Brazilian Embroidery: Laundering and Finishing Your Completed Projects

I've stitched my Brazilian Embroidery project
NOW WHAT DO I DO?

Sunshine’s Laundering Recommendations for your Brazilian Embroidery Designs :
Every completed Brazilian Embroidery stitched project should be laundered. The blue, water soluble, ink needs to be washed out along with hand oils that will attract soil as time goes by. Hand washing is recommended. Soak in LUKE warm water with mild detergent for 15 to 30 minutes to get the ink, hand oils and other dirty spots started on their way out. Dunk or swish a few times every few minutes. Then rinse and place the embroidered piece in Luke warm (room temperature) water again with mild detergent recommended for colored clothes for at least a couple of hours. For exceptionally soiled areas, gently rub with your finger tips. Avoid bleaches or stain removers for they may whiten your threads or leave a lighter spot on your fabric. Soaking and rubbing gently with your finger tips will remove most stubborn stains. You may find that it may take a couple of days. Then - Rinse in cold water. Rinse in cold water. Rinse in cold water. When you think you have all the detergent out of your piece, rinse in cold water again! You have rinsed enough when you think the water is clean enough that you would be willing to drink the water. To help make your threads bright again - you can mix 2 - 3 tablespoons of white vinegar to 1 quart of water in the next to last rinse. Dip your piece into a final rinse of distilled water or bottled water to rinse out the vinegar. The gallon jugs of distilled water are very inexpensive and has no chlorine and hard water properties that could affect your piece years from now. Roll your piece in a large absorbent towel and squeeze, press, sit on or as step on. What ever it takes to get the water out, but NEVER wring. The faster that you get your piece dry the less likely that your thread colors will run. Using a blow dryer on the front and on the back of the piece helps, especially with those ..... Reds. If they still run..... start washing again - it is worth it.

A quick test to see if the color is running:
Use a clean old "flour sack" type towel to wrap/roll your design in. Roll and squeeze. This type of toweling with absorb the water and will show what is bleeding. --
Bleed/color on towel - > put back into the cold water.

I do not recommend the oxygen cleaners.
They range from "Tide with Bleach" to "OxiClean" to "Ajax Oxygen Bleach Powder Cleanser" to "Wolmans Deck and Siding Brightener".

I DO recommend: Orvus soap, mild dish or laundry soaps and hair shampoo with NO additives.

The worst possible thing to stain your Brazilian Embroidery Design item is apples. (This, I learned from stitching on quilts and kids eating apples next to me. Apple juice - you cannot see and leaves a stain that will last a lifetime. It may sound absurd, but a child biting into an apple causes a mist of small droplets of apple juice that will destroy a stitched item) The most prevalent soil is from your hands. It is the hand oils and the oils and hair products that you get from touching your hair and then stitching.

(I personally use Suave for oily hair. It is cheap and is effective for the stains or that "ring" caused where your hoop sits. If I have a particularly tough spot, I do use a little Orvus soap rubbed directly onto the spot. Soaking (lots of soaking, even a couple of days, changing the water frequently) and gentle rubbing usually does the trick.) Sunshine

Sunshine’s Stringing/Stretching Recommendations:
I use "T" pins and foam core board, (with a very light cotton batting over it), for "stretching" my piece. Start at the middle-top and middle-bottom and stretch gently until that area lies flat. Place the T-pins into the core of the foam core board. Then place T pins in the Center-left side and the center-right side stretching gently until that area lies flat. Now start working from the centers out to the corners on all four sides. Keep working evenly or you will make your piece askew. You can adjust the pins if the piece still tends to have a pucker or a wrinkle. Usually, if you stretch your piece properly, no ironing needs to be done. I make sure that all of my "runable" colors are thoroughly dry before I stretch my piece. I like to have the fabric slightly damp in order to stretch out the wrinkles. When I have the piece stretched and there is no wrinkles or puckers I use a blow dryer and make absolutely sure that the piece is dry. Make sure that you look at your piece under several different lights to make sure that you have not missed any "runs" or soiled areas. If you have........ start over. When I have finished doing all the pinning - I "String" my piece. Stringing is using a durable thread, (I use crochet thread) and sew back and forth in the same manner as I placed the pins. Starting at the centers, working directly across, stitch the two edges together on the back side. Pull thread snug. Work out from the centers. Tie off your strings frequently. Do not remove the pins until you have completely "strung" your piece. Remove pins and if there are still a pucker or wrinkle they can usually be removed by stringing a little tighter in that area. I hope that my suggestions will help you in making your end results as spectacular as your stitching! Or click links above or below.

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