(no subject)

[thesaneminority.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting a cool messenger bag for a long time, and a couple years ago my now-husband bought me a plain canvas bag to do with as I wished. Here are the results.





I actually had to rip out Bulbasaur halfway through, because I'd accidentally placed him so that his foot would be going through Yoshi's nose. As it is, it looks like he's kicking Yoshi in the face.





The companion cube is the only one I didn't use a sprite for the pattern - I found someone else's pattern and counted the stitches. I can't find the exact example I used, but you can find something similar here.



Boo's stitched out of glow in the dark thread. The effect is AWESOME.











Things I learned while working on this bag:

• For the love of portals, separate the threads! This was my first cross-stitch project and I used intact, six-strand threads with canvas fabric. You wouldn't believe the amount of times I stabbed myself in the fingers trying to get the needle through the fabric.
  
• Glow in the dark thread looks totally amazing, but it's made of polyester and polyester thread is the devil's work. I'm not joking, that stuff kept getting stuck to the velcro (whereas the cotton thread didn't seem too attracted to it) and fluffing out. I had to shave Boo when I was done or else I'd have a fuzzy ghost, and that's just ridiculous.
  
• Waste canvas is a pain to pull out.
  
• When working with velcro, it's best not to let the velcro rub up against your arm unless you want a rash.
  

Sooo, that's my awesome nerdy bag. I was wondering, did anyone have any tips for washing cross-stitched pieces? The whites are looking kind of dingy, and Yoshi's got some sort of stain on his eyes that I'd like to get rid of. I'm wary of tossing the bag in the washing machine; I don't think the stitching would hold up. Any ideas?

Cross-posted to geekcrafts and cross_stitch.