How-to guide
How to keep pet hair out of your embroidery
To keep pet hair out of embroidery, start clean: wash your hands, lint-roll your lap and sleeves, and stitch away from the dog's bed. Cover or bag the hoop between sessions. Lift any hair off the fabric before you stitch over it, and use tweezers for one that's already caught under a stitch.
Why dog hair ends up in your stitches
If you're stitching your dog, your dog is probably close by, and so is their hair. Linen's texture holds on to fine hairs, the sticky edge of a stick and stitch sheet grabs anything that lands on it, and floss hanging into a furry lap collects a few on every pass. Once a stitch goes over a hair, it's locked in.
Dark hair shows on oatmeal linen, and pale hair shows on black thread. So the plan is simple: stop hair landing where you can, and catch it before the needle does.
Before you sit down
- Wash and dry your hands. Clean hands keep oil off the linen, and dry hands don't pick up loose hair from everything you touch.
- Lint-roll yourself and your seat. Your lap, your sleeves and the arm of the chair. Do it after the dog has had their cuddle, not before.
- Put something smooth on your lap. A clean pillowcase, a cotton tea towel or an apron. Smooth cotton sheds hair; a fleece blanket hoards it.
- Choose your spot. A table with good light, away from the dog's bed and the end of the couch where they nap.
- Cover the fabric outside the stitching. Needle 'n Thread's tip: lay a scrap of plain cotton over the hoop, cut a window for the area you're stitching, and hold the scrap instead of the linen. Hair and hand oil land on the scrap.
- Smooth down the sheet's edges. Any sticky edge of the stick and stitch sheet that lifts or overhangs catches hair. Press it flat with a dry finger.
While you stitch
- Look before each new line. Tilt the hoop under the lamp. A stray hair is easy to spot across a light surface.
- On bare linen, dab with tape. Wrap a piece of tape around two fingers, sticky side out, and dab. Don't use tape on the stick and stitch sheet: it can lift it. Use tweezers there instead.
- Keep your floss bagged. Store the skein and cut lengths in a small zip bag, so they don't pick up hair on the table.
- Watch where the thread hangs. Each time you pull through, the thread swings near your lap. A smooth lap cover keeps it clean.
- Park the needle on a needle minder, not in the arm of the couch.
- Bag it when you stop. Take the linen out of the hoop between sessions anyway, and keep it in a zip bag or a clean pillowcase.
If your dog insists on helping, give them their own job: a chew on their bed, next to you but not on you. You get company and fewer hairs.
A hair caught under a stitch
- A hair is trapped under one stitch, with an end sticking out.
- Grip the loose end with tweezers and slide it out slowly, in the direction it lies. A short hair usually slips free without disturbing the stitch.
- It won't slide out.
- Snip the visible ends as close as you can with small sharp scissors. Or unthread your needle, lift that one stitch out from the back, take the hair away and stitch it again.
- A long hair runs under several stitches.
- Unpick back to where it starts. It's a few minutes now, instead of a hair you see every time you look at the hoop. How to fix embroidery mistakes shows how to unpick cleanly.
- A pale hair is caught in black satin.
- Tweezers first. If it won't come, snip both ends flush; in black thread, almost nobody will ever find it.
Cleaning hair off a finished hoop
- Before the rinse, pick off what you can see. The soak floats most loose hair away, and the rinse under the tap carries it off. How to remove stick and stitch has the rinse.
- Once it's dry, dab the stitched area with a loop of tape rather than rolling a lint roller hard across it. Rolling can snag and flatten raised stitches. A lint roller is fine on the plain linen around them.
- Felt collects hair. Lint-roll the felt before you stitch it onto the back, and again before you wrap a gift. Finishing the hoop covers the felt back.
- On the wall, hair settles like dust. A soft, clean brush lifts it. Behind glass, it can't reach the stitches at all: see framing in a picture frame.
Questions people ask
How do you keep dog hair out of your stitches?
Wash your hands, lint-roll your lap, stitch at a table away from the dog's bed, and cover the fabric outside the area you're stitching. Check for hairs before each new line, and keep the hoop bagged between sessions.
How do you get pet hair off finished embroidery?
Pick off what you can before the rinse, which floats most loose hair away. Once it's dry, dab the stitches with tape instead of rolling hard over them, and lift dust and hair from a hanging hoop with a soft brush.
Can I use a lint roller on embroidery?
Gently, on the plain fabric and the felt backing. Over the stitches, dabbing with a loop of tape is kinder, because rolling hard can snag or flatten them.
What if I stitched over a dog hair?
Slide it out with tweezers if an end is loose. If it won't come, snip the ends flush, or unpick that stitch from the back and redo it.
Sources: Needle 'n Thread: A hoop tip, keeping things clean · Needle 'n Thread: What's a needle minder?