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If you’ve been cross stitching for a while, you might have heard of this hack before, but for our newer stitchers I wanted to mention it since I came across it again recently on the Koekoek blog.

One of the potential problems with working with cross stitch fabric is that it is woven, so it can fray along the edges while you are stitching. If your fabric is bigger than you need for your project this is merely annoying, but if you’ve cut your fabric to the size you want your project to be when you frame it, you don’t really want to lose a lot of fabric on the sides.

There are lots of potential ways to stop this fraying, including stitching the edges with blanket stitch, but if you don’t want to take that kind of time on something that other people will never see, an easy way to stop the fray is with painter’s tape.

My mom used to do this on her projects (I think she used masking tape, not painter’s tape, but it’s the same idea) and it is helpful, especially if you’re working on a big project that’s going to be exposed to potential fraying for a long time.

Of course you’ll want to remove the tape when you’re done stitching, and then you can finish the edges in another way or just tuck them inside your frame, depending on how you plan to finish the project.

I also sometimes use tape to position a project in a frame, like I did with this upcycled yarn wrapped picture frame that has a cross stitch piece in it. Painter’s tape is nice because it removes easily and cleanly and is easy to reposition if you need to move your project around or you decide you don’t want it framed like that any more.

Learn all the details of this technique over at the Koekoek blog. And let me know what you do to stabilize the edges of your projects while you’re stitching!

[Photo: Koekoek]