Particles on evenweave when unpicking stitches

by Jamie

Question: I recently bought evenweave fabric for the first time and tried cross-stitch on it. However, as I progressed on the stitches, I found that the embroidery string left little particles of string-coloured material on the fabric, especially after I've made a mistake and undid the stitches. Is this because of bad string quality? How can I fix this/keep this from happening?

Your site has been a great help, thank you.

Carol responds...
That does sound as though you are using an inferior embroidery thread, Jamie. Is it a well known brand of thread such as DMC or Anchor? These brands should not result in the issues you are experiencing.

When you take the time to do a piece of handwork it is best to use the best quality threads and fabric you can afford, as if you will often put in hours and hours of work and hopefully the finished project will survive to become an heirloom.

When I make a mistake and have to remove stitches I like to press the sticky side of sticky tape over the area I have unpicked. This will normally pick up all the remaining little bits of thread easily.

You can buy special scissors for unpicking mistakes, which help you to avoid cutting the fabric threads. They are called Lift-N-Snip.

I am pleased that you are finding my site helpful, Jamie.

Regards,

Carol

Comments for Particles on evenweave when unpicking stitches

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Feedback
by: Carol

Hi Jamie,

That is good to know that you are using good quality threads. I use DMC for all my stitching too.

When they changed their manufacturing process some of the colors are no longer colorfast, especially dark colors and reds. This can cause a problem.

Please do try the sticky tape as it does remove more than you would expect of the "remnants" after unpicking.

Regards,

Carol
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		From original poster
by: Jamie (OP)

Yes, I am using DMC embroidery thread and 28 count fabric from M.C.G. textiles. Would it be worth it to use 28 count DMC linen, even if the linen is almost twice as expensive?
I will try the tape but I'm not sure if that will pick up all of the particles, because the particles get stuck in the fabric and leave dark marks under where the stitches used to be

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Embroidery fabric.