Upholstery Repair—Needlepoint Stool Cover

My friend Gay’s mom owns an upholstery shop in Tennessee. They had received a lovely Victorian needlepoint-topped stool that was in disrepair, and needed help restoring it to its original condition. Gay’s mom removed the needlepoint and sent to me.

 

		Needlepoint stool/bench top to repair VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There were holes in the canvas, plus tears in it that affected both canvas and yarn stitches, which you can view if you click on the photos above. Critters had nipped at the wool yarn and removed either all or part of the stitches. Plus, the piece was dirty and needed a cleaning. This is an all-wool work, and thus had to go into the freezer for a de-bugging before anything else was done. Next came washing and blocking (done face-down, which keeps the stitching uniform):

 

   

I also stitched a fine netting material around the piece, which makes it easier to pull it for blocking, and also keeps the edges from raveling. Thanks, Bid! She’s my friend and fellow needlework repairer who also designs canvases. We share lots of great tips. See my blocking table? That was also a tip from her. It’s a hollow core door from Home Depot, with a checkered oilcloth stapled onto it. That makes it easy to line up fabric. 

Step 3 in this repair job was to begin stitching up the canvas tears. I had some good black tapesty wool for the job, and used some sturdy upholstery thread to reweave the canvas. Here are some photos of that work:

		Canvas Repair Work VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once the canvas was stabilized again, I could start the actual stitch repair:

		Stitch Repair-Hole in Leaf VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

For large size canvases, you may wish to purchase a pair of canvas pliers.  The large grooved teeth are great for gripping canvas and stretching.  These are available at art supply stores.

		Stitch Repair-Background VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

		Repairs to Colorwork VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Plus there were other little repairs to single stitches here and there.

And here are the photos of the finished piece:

		Needlepoint Repair Completed VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Pleased to Repair Another Crocheted Bedspread

Technorati Tags: bedspread repair,crocheted bedspread,crocheted bedspread repair,cotton crochet bedspread restoration,crocheted bedspread cleaning,vintage textile repair,vintage textile cleaning

Fran B had a dilemma on her hands with her cotton crocheted bedspread. I think I first heard from her by phone when she told me that her bedspread had gotten stained and her “fix” had not worked. Well, the trouble was, she’d tried painting over the stain with white acrylic paint. Oddly enough, I’d heard of a needlework piece that’d had a similar fate to Fran’s just a few weeks earlier when another customer had phoned from NY to say her mother had crocheted a large Lord’s prayer and given it to a church. It’d gotten dirty, and someone had painted it white to try to get the clean look back. Hm. Paint is hard, hard, hard to get off once it’s on fabric. Doesn’t make for a good reversal, and it’s always a plus if whatever you do to a piece of needlework can be taken back out.

This repair took quite a while to complete. First it went to the textile cleaner, but we still had issues. Though she got most of the spread snowy white, she had to hand clean the rather large paint stain, and as she tried to get the paint out, she spread it and it turned from a white paint stain to a set-in yellowish color. Yikes! Fran had her send the spread back to me to see if I could remove the affected area, as it was extra long and we could still get it to fit her bed.

I began this repair while at the beach on a trip to Florida to help a friend work on her rental condo. My work goes on most getaways with me, as I always seem to be working! I am blessed to be able to do any sort of needlework in the car while my husband drives, and there is *nothing* better for a stitcher than a long trip on which to sew in wonderful daylight! 

I don’t have photos of the paint still on the squares, but I do have photos of areas that still had spots on them after the textile cleaner sent it back to me. I suspect that she stopped working on smaller spots once she couldn’t get the paint out. These stains were the “rusty” types that are often found on vintage textiles:

 

First job was to remove any square that had any sort of stain. This photo shows the removal of just the painted area taken out:

Next, I took other pieces out around the open area, then filled in the missing squares with clean ones, thus shortening the bedspread:

These replaced squares were whip-stitched into place:

   

Once the bedspread was whole again, it looked very good. Sorry, this is a dark photo:

But…the tassels were all twisted up on each other, so I needed to untwist them:

Twisted Fringe VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

This is a task that seems easy and fast, but it’s actually extremely time-consuming. Plus, I ended up untwisting these tassels—there must’ve been 200 on this luxuriously-endowed spread—more than once because I kept tackling a few tiny stains, trying to get it perfect, which meant wetting down different areas in order to get the stain remover out of the thread. That would lead to moving the piece around, and tassels bunched up again. Anyway, the photos below show my straightening job finished. However, the bottom right photo shows the fringe *before* I sprayed it with water and smoothed it. Water smoothing really makes it look great:

Straightened, Smoothed Fringe VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And here I am, untwisting and untwisting! I also snipped off very tiny tips of the fringe, to even it out:

Once I had it all clean and bright, with no paint remaining, all stitched up and the fringe straight, I was ready to ship it back to Fran. But first, a few more close-up shots of where I’m tucking in some thread ends that were out in various areas of the spread:

		Close-ups VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And now it’s really ready to return home:

My customer said:

Hi Melissa:

Attached are 2 pictures.  It looks stupendous! I am so very pleased. It was well worth the wait as all your efforts paid off. I can't believe how tedious it must have been to straighten all those tassels. And, I couldn't find any stains. It's unbelievable! I know my mom is pleased too.

As you can see the spread fits the bed very well; shortening it worked fine since it has a baseboard. Your talents are very much appreciated. I will recommend you to anyone in need of such help.

And here are her pictures (with such a wonderful bed for it):