Sorry for the downtime, welcome back!!

Ironing Your Projects: A How To

Post Reply
User avatar
Eliste
Rank 10 - Cape Mario
Rank 10 - Cape Mario
Posts: 1007
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:41 pm
Contact:

Ironing Your Projects: A How To

Post by Eliste »

A lot of people don't believe me when I say you MUST IRON IT!! I'm not over exaggerating that though. Seriously.

Ironing is the solution to 90% of the accidents that make your stitching look like you goofed up somehow.
Check out the before and after-

Before Ironing
After Ironing

Those two are the exact same spot of the same project- count the stitches if you want. See the bump in the first one? See how its mostly gone in the second one? There's a wonky grey stitch on the bottom that looks a lot better once its ironed too. My project stitches look like I never flubbed up, had perfect tension, and am awesome.

Especially with cross stitch and other counted projects, ironing can really make a difference in the display of your project.

Things You'll Need
Your project- preferably cleaned and blocked already
Iron
Ironing board or surface padded to allow ironing
Clean Towel (tea towels or other thin towels work best imo)

You don't want to iron directly onto your project as you want to avoid any possibility of making the threads/fabric discolour.

1) Set your iron to "Cotton" setting or high, but not highest if it doesn't distinguish by fabric type.
2) Run your towel under tap water and squeeze out excess water so that it is slightly damp.
3) Lay your project, on the ironing board and lay the towel on top of it.
4) Iron on top of the damp cloth, until its dry, and then iron some more.
Check your project at this point and see how it looks. If it needs more ironing, wet your towel and repeat the process.

Words to the wise- If you haven't cleaned your project before doing this step, be prepared to have any little stain set in forever. Even the oils from your fingers can discolor the thread slightly and if you don't get it out before ironing, eventually the colours will warp slightly over the years. It is worth going back and re-washing just to make sure this doesn't happen if you're uncertain.

For more in-depth instructions and more photos you can check out my guide here.
Image

Post Reply