Hello Quilty Friends! Today I want to share with you my favorite pin cushion and how I've let her become filthy...shame on me.
She's been dusted a few times over the years but she is in need of a good bath. Can it be done? Well we're going to find out today.
Before moving onto the cleaning here's the free pin cushion pattern that inspired mine. I did not use the dresden template provided in the pattern and I also made mine a little larger around.
Now back to my dirty girl. Time to remove all the pins. Oh this is shameful. How could I let her get so dirty?
Lets start out by knocking off all the dust with a brush.
It looks much better but what you can't see in this picture is how dingy she has become.
Looks like soap and water are going to be needed. This can be scary when it comes to red fabrics. Did I prewash these fabrics? I don't remember. Oh well, lets give it a try with a little bit of this mild soap watered down and then lightly scrub with the brush.
After scrubbing I rinsed it really well under running water. Wrapped it in a towel to squeeze out the excess water, let is set for about 3 hours to see if it was going to bleed. All was good so I took it back to the studio placed it on a cookie cooling rack with a fan pointed on it, and left it to dry overnight.
The next morning I woke up to a disaster.
I was afraid to do this next method first because I didn't want to soak and distort the shape.
Plan B
The Blue Dawn dish soap and color catchers have never let me down. After letting her soak in the hot water and soap for about 12 hours I gave her a good squishing and then rinsed her really well by dunking and squishing. Then I put her in the washing machine on spin cycle only to remove as much water as possible.
This is what the soapy wash water looked like after squishing....EWW!
And those color catchers did their job.
Now to let her set overnight.... again. Crossing fingers and praying.
The next morning she is dry and bleed free! YAH!
The bottom looks great too!
Happy Dance! She looks like new . A little lopsided, even after a lot of trying to reshape. I can live with the lop sided as long as she's not bleeding.
She's back home and looking good. Thank goodness for Dawn dish soap color catchers.
Until next time...
I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!
You are amazing! I’m so happy your pin cushion came through! I’ve honestly learned so much from you! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteI too an curious what you used for stuffing! She sure is pretty and happy again:)
ReplyDelete