how to make the edge of aida neat and tidy

[kymbaker]

Ok I am stitching onto adia at the moment and was wondering how you get the edge of the adia to look neat and tidy once you have finished stitching your design.

Also is there a certain sort of fabric you use to place on the back so that you cannot see the mess.

thank you

[coffee_freak]

you can use frey check..stuff you can buy usually in the sewing department.
but i use a acid free, clear drying glue to dap the very edge..not the fabric..but the along the edges all the way around..but before stitching i zig zag all around the edges so it won't frey when stitching.

and you can iron on interfacing also found in the sewing dept. onto the back..that will also prevent the edges from freying.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Hi Kym, do you mean you'd like to finish the aida without framing it?

you could:
* cut to the required size and fray 2 or 3 blocks. This is a good way of getting aida ready for a card;
* hem the edges.;
* do a biscornu finish (see below; this does require another piece of aida the same size as your project)

If you want to make it into a bell pull or a wall hanging, you'll have to take into account that you need to have somewhere for the bellpull ends tofit in, or you'll have to attach fabric loops so you can slip it over a dowel.

As for the back, it depends a bit on whether you just want to cover up the worst of the mess or if you want the back to be neat enough to be on view. If the former, iron on some fairly heavy Vilene (iron-on interfacing). If the latter, sticky-backed felt can give good results, or you can sew on a backing of any fabric you like, or you could do a biscornu finish:

Stitch a rectangle of backstitch around your design to the size that you want the finished piece to be. Cut another piece of aida (same colour or contrasting/matching colour, but it must be the same count) to the same size and backstitch the same sized rectangle on that. Cut to about half an inch outside the backstitching, fold in seams right up to the backstitching and iron flat. Put the two pieces of aida together with the right sides facing out and whipstitch together by catching one backstitch on the front bit and the corresponding backstitch on the back bit together with one whipstitch. (Hope this is making sense, if not google biscornu and you should find plenty of tutorials -- just remember that the two sides of a biscornu are sewn together at a 90 degree angle, whereas here they're sewn together corner to corner and side to side). I used this finish to make a needlecase, which you can see in my Webshots (see in my signature) under finishings.

Hope this has given you some ideas!