Framing your own finished work

[mimers]

How does one go about stretching the fabric to hold in place for a frame with a mat??

[Arianwen]

It's not too difficult, just time consuming. If you get any magazines, they often have mounting and lacing tutorials in them (I know both Cross stitch Gold and Cross stitcher have them in each issue, towards the end of the mag)

If not I'm sure there are good tutorials here and on the net.

First you need a piece of acid free mounting board cut to the size of your framing area/stitching. this is about 1 cm thick. You centre your washed and ironed work over it then use pins to hold it in place. mountboard usually has a pretty 'spongy' centre (It's like a foam middle with some cardboard on the front and back and the pins slide easily into it and come out leaving little to no marking)

Then turn your stitching over and fold the edges of your fabric over the board. I usually use crochet cotton to lace my work as its strong and durable and that is what was recommended to me. It doesn't matter if you lace the sides or the top and bottom first. Secure and then stitch the cotton from side to side, loosely at first all the way along your fabric. Before you finish off go back and gently tighten each lace like you would with a pair of walking boots (so there isn't much slack but not so tight that it distorts the stitching) Fold in your corners (or cut them out) and repeat the process on the two remaining sides. It will look like you have a giant chess board kind of, with lots of little squares. Check you are happy with how the stitching looks and if you are, take the pins out and you are ready to frame.

I know some people use masking tape to mount their fabric so you could do that as well if the lacing is a bit intimidating.

It can be very fiddly but it gets better with practice

Did I miss anything vital?