Washing, Pressing and Framing Finished Cross Stitch

Months of stitching get judged in the last two hours. A piece that is washed badly, pressed flat or mounted crooked looks amateur regardless of how good the stitching is, and most of the damage at this stage is irreversible.

The good news is that the sequence is short and none of it is difficult.

Wash it, even if it looks clean

It does not look clean. Hands leave oils on the fabric over months of handling, the hoop leaves a visible ring, and both become far more obvious once the piece is stretched flat under glass. Washing also relaxes the fabric and lets the stitches settle into an even surface.

Before you start, test for bleeding. Reds, dark blues and hand-dyed threads are the usual offenders. Dab a damp white cotton bud firmly on a patch of the suspect colour on the back of the work. If any colour transfers to the bud, do not soak the piece. Take it to a professional, or accept the risk knowingly.

For everything else:

1. Fill a clean basin with cool water. Not warm, not hot. Heat sets stains and encourages dye to run.
2. Add a small amount of a gentle detergent with no bleach and no optical brighteners. A wool wash or a plain unscented liquid soap works.
3. Submerge the piece and press it gently under the water with your palm. Do not rub, wring, twist or scrub. Cross stitches are held by tension, and agitation pulls them out of shape.
4. Leave it ten to fifteen minutes if it is grubby.
5. Rinse in several changes of cool water until no suds remain. Soap residue yellows over time.
6. Lift the piece out supporting it from underneath so its own weight does not stretch the wet fabric.

To get water out: lay the piece flat on a clean white towel, roll the towel up with the work inside, and press down along the roll. Never twist. Unroll and move it to a dry towel.

Press it face down

This is the step that gets skipped, and it is the one that most affects the finished look.

Lay a thick, clean white towel on the ironing board. Put the piece face down on the towel, still slightly damp. Set the iron to a medium cotton setting with no steam and press, lifting and placing the iron rather than sliding it around.

Face down on a soft surface is the whole point. The towel lets the stitches sink into it, so the iron flattens the fabric between them without crushing the threads. Press a cross-stitch piece face up on a hard board and the stitches come out shiny and squashed, and there is no way to bring them back.

Work from the centre outwards, and keep going until the fabric is dry. A piece put away slightly damp will crease where it is folded.

Never iron over metallic threads or beads. Press around them, or lay a cloth over that area.

Mounting it flat

Framing without mounting properly is what makes a piece sag inside the frame a year later. There are two methods worth knowing.

Lacing over board (the archival way)

This is what a good framer does, and it is reversible: no adhesive touches the work.

1. Cut acid-free foam board or mount board to the exact size you want the visible piece to be.
2. Centre the fabric over the board, front side out. Check the alignment by counting stitches from the edge on each side, not by eye. Aida gives you a grid; use it.
3. Fold the top and bottom margins to the back and pin them into the edge of the board with rustproof pins to hold the position.
4. With a long length of strong thread, lace back and forth between the top and bottom margins, zigzagging across the back of the board.
5. Tighten the lacing gradually, working along it several times rather than pulling each pass tight in turn, until the fabric is drum-taut and straight.
6. Repeat for the left and right margins, lacing over the first set.
7. Remove the pins.

This is why the 3-inch margin mattered when you cut the fabric. With less than about 2 inches there is nothing to lace with.

Self-adhesive mount board (quick, not archival)

Sticky mount board is fast and holds well, but the adhesive is permanent and ages. It is fine for a casual piece and wrong for something you want to keep for decades or ever remount. If you use it, position the fabric in one go: it does not reposition.

What to avoid entirely: masking tape, double-sided tape and glue directly on the fabric. All of them yellow, fail, and stain the work as they do.

Glass, or no glass

Glass protects from dust and hands, which matters in a kitchen or hallway. It must not touch the stitching: the piece needs a spacer or a mount with an aperture so there is an air gap. Glass pressed directly onto stitches flattens them and traps moisture against the threads.

No glass shows the texture of the thread properly, which is the whole pleasure of a stitched piece. Good for a bedroom or a low-traffic wall.

If you use glass, UV-filtering glass is worth the money for anything hanging where daylight reaches it. DMC floss is colourfast to washing but not to years of sunlight, and reds and purples fade first.

Hanging it

Keep finished work out of direct sunlight and away from bathrooms and kitchens, where humidity and cooking grease reach further than you would think. An interior wall is kinder than an exterior one, which can be cold enough to condense.

The sequence, in order

1. Test suspect colours for bleeding with a damp cotton bud.
2. Wash in cool water with gentle detergent, pressing not rubbing.
3. Rinse until the water runs clear.
4. Roll in a towel to remove water. Never wring.
5. Press face down on a thick towel, no steam, while slightly damp.
6. Lace over acid-free board, checking alignment by counting stitches.
7. Frame with a spacer if using glass, UV glass for a bright room.

Planning the next one? The beginner's guide covers the front end of the process, and you can turn a photo into a chart in a couple of minutes.