Show off your stitches in style with our step-by-step guide to presenting your finished projects on a canvas base.
You just need a few basic materials and a staple gun for this easy way to turn finished cross stitch designs into contemporary pictures to hang on walls.
Back your stitching with interfacing and press. Measure your canvas frame and mark the halfway points along each edge. Join up these points in pencil to make a cross on your frame. Use a pin to push through the central stitch of your cross stitched image – the point where the two ‘0’ gridlines cross on the chart. Push the pin through the centre of the cross on the frame. Place the stitching and frame face down and trim your fabric, leaving 5cm (2in) around the edge of the frame.
Staple the fabric to the centre of the top bar. Move to the centre of the bottom bar, pulling the fabric around the bar to keep it tight, and place the central staple. Repeat, placing a central staple in each of the two side bars. Return to the top bar and place staples on either side of the original, leaving about 2cm (¾in) between each staple. Repeat for the bottom bar, and then the side bars, pulling the stitching taut at each stage.
To finish the edges neatly, grip the corner of your piece of stitching and pull it towards the opposite corner. This will create two flaps of fabric on either side. Fold each of these in towards the point that you are pulling and secure them in place with a single staple. Repeat with the other three corners, and trim any excess fabric. Staple a piece of ribbon to the middle of the top edge, to make a hanging loop.
Mounting on to canvas is a striking way to display cross stitch without it being overshadowed by a frame. In the main image of this post, we’ve featured a baby sampler by Jenny Barton, find the pattern in The World of Cross Stitching magazine issue 233.
