A friend of mine is learning needlepoint and asked me a couple of days ago about ripping out. I explained to her that I use scissors with sharp points, a needle and tweezers, I cut a bit from the back, and pull the thread out with the tweezers or the needle.
But what if that isn’t enough?
Do not use sewing-style seam rippers; it’s just too easy to cut the canvas badly.
As luck would have it, I stitched red on white canvas where it should have been white (I know, but I’m designing the piece). So this process, while it did a good job, left me with red fuzzies which needed to come out.
I tried using my needle, but it couldn’t catch many of the threads.
That’s when I turned to Judy’s Boo-Book Stick. It has two ends, one which looks like a mascara spoolie brush and one which looks like an overgrown dental brush. The spoolie is black, the brush is white. You can run the spoolie through the holes in the canvas. It catches the threads.
But I had lots of this stuff. I tried running the dental brush through the hole, but it was too thick. Then I tried running the Boo-Boo Stick over the top of the canvas.
And, a Gomer Pyle would say, “Shazam!” All those threads disappeared and I have lovely white canvas again.
What a perfect tool. If you can’t find one, use a clean mascara brush as a quick substitute.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Great tip Janet, as usual! I’ve seen them in the shops but just snickered when I saw the name on the package. LOL.
Me too on the name. I think I bought it at a Seminar shop many years ago because I am always ripping things out and finding fuzzies left behind.
And, I have to say, this time it really worked I found a grand sum total of one red fuzzy the whole time I stitched the white and it was easy to pull out because the stick had loosened it.
Oh, thank you, good to know! I do more tatting than needlepoint, but when the time comes that I pick it up again I will keep this in mind!