How to Use Waste Canvas

What is waste canvas?

If you've ever dabbled in cross stitch, you might have come across the term waste canvas.

No, it's not some rejected piece of material that stitchers toss aside. Quite the contrary!

It's like the secret agent of the needlework world. It's a gridded fabric that plays an undercover role to help your stitch the design on to any piece of fabric. Use it on a t-shirt, on a denim jacket, a bag - anything you wish. It's a game-changer, really!

Here's how it works. You baste the canvas onto your fabric of choice, then start stitching away. The grid guides your needle, ensuring your stitches are evenly spaced and your design comes out looking perfect. Once you're done, you simply wet the canvas, and it pulls apart thread by thread, leaving only your beautiful design behind. It's like a magic trick, but for stitchers!

Embroider on your clothes using waste canvas

Decorating apparel with needlework, like embroidery or cross stitch, is on the rise, and it's a breeze to do.

Any design fits the bill. Why not kick off with my complimentary patterns?

The canvas comes in a number of different sizes, including 9, 10 and 14 threads per inch. 

 

Prepare your waste canvas

Before diving into the needlework, let's do a bit of groundwork.

First, figure out your design's dimensions and snip the waste canvas a tad bigger. My rule of thumb? Add an extra 2 to 3 inches on each side.

Find the center of your canvas, much like you'd do in a classic cross stitch scenario by folding it in half both ways. If you're worried about losing this crucial point, go ahead and mark it with a pencil. We'll bid adieu to the canvas eventually, so you're not messing up a masterpiece.

Now, decide on the spot you want to decorate on your chosen item. Drape the canvas over this spot, aligning the fabric and canvas threads as best as you can. After all, nobody wants a lopsided motif, right?

Secure it with a couple of pins, and voila! You're ready to get stitching.

Attach the canvas to your garment temporarily

Secure the fabric to the garment using a standard embroidery needle and sewing thread.

Begin at the center and progress diagonally to one corner. Follow this pattern for the remaining corners. To ensure a firm hold, add a row of tacking stitches along the canvas's outer edge.

Next, place your fabric 'sandwich' into an embroidery hoop. Choose a hoop large enough to contain all the areas you plan to stitch - the less hoop-shuffling, the better!

Our adorable stitched robin is nestled on a tee-shirt. Due to the shirt's ample size, there was plenty of surplus fabric. To manage this, as shown in the photo, I rolled the extra fabric at the bottom and secured it with large tacking stitches to the canvas's selvedge. This keeps everything tidy and conveniently out of the way.

From here on out, we'll be using DMC embroidery floss for this project.

Cross Stitching on waste canvas

The type of material you're handling can determine whether a sharp needle or a blunt tapestry needle is your best bet.

Once you've picked the perfect needle for the job, based on the material you're working with, it's time to dive into the actual sewing.

But hold your horses!

Before you start, remember this pro-tip: Always start from the middle. This little trick helps to keep your fabric smooth and bunch-free.

Cross-stitch following your chart, using the openings in the waste canvas. Pay extra attention to avoid any spaces where the stitch arms intersect.

If this gets a bit challenging, you might want to consider using the smaller openings where the waste canvas's double threads intersect as opposed to the larger ones.

Removing the waste canvas

The canvas' water-soluble starch requires a sprinkle of water for effective removal. A quick spritz from my iron's spray function did the trick, although a full garment wash and dry cycle can also work wonders before moving on to the subsequent phase.

Begin by extracting your temporary stitches (the cross stitches might hide some, so just focus on the visible ones).

Now, it's time for a little treasure hunt in your manicure set for a pair of tweezers, or even better, find a pair with a bonus magnifier attached. Also, keep a tiny container nearby to gather all the stray threads you'll be extracting.

Focus on pulling out one thread at a time, gingerly holding it with the tweezers, and extracting it from under your cross stitches.

Be extra cautious if the stitches anchor it in more than one location. In my robin design, some threads initially pass under the boots and later are positioned under the body. The photo offers a sneak peek of this phase.

Take your time, don't rush. Try not to yank the waste canvas threads from under the cross stitch.

Remove all the threads to leave your design sitting proudly on your garment. Great job!