Silk Road Needle Arts

                        St. Petersburg, Florida
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Colorfastness of threads--

Almost all of us are concerned about how well the colors of threads will hold up if the needlework piece needs to be washed or blocked. There are no guarantees. With stricter guidelines and different dying processes that are more environmentally friendly, there is a greater likelihood that colors may run.

Most of the manufacturers/distributors now indicate on their packaging whether they consider their colors to be colorfast. Many are safely washed in very cool water. Some can be safely washed if they are run through water taking care to continuously change the water at the slightest note of colors running.

A good test to see if a color will run is to place a thread on a wet paper towel and examine it later; if color transfer to the towel, then it will run when wet. If the piece is already worked, then it can be gently rubbed with a damp towel to see if color transfers.

If the item is not colorfast, it can be blocked without wetting it (dry blocked) or professionally dry cleaned; be sure to check with the dry cleaning professional to determine his or her expertise level.

Most of the handyed threads are NOT colorfast, so you will need to follow some of the more common sense guidelines, such as using a tightly stretched piece of ground fabric/canvas (to avoid distortion), keeping hands clean, etc.