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PRACTICING Waste canvas
7- Keep a regular tension and a little bit tighter than normally. A soft stitch could result loose once canvas is removed, a tight one can make the removing of the canvas more difficult or damage the embroidery or the fabric.

We recommend the stitching with an hoop.

8- Stitch using 4,5,or 6 plies on 10 ct canvas, 2 or 3 on the 14 one. The covering of the stitches is very important expecially when colors of fabric and threads are very different.

9- Check to fix stitches very well at the beginning and at the end of each length: as you normally stitch on garment frequently washed.

10- Pay attention not to keep the thread of the canvas inside the stiches: the removing could be difficult at that point.

11- Once finished, and undone the basting on the piece, soften the canvas, damping it with a sponge or a piece of fabric.
With a pair of tweezers, pull out the canvas threads one by one. Using small sharp scissors you may cut the canvas threads at the centre of the design in order to get them out more easily in half the lenght.

12- A valid alternative to waste canvas could be a piece of leftover linen. The advantages to using linen are that there is no need to dampen the stitching to remove the linen, the floss won't catch on the linen as it does on canvas, and that the linen is evenly woven. And more the hoop fit more easily on linen. Linen can be the right choise for design requiring partial stitches

Wash the garment you want to stitch on before stitching. Tee-shirts and sweatshirts could shrink. It will also help prevent dark colors from fading onto your stitching after it's completed.

It would probably be a good idea to set the colors in the floss you are using especially if you are going to use reds, greens, blues or other dark colors. You can do this by soaking the floss in three parts cold water to one part white vinegar. After you have soaked, rinse the floss in cold water until the water runs clear.

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