How I prepare a piece of cross stitch for framing

Once again I want to stress that this post isn't a how to.  There might be a better way to do this - if there is I would like to know about it - but it is how I do it.  You can take your piece of cross stitch to a framer just as a piece of fabric and they will prepare it for framing for you, but it costs a bit more.  As I don't have unlimited money, I have always done this stage myself.

You will need:
Your washed and ironed finished piece of cross stitch; heavy rigid card which won't bend too much when you work with it (preferably preservation quality mount board to keep your work in good condition long term), a pen or pencil, ruler or tape measure, a set square, a craft knife, lots of pins, a strong thread and a needle with a big enough eye to take your strong thread.

Step 1: Put on the TV or some music.  This is a bloody annoying job and will probably have you swearing it some point, so you might as well have something good on in the background (or, at least, that is my experience).  My choice was an audiobook that I am listening to; a ghost story called "Eloise" by Judy Finnigan (I'm near the end, and want to know what happens next).

Step 2: With a tape measure, work out how big you want to cut your card.  Ideally you need to measure your card so that it is a little bigger than your finished design, but it will need to be a couple of inches either side smaller than your piece of fabric.  You will need to have a decent amount of fabric at the back of your design for the stretching - if you have too little you might risk ripping and fraying the edges.

Step  3: With the set square to make sure that you get straight right angles at the corners, measure your card and cut it with the craft knife.

Step 4: Here come the pictures to try to show you what I do next.  I centre the material over the piece of card and start to hold it in place by sticking pins through the material into the edge of the card.  I tend to use the holes in the aida as a guide to keeping it straight.  You need to do this for two opposite edges of the card and material.  I normally start with the longest edge first.



Step 5: When you have pinned both sides in place, making sure that the material is quite taut and not wrinkled up, then you are ready to start stretching it.  You need a very, very long length of your durable thread (I used a crochet cotton) threaded into your needle and, as you don't see the back, I don't worry too much about tying off the other end with a knot.  Then, from one end of the material and not too close to the edge, you need to take the thread across the width of the board and back again catching the material on either side.  Keep doing this about an inch apart until you get to the middle.  This is the bit that normally makes me swear as, working with a long length of thread, I invariably get tied up in a knot at some point.  Do this again from the other side of the material until you can meet in the middle.

Step 6: Starting from each end, you need to pull the threads tightish - not so tight that you are tearing the edges of the material - and again meet in the middle.  Tie a knot in the middle to join the two ends of threads fairly tight.





The other side should now look like this.  If you realise that it isn't quite centred, at this stage it should still possible to wriggle the material a bit to centre it a bit better.



Step 7: I always find the corners tricky.  I try to fold the material under to make a corner fold, and at the end I go back and oversew this to fix it in place.  It's a bit trial and error until I get the fold right.














Step 8: As with the longest edges, you take a long length of thread and sew across the card to draw the two opposite edges of material together.  As before work towards the middle with one length of thread, and do the same with another length of thread to meet in the middle.  Tighten up the thread and tie the two ends of thread together in the middle.




The back should look like this.








Step 9: Oversew the corners to fix the material in place in a neat fold.  You might also want to iron this afterwards to flatten the corner down a bit.







The finished front should look like this.











I have heard of others who bypass the whole threading thing by just fixing the material in place with high quality tape.  I've never done this, as I am always wary that the tape might lose its adhesion or discolour the material (although I suppose in practice, if it does, it would be behind the frame and not visible).

And that's how I do it - although it is quite hard to clearly describe, so apologies if it doesn't make sense.  Hopefully the pictures will help to make up for any deficiencies in my written description...