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A Year of Stitches, Part Two

While laundering my rescued linen I was reminded of how important it can be to wash first with some fabrics. After a brief soak in cold water, I hung it to dry, and it still shrank a full inch (luckily I allowed a little extra for shrinkage when I cut it.) On the plus side, the soak brightened the fabric and got rid of all the old water stains. I then hemmed the strip, and rather than use the sewing machine I did all the stitching by hand.

Here's the end result, with 3-1/2 days of stitching as I worked on it tonight (I'm writing this post on January 4th.) I'm just stitching whatever I like, in colors that reflect something about my mood that the day. If my hands hurt I'll probably do a simple running stitch, like I did on day three.

I will probably have to add on another linen strip later this year, as I don't think what I have will be long enough, but we'll see. I'm also not sure if I'll always do a straight row of stitches. I'm trying not to overthink the project; I just want to stitch a little every day. :)

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