Have you ever come to embroider a piece, only to find that it’s too small to fit the frame you wanted to use? Not to worry, we have a solution.
Items Used :
Calico fabric
Embroidery Fabric
Sewing Machine/Needle and Thread
Grab yourself some sturdy woven no stretch fabric like a calico or cotton and cut yourself 4 strips which are all 10cm longer than the widest point of your embroidery frame. They should also be wide enough to generously make up the missing fabric. My fabric here is 3cm short of the frame each side, so each of my strips is 7cm wide.
Take your embroidery fabric and turn it over, take the first strip of fabric and lay it with the body of the strip inside your embroidery fabric, outside edges lined up. Pin this into place. Set up your sewing machine to a long running stitch, (approx 4mm) and sew long the edge joining the embroidery fabric to the strip. Fold your first strip out then pin the next strip with the main body in, lining up the edges and sew that onto the embroidery fabric too, overlapping the stitches on the edge where the two calico strips meet. Repeat for the third and fourth strips also sewing the over where the first and forth strips meet.
Fold all the edges out on the right side of your fabric and you should now have a piece that is big enough to fit your frame, so you can take your frame and frame up in the usual way. The strips will distribute the tension of the embroidery fabric evenly and because of the big stitches can be easily removed when you are done. This is also a great alternative if you don’t want to damage a large area of an expensive fabric by framing it up so you can cut what you need, for the piece with a seam allowance and apply stirps of a cheaper fabric to the areas that the frame will press.
If you don’t have an embroidery machine, you can do this by hand instead. Use 2 strands (1 strand of double length, folded over) with a knot on the end and attach the strips in the same order as you would for machine using a running stitch. Using this method you will lose a little of the outside edge of your embroidery fabric to the seam allowance, you may get it back when you remove the strips. However be prepared to lose that area as it will depend on your fabric whether there are some small holes from stretching the stitching in the frame, though likely to be less than a solid ring mark!
We hope this tip is useful for you and if you enjoyed it, consider giving it a like. To hear more tips like this as we release them, subscribe to the London Embroidery School Channel on YouTube.
Credit: Music ‘Rain’ @ikson
