Thursday, October 17, 2013

Another Stitcher's Trash...

Yesterday a former co-worker of mine came into the library with a big basket of cross stitch supplies. She and her husband are in the process of packing and moving to their new retirement home, and she wanted to send her old floss and patterns to a loving home.  Of course I volunteered!
So upon digging through everything, I found: DMC floss, separated by number into envelopes (evidently this was the way to handle floss back in the day, as I've received several hand-me-down collections from older ladies stored this way), lots of aida cloth - much of which I threw away because it was discolored and smelled gross, and a sad little pile of rather dated 1980's patterns.  BUT!  My friend had lived in Europe for several years while her husband was in the military....and she had purchased a couple Eva Rosenstand kits!  None of the really elaborate ones, but there was cute little stylized summer tree with birds, and a sampler or 2.  Also, a book of Gerda Bengtsson patterns, and a German stitching magazine from 1983.  I felt like I'd gone shopping at Scandinavian Stitches!  Now, any suggestions on how to get the musty smell out of these things??

5 comments:

Adele said...

You were lucky to find the European treasures. To remove musty smell, here are a couple of ideas:
put out into the sun for a LONG time, store in a bag with dryer sheets, store in a bag with kitty litter

Hope something works, Adele

Unknown said...

Depending on how much stash you need to freshen up, I would put them in a zip lock bag or rubbermaid container that you can seal up tight with either a dryer sheet (like Bounce) or some baking soda. Leave them for a few weeks. Either should work on paper. You might also ask the conservators at the library (or at your MLIS program) what they do for old books. If there's a lot of mold, it might be worth just photocopying them.

Julie said...

Pictures! Pictures!

Mouse said...

they do say one mans rubbish is another mans treasure ....
if they are musty try the baking soda trick as that should absorb the smells .. do we get to see any photos ... and good luck hope you manage to get rid of the pong .... love mouse xxxxx

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

I inherited a friend's stash earlier this year. She is still with us but no longer stitching. So much fun to
rummage in the boxes!

It might be best to check the colour match on the DMC, especially if she bought them in Europe too. Sometimes our colour batches are different to your's.

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