28 March 2012

How to mount Cross stitch onto a canvas

Still procrastinating about packing (the moving truck arrives in 3 days!) so I thought I would frame up my cross stitch before it gets buried in a box. Here is what I did...

These are all my bits ready to go. I have chosen a canvas with a nice thick edge and have my trusty staple gun - I love using this!

I decided to put a bit of padding behind the cross stitch as the fabric I stitched on is quite thin. I think they call this Pellum (please correct me if I am wrong) and it is used in quilting. I have cut it to the same size as the canvas.

After taking the plastic wrap off the canvas(!) I used fabric glue to stick the padding on. Just enough to secure it place really.


Then I place the cross stitch of the canvas and basically eyeballed the correct position. The I flipped it over very carefully and placed a staple on either side.

Then I flipped it back over and made sure it was still in the right spot, flipped it back and stapled at top and bottom. I then repeated this process of adding a staple and flipping it back to ensure it stayed where I wanted it. I pulled the fabric tightish as I stapled but not too tight.

I would have added more photos of this process but my stapler was spitting out 2 staples at a time and it didn't look so pretty. But hey its at the back so nobody will see it!

Then I tucked in the fabric to make neatish corners. At this point I thought it was all looking a bit to white so decided to jazz it up with some lovely grosgrain polka dot ribbon.

I measured around to make sure I had enough to overlap slightly.

I backed the ribbon with double sided tape....
I peeled back a little and then just floded the end of the ribbon over. Then starting a the bottom left corner of the canvas I peeled and stuck as I went around. It is much easier to peel as you go rather than peel all the tape of and then stick as it can get a little messy!

At the end I tucked the end of the ribbon under the ribbon where I had started - does that make sense?

I had a bit of ribbon left over so I decided to make a flat bow and add it to the top!

As you can tell from this photo I should have spent a bit more time ironing the finished piece before I started mounting it - oops.

You can find the pdf pattern to stitch these 9 Russian dolls in my etsy store.

Happy stitching!

Kim xxx

9 comments:

  1. What a beautiful and simple idea for finishing. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. Thanks for the tutorial! Have a cross stitch I'm planning on doing this to!

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  3. This is a great tutorial! It looks pretty straightforward; I think I can do it.

    I love the pattern, too. :-)

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  4. This is a great idea...I'm just wondering how you go about cleaning it when it gets dusty?..

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    1. Thats what i was thinking

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    2. Hair drier on cool setting,blows any dust away.

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  5. Is it perhaps possible to stitch directly on the canvas? Its stretched fabric already on a hoop

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  6. I would hate to see what it would look like if you had to rip stitches! Maybe remove the canvas and just use the frame for the cloth you are stitching on? Built in hoop, too!

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