Shadows in the Stitching — Needlepoint Problem

Updated July 24, 2020.
I’ll admit it, I’m not the neatest of stitchers and that can be a problem as you can see here.

I put the beginning of my lime green background thread in the margin of the canvas. If it had been left unstitched — no problem. But I stitched a needlepoint “mat” and caught the thread.

That still might not have been a problem except my mat thread is very light. The darker green thread creates an area on the front that looks like dirty thread but is actually a shadow.

So what to do?

The smart thing is not to put yourself in this situations. If you can start and stop threads in an area of the same color or a darker color.

But if it’s too late for that you have two choices.

The lazy way is to back the needlepoint with a color similar to but darker than the offending threads. This will darken your colors overall, but the shadows probably won’t show. It is not effective in all cases or for all types of finishing.

The best thing to do is remove the threads. If you didn’t pierce the strands, you can do this with a bit of patience and a fine needle you use to tease the dark threads out form under the light ones. You may need to magnify the area to see where to work.

If the strands are split you’ll need to cut them near the canvas (cut carefully!)on either side of the problem and pull with tweezers.

It doesn’t work every time, but it can save you in a pinch.