Finishing an Embroidery – Glue Framing Tutorial

Because the embroidery itself is not traditional in any way, my framing is not either. I’ll show you what I did though, maybe you can use it in some way.

I was inspired by what I remembered from Britta Lincoln’s exhibition that I saw last fall, where she painted the visible raw edges with gold acrylics and the frames where black fabric… I have no training in embroidery – or framing, so I went with what I had at home and some ingenuity of my own. Take what you have handy and go with that (Man tager vad man haver as we say in Swedish). Anyways.

Finishing an Embroidery

Cut out a piece of corrugated cardboard a bit bigger than your embroidery piece. I used this because it was all I could find in the right size, but corrugated cardboard is easy to bend to next time I’ll try to find something more sturdy but equally thick. Then I created kind of a cover, sewing two pieces of black cotton fabric together on three sides and placing the cardboard between the two pieces. It fit nicely, so I glued it closed on the fourth side.

White fabric glue all over the back.

Then I put fabric glue on the back of the embroidery, and adhered it to the black “framing”. All this on my three mixed media pieces – just hours before the exhibition hanging of course… Aphu! I also sewed a thread on the backside for easy hanging, and Voil?:

Framed and ready at the exhibit. I like how it came out!

Yay, quick easy and done!

Have you seen this embroidery video? It’s in Swedish but oh so beautiful and inspirational, watch here:

Be Free Embroidery Links

* Fiber Arts Mixed Media – ning-network with images, links and contests, add me as your friend when you join/log in.
* Contemporary Textile Art Pool – more photos at flickr
* * Mixed media Stitch Pool – photos at flickr
* * How to frame – Mary Corbet has done a great tutorial on “lacing” the backside to a piece of cardboard.