a very simple how-to

You’ve finished stitching the very sweet Liberty Belles designs from Little House Needleworks … now what??

There are many options for finishing and attaching your stitched work to an Impie, Hattie & Bea product. You could do a fancy hem finish on your linen or use a sewing machine and apply a facing to the back of your work before attaching  among other options but if you’re like me you want a fast, easy finish – here is one very basic method that is easy for those who don’t do fancy finishes. If you can cross stitch the design, this method should be fairly simple to achieve.

Once you have your project stitched and pressed, play around a bit deciding how much linen you want to show around the stitched area by folding the edge back and ‘trying it on’ the pillow. Once you’ve determined this use a contrasting thread and mark this fold line with a running stitch all the way around your stitched project – you will be pulling this thread out later so make nice big stitches and don’t worry about the color.

Now trim the excess linen away from your project. Cut about 1 to 1.5 inches OUTSIDE of your running stitch. This doesn’t need to be an exact amount all the way around, just don’t cut it too close to your running stitch marker.

Finger press your fold along the the running stitch marker line while using invisible thread to sew the folded flap to the front. I do this by making tiny stitches along the border stitches on this project. Make sure you keep your fold on the running stitch line and be careful to not  pull to tightly and distort the front of your work. Take your time on the corners to make them look nice.  Continue all the way around and knot your invisible thread on the back when you are done, now remove your running stitch marker line thread.

Using medium weight fusible interfacing iron a facing or cover to the back of your work. Cut the facing just a bit smaller than your stitched piece. This helps stabilize your project for attaching it to the pillow and keeps the dark fabric from showing through the linen and hiding the beauty of your stitching. It also serves as a lining if you want to leave the top unattached in order to form a pocket. Now just use invisible thread again to whip-stitch your stitched piece to your pillow. You can tack the corners in place first to help keep your linen flat and in the right place as you sew.

I hope that this is helpful and will encourage you to finish this project and perhaps others. Thank you for your interest in Liberty Belles, I’m hoping to find time to finish another (for myself this time) very soon.

:0)

PS if you can’t find this project at your favorite shop, you can find it at Handcrafts Online.