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Trash To Treasure

cleaning linen material on old pic frame

16 years ago

I bought an old wooden picture frame at a garage sale. The wood cleaned up easily and the dings I can fix, but I am stumped on how to clean a 1 1/2", off white, linen or canvas border around the inside of the frame. It is fairly dirty. Any ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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Comments (8)

craftylady-2006
16 years ago
Hi Wobur, you might go to the Christmas and Holiday forum as the gals over there are now talking about home decorating. I just asked a question the other day about how do I know if my fabric napkins are real linen and got good response, so they might know the answer to your question. As for me giving you an answer, please know I am no expert on this stuff whatsoever, but would "steam" work at cleaning the part that's dirty? Just a thought.

Sal
Carol_from_ny
16 years ago
Try a knead eraser. You can find them in the art department of most craft stores.

My other suggestion would be one of those new Mr. Clean erasers.
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Marisha
16 years ago
And if the earlier ideas the others have given you don't work, you could maybe paint it with a thin coat of off white paint.. just be careful and don't get it on the frame.
Marisha
paint_chips
16 years ago
Hi,

I had the same problem with an old frame I found. Sorry to report, I had no luck. Nothing I did could clean it. In fact, I think it just ground the dirt into the fibers.

I am going to go to my local craft/fabric store to get some of their by-the-yard ribbon. I know they have one their that is natural with a faint linen-like weave to it. I am going to glue mine right over the top of the old stuff.

I know my mom has used deep blue velvet ribbon on frames too.
wobur
Original Author
16 years ago
What great ideas! I can try to clean it and if it doesn't work I will look for some ribbon I'll let everyone know if anything works. Thanks for the help everybody!

Wobur
romellev79@yahoo.com
3 years ago
What is the best glue to use to adhere the linen ribbon to the linen border of the frame?

I have glued burlap before and it seeped thru, so even when it dried it's darker than the other areas without glue.
MDS
2 years ago
My canvas matte was lightly soiled. The Mr. Clean Eraser worked!
MDS
2 years ago
My canvas matte was lightly soiled. The Mr. Clean Eraser worked!

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