How to clean cross stitch??

[madhairday]

One of my dc has got highlighter pen on my cross stitch (yes I know, silly mummy leaving it within reach). I have been working on this for weeks and am gutted. Have googled and dabbed with sponge and washing up liquid but that's not worked. Has anyone got any suggestions or is it a write off?

im not sure about highlighters, whether they stain or not. ive had to wash a few projects because im quite messy :). warm water and some washing powder (dont use the stuff specially for silk or wool) and gently handwash it. dont rub at it. when its done just roll it in a towel and squeeze the excess out and lay it flat to dry.

you can also roll it in a pillow case and put it in the washer on a gentle wash. ive never done that though so cant comment on if it works.

my cats spilt coffee on a massive and very expensive project once, luckily the project was in shades of beige and i managed to stitch over the worst of the stain :)

I'm lucky as my washing machine has a 'handwash' cycle, so I put my projects in one of those mesh bag for underwear thingies and wash them in there. Must say I always use DMC threads so I know they're colour-fast. I just use a small amount of normal detergent. With very small projects I just handwash as usual.

Good luck, I don't know how 'permanent' highlighter pens are. It wouldn't be unreasonable to phone the manufacturer of the pen and ask their advice,

found this
hope it'll help

Would one of those pens that you use for 'rubbing out' ink work. Silly question, but have you tried google or yahoo?

I found this on www.ehow.co.uk:
Spray a generous amount of hairspray on the stain to loosen it.

Soak your garment in one quart of warm water, one tablespoon of white vinegar, and a 1/2 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid for 30 minutes. Afterwards, rinse your garment with warm water and allow it to air dry.

Place a paper towel beneath your garment to prevent the stain from bleeding through. Apply rubbing alcohol to the stain and cover it with an absorbent cloth to blot up the stain. Change the absorbent pad as the stain is soaked up.

It did say that you should only use cold water. Another idea was to put another fabric under and dab with rubbing alcohol. I did have the idea of using a cotton wool bud dipped in vodka - same idea really, but on a smaller scale.

How about contacting one of the specialist craft places - Fred Aldous in Manchester comes to mind and asking them if they've any ideas?

Good luck