I don’t have anything to show for SAL this time around as I’ve been trying to get Christmas presents done and wrapped but I thought I’d take the opportunity to show you what the back of my Hogwarts cross stitch looked like. I find looking at the back really interesting.
I reckon that’s pretty neat but I don’t have much to go on as it’s only my second cross stitch. I read it was suppose to look quite similar to the front and you should be able to tell what it is from the back and it ticks those boxes for me.
But on to some important questions.
I want to move on and do some quick projects. I’m lining up a load of bookmarks to do using different cross stitch materials to test them out. But I have no idea what to do with the edges?
How do I stop the fraying/make the edges look nice? Do I have to sew material round it? Should I be adding a backing?
So many questions but I’m a bit of a perfectionist and want to get it right. I don’t want to spend all that energy cross stitching only to find I haven’t finished them properly so any tips and tricks or suggestions will be very welcome!
I probably won’t have anything to show for the next SAL over Christmas but I’m sure I’ll be back stitching with photographs for January.
Avis / Claire / Gun / Carole / Kate / Jule / Wendy / Lucyanne / Cathy / Jacqui
Those are the links of everyone else taking part in the SAL. We post every three weeks and you should check out their posts to see what they have been up to.
Bloglovin / Twitter / Pinterest / Goodreads / Ravelry / Tumblr / Google
Ever The Crafter 
I’m impressed by your neatness! I dare not show the back of any of my cross stitch!
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Quite neat in comparison to my stuff. 🙂
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That is lovely and neat. More than mine usually is 😉
For bookmarks I usually use some iron-on interfacing. It stabilises it and stops it from fraying. Then you can mount it onto felt if you want or fold it into some pretty card with a window in it to show the stitching. Both of those hide the back, always a bonus in my case 😛
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Thanks. When you say ‘mount’ it onto felt what do you mean exactly? Sorry it’s probably obvious. But do you mean just sticking it to the back or sewing it on somehow?
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I’d stitch it on making the stitches either small enough to be almost invisible or making a feature of them.
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very neat ^^
re bookmarks – I have a tutorial on my blog with one method which is very neat, using card, and a backing fabric. Otherwise, if you look on my FREE page, you’ll see examples of other bookmarks I finished on felt, and just frayed edges. That’s a very quick and easy method. OR you can make a cardboard mount, like for cards, with aperture and that’s quick & easy to do too.
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I haven’t made many bookmarks, but I cheat shamelessly when I do: Perforated paper and those plastic sleeves they sell nice bookmarks in.
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I love it! I’m trying to use up some small pieces of cross stitch fabric though, but thanks for the idea 🙂
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If you don’t go for any of the other excellent suggestions, you could also go for a double sided version, and stitch two back to back using very fine whipstitch down the edges in a colour to match your background material.
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This is a good idea too. I think I will be trying a method that Claire directed me to first but might give this a go too. Thanks
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The back of your stitching is very tidy 🙂 Well done! For the bookmarks, I would buy this aida band. It comes in lots of different widths and has a pretty scalloped edge. Just turn the ends under and add a felt backing. http://www.sewandso.co.uk/ran712-0.html
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