X-Stitch Monday - Brief Azthahar break

[kikotei]

So, the mostly-super-secret-experimental project is DONE. Mostly. Enough that I'm gonna post it. ^_~ I have a little patch work to do. The sewing machine is still in the shop, so I picked up a cheapo handheld stitchy thing. It's okay, but not easy to use and hard to control.

Anyway, the experimental portion of this project was using waste canvas on non-evenweave material. In this case a mini messenger bag. Waste canvas is just barely held together with water soluble glue. So a pair of tweezers and a whole lot of patience to pick the canvas apart and out of the design and tada!

This is a day by day thing, so it is a bit picture heavy.

But enough of that... on to Nightwing!



Day 1. Waste canvas tacked on after discovering I would have to take the bag apart. Damn sergered seams.



Day 2



Day 3



Day 4



Day 5. Cue freak out. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the second skein of thread was discolored. So the center under the head and everything to the right is slightly off color.



Day 6a. DONE. Now to pick all the canvas apart, thread by thread.



Day 6b. All cleaned up! Holy crap, that electric blue is very very bright.



Day 7. On my new dummy. I need to restitch the bag when my normal sewing machine is back, but this will do for now.

Comments

[ex_pippin880]

Ohhh that's an excellent idea! And nicely done. :)

[kikotei]

Thank you. I saw the bag at the craft store and knew I needed it.

[lilacsigil]

That's awesome!

[kikotei]

Thank you.

[glinda]

That's awesome!

[kikotei]

Thank you.

[lighterthanair]

That looks so awesome! And I admire your patience for picking out all the threads of the canvas once you were done stitching!

I might have to give something like this a try, since I've been wanting to do a cross-stitch design on some non-evenweave fabric, but I neither feel like drawing a fiddly grid nor trusting myself to get all my stitches evenly-sized without something to guide me. Removing the threads at the end doesn't sound like much fun, but it sure would solve that problem!

[kikotei]

Thank you. I wish I had documented the canvas pick-fest, but I was freaking out every time the canvas threads snapped. ^_~

The waste canvas was the best thing ever (despite the trauma that was taking it apart). Obviously if the design is less dense stitch wise it would be a breeze to pull apart. I just kept moving to different sides if things started to get stuck and the threads refused to slip out. Also found that pressing it on a surface with the flat of my hand helped getting the canvas free. A seam ripper and a good pair of tweezers are your friends.

[explorer0713]

The secret to removing the waste canvas is to get the piece thoroughly wet and let it sit a couple of minutes so the moisture can completely soak into the canvas. Then use a tweezers to remove a few threads from one side, then the other. Repeat alternating pulls. Very soon, things will have loosened up enough that you can begin to grab several threads at once with your tweezers.