Hot Stitching

First and foremost Happy New Year to all.

Whilst my stitching friends in northern America are experiencing snow and blizzards and those in the United Kingdom are contending with rain and floods, South East Queensland sweltered through its hottest day on record by reaching a maximum of 40 deg. Celsius.  It was seriously so hot, that everyone flocked to air conditioned shopping centres, movie theatres and the beach (although I struggle to understand how walking and lying on scorching hot sand can be cooling) and at one stage when I turned on the cold tap it ran so hot, I swear I could've made a cup of tea!

Health authorities always advise tips on keeping as cool as possible and expending as little as possible energy to avoid dehydration, so it seems only logical to me that stitching is the way to go - wouldn't you agree?  My workroom isn't air conditioned, so the window is open to allow a flow of breeze, the fan put on full blast and there is plenty of water, but my real dilemma is how to avoid my work (fabric and threads) becoming soiled through perspiration whilst stitching.   Whilst I regularly wash my hands and lower arms with clean soapy water, I have found lightly dusting my hands with talc powder a useful tip to absorb any moisture build-up, but this is only a short term solution.  

A search of the internet for any tips only led me to a site which gave solutions on how to deal with perspiration stains - www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/stain-removals.html - by the use of Bicarbonate of Soda worked into a paste with water and dabbed onto the affected area for a short time before being rinsed off.  The site is very informative and useful in dealing with the removal of a variety of other stains - but, of course, prevention is always better than cure, so I would be most interested to hear any handy tips or ideas from anyone.  

Ros

'We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems' - Benjamin Franklin