Sunday, October 28, 2012

Wedding Gift II

The finished portrait

After transferring the image I made in the last post onto cloth with my trusty Aunt Martha's Transfer Pencil, I sewed up the image and here's what was left.  It's not a perfect reproduction but it's an artistic portrait of the happy couple that's about to say "I do."  I wanted to frame it and here's a quick tutorial on how I frame an embroidery piece in an embroidery hoop. 


I always wash my pieces after I'm finished sewing to remove any stencil marks still showing.  Even after my first time washing this piece there were some stains left behind that fortunately came right out with oxy-clean stain remover (which did not work on the handkerchief, boo!).

First, find a hoop that you're not going to use for future projects, I picked up a wooden one that's a bit large for me to work with when sewing but is the perfect size for this portrait.  I actually bought the hoop before I started sewing to make sure I sewed to the appropriate shape and marked it on the cloth.


Take the inside hoop (the solid ring) and use a paintbrush to apply a coat of glue to the outside edge of the ring.  From here you want to move quickly so the glue doesn't dry before the cloth is in place.


Carefully lay the image on top of the ring and align it as closely as possible to where you want the image to sit in the hoop.


Unscrew the outer hoop as far as you can and place it around the inner hoop with the cloth in place.  Pull the cloth to adjust the placement of the image if you need to.


From here, you'll want to tighten the hoop at the start pulling the cloth around the edges to stretch the image till there are no wrinkles in the fabric and the image is in it's permanent spot.  Leave the glue to dry for a few hours or overnight.


Now use a rotary cutter or scissors and slice off the excess fabric and voila, you're done!


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