Washing Needlepoint Canvas

Wask it all in the Machine with some Bleachy suds and than if you need starch it ,,,,, mirjam

Ps , it is prefferable to bleach parts of it when you cut it up for projects ,,,, smaller parts are easier to handle and flatten, mirjam

Anne, I honestly feel sorry for you, but I think this canvas is lost! Reconcider what to do, before spending a lot of time, trouble and yarn and and up with disappointment.

I really can't imagine a good result on washed canvas. Just because both the stiffness and the neat meshes are crucial. You could starch again, but to me it seems impossible to let it dry with equal meshes. It can be wet in order to block your work, but then the starch just solves (but stays between the fibers), get replaced a little, and becomes dry and stiff again.

Grea

woodswell ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

I don't think it will matter. Stretch the canvas on a frame to hold it secure while you work a piece and all will be well.

If you can use tension bars to stretch the canvas very taught, you don't have to be overly concerned. However, I do suggest instead of using a tent stitch you use the Victorian cross. It's actually a cross stitch and the projects will not need any blocking as this method does not distort or pull the canvas in any one direction.

If you haven't already washed all of it, try bringing it to a reputable dry cleaner to see what they think. Needlework is often brought to dry cleaners after they are completed. I did that with all of my Elizabeth Bradley animal designs.

Good luck.

Cheaper canvas IME tends to have more starch in it, and so becomes much softer when washed than does good quality canvas, so you may not have that much to be concerned about when you wash your better stuff.

Household starch is probably OK. Other possibilities might be wallpaper paste or the spray used for haberdashery. Make sure the canvas threads are absolutely straight before spraying. I'd be tempted to mount it on a board or frame first.

I'd be careful about using canvas directly in contact with the rotting wood. If it's just cockroach crap, that's one thing, but I'd inspect the fibers carefully before using to make sure the canvas isn't rotting.

Dora

When someone says "Florida", "rotted floor" and canvas, my first thoughts are of mildew, which significantly weakens fibers. Before I invested any time in washing (or especially stitching!), I'd pull out a few of those threads and check the breaking strength of a spotted area compared to an unspotted one.

Kay

Grea, Yes, that is what I am worried about - I understand textile conservation and know that starch is really undesirable. If I use this canvas for anything, it will be for projects using fibers that can be thoroughly washed to get the starch out.

Most of what I want to do these days involves silk and metal fibers so using this canvas is out for that. Plus, much of this canvas is 13 and

14 count that I was using for producing painted canvases to sell way back. That may just be pitched, since even if I were doing that any more, I would NEVER use damaged canvas to sell to anyone.

It's the yard or two of 18 count and Congress cloth I really regret since those are what I really need for near term projects.

Thanks! Anne

taught, you

Only one dry cleaners around here ever did needlework cleaning/blocking. I talked to them yesterday and the people they sent stuff out to are no longer around so they no longer offer that service. I've just finished a needlepoint Christmas stocking that is too large for my blocking board so now I'll have to send it off to be blocked as well as sewn up.

The one piece I did wash was a very cheap Congress cloth and it is completely limp - far too limp to even try to stretch on a frame. I've got some better quality small pieces of CC that I may try to wash tomorrow. DH brought home bleach and starch so I can try treating the spots and not soaking the entire thing so much. Then I can lay it out on the blocking board (with a pillow case under it), starching and ironing it to see if I can get it in good enough shape to use.

At least I have enough of it I can experiment a little! ;-)

Anne

Dora, Yes, that cheap piece I washed had very thin, fragile threads unlike the heavier ones in the other mono Congress cloth - in fact, it was almost as soft before as waste canvas!

The canvas was in an open topped box and not directly in contact with the rotted floor. The bottom of the box is still in decent shape - it is just that the floor rotted in a hole in another part of the closet. In fact, the cockroach stuff is more on the upper parts of the canvas that stuck out of the box than on the bottoms.

Thanks! Anne

Kay, Mildew does not leave hard black lumps of solid material ;-) But if the spots do mot wash out, I may cut out just the cleaner parts to use if I am desparate. I am starting to think that the smart thing to do would be to toss it all - most is not the size mesh I'd use for projects these days. I was saving it up for some unkown future use, when my eyes are worse, LOL!

But I needed some canvas for current projects and have enough in the damaged stuff. The problem is that to replace it I will have to order it - no LNS within a hundred miles anymore.

Thanks! Anne

Anne

Let it be a lesson to keep your cheap stuff on top then, or in closed boxes, although I realize that's hard with canvas. I have a bit of a problem with that myself. It's hard to store canvas in a small closet without everything else falling over it. I was thinking tubes like the ones used for architectural drawings might be a good idea.

The only other thing is that a spot that had the floor rot out sounds rather humid. Mildew is a potential problem.

Too bad you're so far from an LNS. Hope you can save enough of the other canvas to keep you going. Take comfort that there are worst storage horror stories on google. The one about the incontinent cat comes to mind. Dora

Ohmigod. Now if I can only get that out of MY mind!

Felice

Well, in terms of needlework disasters, it's hard to beat 48 finished pieces of needlework marinated in cat pee for 6 months. OP in that case was also an Anne - I hope not the same one. If so, some people are just lucky I guess. Dora

Dora, I am keeping my eyes open for a good storage container. I wish I had bought one of the ones designed for storing Christmas wrapping paper last winter! It would not be wide enough for the full width canvas, but I could either cut it down or fold it in half, then roll it. The architectural tubes might be good for the full width, but they are pretty expensive.

Actually, I think the floor got wet from underneath years and years ago when we had a pipe burst under the bathroom next to the closet. It seemed solid at the time - we checked when we replaced the floor in the bathroom. But this being old particle board in an old trailer, it disintegrated from underneath. One day DH went in to get a box out and found that the bottom of the box was sunk INTO the floor. The floor is solid enough to stand on, but there are now gaps that let the bugs get in.

Ah, yes, the incontinent cat problem - that was one problem we found when we ripped the old carpet out. (Not sure what I'd do if they did it on my needlework - it's bad enough to find one asleep on the Japanese embroidery still on the stand...) We'd had incontinent cats and hadn't known it. No more wall-to-wall carpet for us!

Thanks! Anne