In case you’ve been cross stitching for some time, you may need heard of this hack earlier than, however for our newer stitchers I needed to say it since I got here throughout it once more not too long ago on the Koekoek weblog.
One of many potential issues with working with cross sew material is that it’s woven, so it could possibly fray alongside the perimeters while you’re stitching. In case your material is larger than you want to your challenge that is merely annoying, however in case you’ve reduce your material to the dimensions you need your challenge to be once you body it, you don’t actually need to lose lots of material on the edges.
There are many potential methods to cease this fraying, together with stitching the perimeters with blanket sew, however in case you don’t need to take that type of time on one thing that different individuals won’t ever see, a simple solution to cease the fray is with painter’s tape.
My mother used to do that on her initiatives (I believe she used masking tape, not painter’s tape, however it’s the identical concept) and it’s useful, particularly in case you’re engaged on a giant challenge that’s going to be uncovered to potential fraying for a very long time.
In fact you’ll need to take away the tape once you’re performed stitching, after which you’ll be able to end the perimeters in one other manner or simply tuck them inside your body, relying on how you intend to complete the challenge.
I additionally typically use tape to place a challenge in a body, like I did with this upcycled yarn wrapped image body that has a cross sew piece in it. Painter’s tape is sweet as a result of it removes simply and cleanly and is straightforward to reposition if you must transfer your challenge round otherwise you determine you don’t need it framed like that any extra.
Study all the small print of this system over on the Koekoek weblog. And let me know what you do to stabilize the perimeters of your initiatives whilst you’re stitching!
[Photo: Koekoek]