dry in a towel, let it air dry, and then press when it's just barely damp - if the white brightens enough - you're lucky.

Hope something works for you, Ellice - who must now go back to cooking for 16 tonight (and soup for 2 nights - there is 10# of chicken bubbling away).

The peroxide on blood works not just by bleaching action. Also - just FWIW

- if you have your own blood spilled - you can use your own saliva to remove the stain - it's an enzyme thing.

It's certainly worth trying the washing with the piece, but I wouldn't bleach it at all. And, point blank - if the white has faded, it's faded, and that's kind of that. Colors age. Cleaning will brighten out dust, etc

- but I'd be surprised if any of this works well enough to match up.

ellice

Actually, saliva only removes some blood particles, not all. The best for removing blood is saline, like that found for contact lenses or nasal sprays. It's what they use in medical laboratories to clean their lab coats when blood is spilled.

That is simply untrue.

Dianne

Usually this is only from smoke or air pollutants and will wash out- Patti

I'm sure your DH knows far more than me - but I did say the salive is specific to one's own blood. And saline is not the only thing people use on blood spills - although maybe in your experience it is.

Not untrue at all. Bleaching will remove dye, and hence brighten it. But, it also weakens the fibers - on anything. That's chemistry. But if colors have changed from aging, they've changed. If it's just dirt, you can remove dirt - or most of it. Bleaching something isn't the same as restoring original color.

ellice

I guess you missed the part when I said saliva - even your own on your own blood - does not remove all blood particles, just some. Saline removes all. Some people are averse to using saliva on their needlework. There are tons of you out there in the netherworld that are aghast at someone licking their floss, let alone using saliva to remove a tinge of blood. So the saline solution solves that problem.

No one said anything about constant bleaching. A single bleaching won't hurt anything. And many a cotton crocheted project gets bleached over and over. Just imagine years ago when whites were boiled and washed in lye. They still lasted for decades, if not generations. I still boil whites (pillow cases) on occasion.

For whites, that simply untrue. It may be in some instances, but it certainly isn't always true. Again, I have had crocheted pieces yellow before I've even finished them. A washing/bleaching brings it all back to nice and white. And I've bleached colored embroidery and it comes back as shiny as new. I know that, for some people, that gives them pause. You have to use your head about it. Never bleach silks. Overdyes are another no-no. But a single bleaching is not going to rot your cloth and threads. That's also chemistry.

Dianne

Thank you everybody for your help and advice! What I did when I had calmed down enough, and I'll tell you what this work in progress is, and you'll understand why I was so beside myself, was soak it and clean it gently with some dishwashing liquid. And it worked! The white is white again. Maybe it just was dirt, in which case: oops. I don't wanna think about what that says about me. This is a stitch-a-photo project which I have had since late 1999. It's 280x224 stitches, and uses 48 different colours. The photo is of my mother sitting in the garden, next to a flower bed, and behind her there is.....lawn. Lots and lots of green. I'm about 3/8 done, but I'm hoping to finish it soon. (And there, surely, is the very definition of wishful thinking!)

Again, thanks to everybody!

Arnhild

What good news that truly is! Thanks for letting us know how it all turned out. I'm so very glad you decided to just try washing it!! And don't think it's because you are not tidy. Some whites tend to fade to yellow or ecru over time. Washing normally brings them right back. It's not you, it's the nature of the beast.

Dianne

Arnhild wrote: