Tips for Framing Cross Stitch Projects

Once you’ve finished stitching a cross-stitch project (having done what you can to keep it clean and cleaning it when you’re done if necessary), it’s time to put that beauty in a frame.

Of course the easiest way to finish a cross stitch project is to leave it in the hoop you used while stitching it and just finish the back.

But if your project is too big for that, or you just want to use a regular frame, you’re going to need to know how to do that.

This tutorial from Felt Magnet has some good advice on framing cross stitch, including why you might not want to just let a professional framer do it (they usually work with prints, photos and paintings and may not know how to properly treat your project).

Kymberly offers tips for choosing a good frame for a cross stitch project, how to prep the frame and the project for framing and how to mount and hang your finished project.

It’s definitely worth taking the time to do this right, whether you’re framing something for your own wall or for a gift.

Do you frame your projects? I’d love to hear any tips you may have.

[Photo via Felt Magnet.]

Next Pattern:

To Ways to Back a Hoop to Frame Cross Stitch

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?