Framing Up an Embroidery Project at Long Last!

This week I finally had a chance to frame up the embroidery project I finished in October of 2022 -- it was a stitchalong, and a fundraiser for Ukraine, designed by Embroidery Art by Nat. 

I've been looking for the right frame for this for a long time. I wanted the right size but also a shadow box style, so that there is space between the stitching and the glass. I finally found this frame at Goodwill, with a commercial image still in it. It has three spacers inside, and I removed the middle one so that this piece could still right in the centre, with plenty of space before the glass. It's perfect! 

I started by steaming and pressing my embroidery carefully to get all the crinkly bits out. It's been sitting a while! Then I cut a square of foam core just the size of the frame spacers. I centred the embroidery on it and was planning on lacing the back but I didn't have quite enough fabric to do that well. 

So I used painter's tape to tack it down so I could try lacing, but realized that painter's tape was holding really well. So I just stretched the whole thing with tape. I carefully did it on all four sides to make sure it was being stretched evenly and the embroidery stayed centred. This is not heirloom framing -- the foamcore probably isn't acid free and the tape is not going to stay forever. But it doesn't bother me. I'm just happy to have it done and ready to hang!

 I had to redo a bit of it a couple of times but finally got it nice and even without any big ripples in the fabric. I think it looks pretty great, and am now just trying to decide where the best place to hang it up is. It's not that heavy so I have lots of options. It looks nice on my sewing table in this picture...but I need that space! I will hang it somewhere where I can see it often and think of Ukraine.