Finishing is not my best thing.
There I’ve admitted it, in public. It certainly is a major contributing factor to my huge pile of stitched but unfinished projects.
Even so, finishing your own projects is often not as hard as it looks. But finding information on how to finish projects isn’t do easy.
I found a site which seeks to remedy this, Focus on Finishing, it has posts from several contributors, all on finishing. While the focus is cross stitch, most of these finished can be done with needlepoint as well.
The important thing to remember about finishing needlepoint is the thickness of the fabric. This makes it stiffer, so you can’t make shapes as easily. It also means that you will need to use heavier fabric overall.
There are photos of the steps in the process, great instructions and, often, galleries of finished items.
There are tutorials on:
- Pillows
- Embellished Bag
- Bookmarks – the second, cushion, bookmark will work for needlepoint, not the first
- Strawberries – ornament sized that look like emery strawberries on pincushions
- Tuck Pillow
- Book Cover
There’s lots more, including links to other finishing tutorials found throughout the Web.
It probably won’t get me sewing any time soon, but I may be able to talk my DD into doing some as she has the sewing machine.
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Anne S says
Thanks so much for your kind words about my Focus on Finishing site – I always hope it will be of good use for finishing ideas, especially for beginners 🙂 Have a great week 🙂
Kind regards, Anne
threeundertwo says
What a great site! Thanks for the link. I’m pushing myself to finish up all the pieces in my stack. I’m a much more enthusiastic stitcher than I am a finisher. And I’m too stubborn to send them out to have a professional do them.