All Framed Up

Firstly, a rather better (in focus) picture of the leaves I've done so far, (and a little more) :


I did the extra leaves while the embroidery was in the scroll frame.

After washing and ironing the embroidery, (simply because it had already picked up some dirt) I found that the linen was rather bigger than the frame it was supposed to fit into. I folded over the extra material and hemmed it, making sure that the hem didn't intrude into the space where I'd be embroidering on the front.

I then sewed some bias binding tape right around the edges, making sure that the top and bottom + bias binding just fitted into the frame, and the left/right edges were a wee bit (inch or so) short in width (to allow for the lacing). It's the lacing that really gets the linen tense, I saw a bit later on.

The idea with the bias binding is that the sewing holes used in the tension-making process of attaching it to the frame are in the bias binding, not in my good linen.

I made a mark in the centre top and bottom on the webbing of the scroll bars, and a mark at the centre top and bottom and matched them up, pinning outwards from the centre. Then I whip stitched the top and bottom to the frame webbing.

Lacing the frame was much easier than I thought. I came up through bias binding at the top, without securing the end, then went around the frame, came back through the bias binding, and down the frame/embroidery.

I was keeping an eye out that the embroidery was staying straight, and so were the loops I was making around the frame.

(You can see the olive green bias binding tape I used in the photo).

Then the years of experience in lacing corsets came in handy. Using a finger, I tightened each loop as much as it would, secured one end of the thread, then did a bit more tightening for luck, then secured the other end.

The way I secured the thread was by wrapping it around the bolt and nuts of the frame. I think you are actually supposed to wrap it around the frame itself using clove hitches - it might be a bit hard getting it back from around the bolt. Ooops.

(You use a really really long crochet thread for to do all this - not even cutting it off the ball, and having heaps of thread to play with).


I am concered that the linen seems warped at the corners. (I didn't take the photo to show that, but to show detail of the two types of attachment, but here you go). It's totally totally fine for 7/8 of the area of the linen, but the corners are a bit 'off'. I don't know if this normally happens or I did something wrong (tension being too loose in one direction would be one possible problem).

It won't affect this embroidery, as it's in the middle, but would be an issue if I was embroidering right up to the corners.

I could tighten the tension by

• re-lacing
• rotating one of both scroll bars around a little. (this involves undoing screws, urgh)

The tension at the moment is that if I hold a finger down above the part I'm sewing, it makes that area drum tight. The whole piece isn't drum tight-bound a coin. I could sew without using a finger to hold it down, but it seems easier to sew that way. I just hope temporarily changing the tension at the spot I'm embroidering doesn't muck up the tension of the whole piece. Maybe my tension IS too loose?