Babushka Embroidery Hoop

I have a million projects buzzing around in my head at the moment and most of them are for my daughter's room. It is lovely to have a litte girl to make for.

I am making a series of embroidery hoops to hang in her room. This is the first one...

Just a reminder you can find a free Babushka doll cross stitch pattern (a sister to the above one) on my blog here.

As promised I am trying to use and recycle existing craft supplies and here I have used a jute bag as my background to stitch on. This is what I started with...

I thought I would share with you how I made & framed it.

I used a half cross stitch (or tapestry stitch as I call it) and I love the 'rustic' look that the uneven weave of the bag material creates.

After I had finished stitching I took the outer hoop I am using to frame it and using the inner edge of the outer hoop traced 2 circles onto card and cut them out.

I placed the canvas on top of the inner hoop and just fiddled until I thought it was centred, then pressed down around the edge of the hoop to leave a dent and ensure the doll was in the middle.

Then I added the outer ring and secured it tightly and flipped it over and now you can see all my messiness at the back!

Then I added a piece of card and trimmed the edge of my canvas - not very evenly but it will do the trick!

Then using 6 strands of embroidery thread I used a gathering stitch to pull the back together and knotted tightly at the end.

Then I place the second piece of card over the back and pressed down hard forcing it so it stays in place. Because I used a thick fabric this worked really well but it is probably a good idea to use some glue on the back of the card and then place some weight on it to dry and set.

Now this is probably not exactly how it should be done but you know me I am already eyeing up the next project so if I don't finish things quickly they won't get done!

Now what to start next......