Review - DMC Soluable Canvas

I was pretty excited when I heard about DMC's new product:  Soluble Canvas.  I bought some right away and tried it out to see how it would work for adding cross stitch and counted thread embroidery onto crazy quilting as an alternative to using waste canvas.

The canvas is quite nice to stitch on.  The holes are even and perfectly spaced so it is more like stitching on a piece of Aida cloth instead of canvas.  The canvas has a bit of a funny feel to it.  More than anything it reminds me of dried white glue - you know that plastic-y feel almost? It isn't unpleasant or nasty - just different.

I began by cutting a piece of canvas to size and basting it on the block, then stitched the cross stitch motif, in this case a rose, as I would normally.

 Following the instructions, I then had to soak the piece in soapy water.  Rinse lots after that to get the soap and residue out and you are done.  The canvas turns soft, then into a slime and then disappears completely.

Here is the end result.
So, now for my feelings on using this product vs. traditional waste canvas on a cq project.
Pros:  I think I got more uniform stitching and a nicer piece as an end result.  If I were using this on  a piece of clothing I was going to throw in the washer anyway it would be good.
Cons:  It is more expensive than waste canvas - you only get one small sheet in a package. Also, you can`t see the stitching as clearly against the background as you are working with this canvas vs. waste canvas.  I found this worrisome in this example since I was concerned about how the shades of gold were going to show up against each other - hoping the black background would make them pop enough to be distinguishable from each other.
 I sweat bullets when I had to immerse the thing in warm water.  I get nervous when I use a damp Q-tip to dab away water soluble markers I have used so this had me going up the wall - immersing it in warm soapy water!  Had the cottons it was pieced with been preshrunk?  Had the muslin backing?   Then when it came to  having to iron it after I was worried again - what about the threads?  Were all these speciality threads going to hold up under the heat of the iron?  Well, everything worked all right although the rose is not as clearly a rose as I would like because of the way the shading works against the black.
In conclusion, I will use the product again in other applications but not on crazy quilting work. Getting it out of there necessitated more stress on me and the piece than I am happy about.  I also worry about new products like this that claim to "disappear" until they have been proven by time.  Recently there were new markers on the market that claimed to "disappear" but they don't - they return with cold temperatures.  Up here in Canada at least that is a concern eight months out of the year.  I also think back on the sticky boards we used years back for framing needlework.  In that case it turned out that the glue used on the boards attracted insects to your work over the long haul - not a happy outcome.  So, maybe it is an age thing on my part that I have become very cautious over time but when you put this many hours into your stitching, do you really want to take unnecessary chances?   As for myself, I can't give this a thumbs up, at least in the applications I hoped to use it for.  Just my own opinions but there you have it.