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Handmade Picture Frames

Bringing Your Artwork to Life

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Embroidery & Tapestry Stretching



We are often asked to mount a piece of embroidery or tapestry for a client. Although this can depend very much on what it has been made of, and how the customer would like the artwork to be displayed, in many cases the finished piece will need to be stretched onto a board to be mounted correctly.


Steaming Embroidery & Tapestry


Usually the artwork, when worked, is stretched on a hoop or a frame, distortion can quite easily take place as differing tensions are applied to each stitch. Steam stretching gently allows you to pull the piece back into its correct shape. Steaming embroidery or tapestry is achieved by placing a towel on an ironing board and laying your artwork face down on top of it; the setting of the iron should be set to steam while holding the iron approximately 1 – 2 inches above the fabric. A slow consistent movement will allow the piece to be steamed equally.



Lacing Embroidery & Tapestry



Once steam stretched it is now ready to mount on to a board. The thickness of the board will depend on the size of the artwork that you wish to frame, It will need to be solid enough not to bend when the fabric is stretched across it yet thin enough to fit into the frame that will surround it. We tend to use foam board for the larger pieces, and mount board for the
smaller ones.


Once the fabric has been pinned into shape and the corners mitred the lacing can take place. The lacing should be tight enough to pull the artwork taught but not so tight that it distort's, tear, or bend the board. Lacing is done with a herring bone stitch; this spreads the tension across the whole stitch, reducing the likelihood of tearing the fabric.