Hi. I'm Vickie Pavone on behalf of Expert Village. In this series we'll be talking about the basics of cross stitching. In this segment, your picture is finished, we're going to talk about how you finish it. The basic thing, once you've finished it, you're going to want to wash your fabric. Your hands have gotten oils on them that you can't see but over the years those oils will show. The best way to wash your fabric is in cold water, hand wash with a mild dish detergent. Do not use fabric detergent and do not use anything like the delicate detergents because it makes the colors bleed. Just a mild dish detergent, you put it in, you swish it around a little, let it sit for two or three minutes, take it out, rinse it, roll it up in a towel, squeeze the liquid out of it, and then let it dry for the day. Once you've washed it and dried it, you're going to need to iron it because you want your picture to be nice and flat. You're going to put it between two towels. Put it between two towels, lay it down so the picture is down and then just take your iron and iron everything nice and flat so that you have a nice smooth picture. The final step will be framing. Framing can be done by any of the professional shops in your fabric stores, or your craft stores, or you can go to your craft store and choose your favorite frame. If you're going to frame it yourself, you need a backing board. It needs to be acid free, you can buy those in the shops as well. You put it on, you stretch it around, put your frame over it, and there you have a framed picture.
ctgardengirl
Nov 26, 2008
