Thursday, April 4, 2013

An amazing thing...

Damp stretching.  Ever heard of it?  I hadn't before I started this EEC class with Karen. (embroidery, embellish, create)

She showed us how to accomplish it... mentioned that she does it often..even for a better photo of her demonstrations etc...but.. I didn't try it right away... sort of thinking more of doing it later I guess.

However, I got tired of looking at "Rumpelstiltskin"...  which was what I had begun to call my first block of work.  Not very complimentary I know... ...but, it was looking pretty bedraggled and it just sort of sprang to mind.















I couldn't find a cork bath mat, which was Karen's first choice for us to use.... so settled for a cork display board from an office supply store.  She had said to check if colour came off ...which, luckily I did...because it sure as heck does!  I sprayed the cork surface..wiped it with paper towels... it was almost orange-y ... and it only got slightly  better with several wipes and then even a good wash.  I thought about taking it back ...hahaha..yeh... "I washed it down and then decided I didn't want it" ...  can you see the look on the clerk's face?

I decided to lay a couple of pieces of Saran Wrap on the board and then pin my fabric to it... spray... wait....fingers crossed... and hope for the best.

I put the board on the bathtub...just above the heat vent...so it dried nicely in about four hours.... 
















Perfect!  My fabric was pristine when I removed it .. and ..... big 'AND' here!! .... what a great job damp stretching does to fabric and embroidery stitches.  It looks freshly laundered and ironed.  Not that it was dirty..but, just being all rumpled makes it look somewhat less than clean if you know what I mean...

Look how lovely and smooth!





4 comments:

Mary Ann Tate said...

What a difference. Very nice.

Anonymous said...

It looks fabulous! And what a good way of stretching it.
The word verification is pullio -- which seems appropriate as you pullio-ed your embroidery into shape!!

Unknown said...

Vee, How pretty this looks. It also looks like it would take a lot of time to complete. I had a look at Karens site. She does some beautiful work so you have a good teacher. What fun. Sue

Unknown said...

geeze....looks like some pretty intensive needlework Viv.