Many years ago I was a published pattern maker of soft crafts (dolls and cute things). I also created a lot of original projects for magazines and local craft venues. With my roots in mind, I felt surely there was a way to make finishing smalls easier for the non-sewer. I gave it a try and this is what I've come up with for you! I certainly hope it inspires you to get out your unfinished smalls along with helping you to create finishes for your Fall on the Farm designs.
Let's get started!
The Goodies
The Canvas
You will need the following:
THE GOODIES! I chose orange sprigs, small ivory flowers, orange checkered ribbon, twine.
THE NECESSITIES: 5" x 5" painters canvas, needle and thread, glue (I used hot glue and Elmer's fabric glue), and a backing of your choice.
My purchases were made at Michaels Arts and Crafts.
Please note: If you change fabric counts to 28 or 32 the 5" square canvas will still work.
You will just see more or less of the unstitched area.
The Lacing
The finished design was cut into a square large enough to lace but small enough to make nice corners (you'll see in a minute). With the design face-down, lace the sides and then the top and bottom with your needle and thread. Double it if necessary to avoid breakage.
It helps to flip it over a few times so that you keep it straight.
I don't recommend glue for this step.
Next you will need to get the corners sewn down. Fold to create triangles that can be stitched tightly in place. This is where those canvases really come in handy!
The flatter the corner, the nicer the ribbon looks when it circles the outside edge.
The Corners
The Pull Apart
The florals I purchased needed to be pulled apart and made much smaller. Luckily the orange sprigs pulled off easily. The white flowers were just snipped from the branch.
Depending on what you purchase you may be able to skip this step and move right along.
For the ribbon I used the craft glue. Starting at top center, I used dots of glue to anchor the ribbon then used it at all of the corners to keep the ribbon from slipping. This was another time during the finishing I was thrilled to be using a hard canvas as a form.
The Ribbon
The Anchor Ribbon
Cut a piece of ribbon about 3" long.
Use the hot glue gun if you have one to anchor the ribbon to the top center with the length of it pointing toward you. Hot glue will be the best choice here because you will be tugging a little to secure the florals in the next step.
Hot glue the floral pieces along the top edge making sure you keep the cut ends in the very center. This is a hot glue step. Definitely burned my fingers a few times on all of these tiny stems! Once your florals are glued, take the ribbon and lap it over the top, gluing it to the back of the canvas.
At this time I made a loopy twine bow and glued that on too!
One more decision and it's all yours.......choose wool, a fabric covered cardboard backing or even scrapbook paper to cover the back side. You can even glue two together and trim with a wide ribbon instead of using the smaller one.
The Finishing
The End
So here they are.......all topped off....some with just orange blooms and some with a few white added in. You be you and finish however you like. I'm just happy to share a canvas mount solution for your projects so you can try your own hand at a no-sew finish!
