Soluble Canvas

My daughter had an idea for an article that warrented stitching on something other than aida. I had some soluble canvas that I'd been meaning to try, so today I gave it a go.
She wanted a metallic look to the fabric and we chose a steel blue satin. The design was quite small, so I measured the appropriate amount of soluble canvas and cut it out as a small piece. I then tacked it to the Satin to hold it in place for stitching.

Anna had a go at stitching it herself, but as an inexperienced stitcher she found it hard to pull the needle through the satin and gave up after a few stitches. I took over and stitched the quick little design in about half an hour.

Never having used the soluble canvas I was interested to see how it disolved in the water. I ran it under cold water first and it didn't seem to do anything (there were no instructions on the packet), so I soaked it in a tray of water.

After a few mintues the canvas became soft and started to lift off. I rubbed it gently with my finger under the water to remove the remaining pieces (by now it was soft and slippery like wet tissue).

Then I pulled out the tacking and hung it out to dry.
Here's what it looked like (not totally dry yet, but it's cold outside).

I'm very happy with the result, though I'll be more careful with tacking on Satin next time as it left unsightly holes in the fabric. Luckily my daughter won't mind and she's looking forward to seeing it made up into the Naruto headband that she planned. I also recommend you are very gentle rubbing the canvas off as too much friction can fluff up your thread and the stitching doesn't look as neat.

I can't wait to use it again.

*** Yesterday I mentioned I was going to the quilt show. It was excellent, and certainly set my creative juices flowing. There were one or two pieces that used embroidery as well as quilting on the quilt top, though none used cross stitch. I was going to take some photos to show you anyway, but my camera ran out of batteries before I even took the first shot - I was so annoyed at myself for not checking them before I left home. So sorry about that!

See you again tomorrow

Jenni