Finishing ideas for our latest free charts

You grabbed your free charts and stitched the designs....but how to finish them? Don't worry, we've got you covered!

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How about finishing in a hoop?

All you need is a 3" embroidery hoop and some ribbon! I bought this twelve pack of hoops as it was such great value and I love finishing my cross stitched pieces in a hoop and I know I will use all of them! For the ribbon I used some grey satin ribbon that was 5/8" (1.5cm) wide and some silver ribbon 1/4" wide (6mm). I was originally going to use only the silver ribbon, but it wasn't wide enough to hide the embroidery hoop screw!

This is an easy way to finish your stitching - all you need to do is place your stitching in the hoop an pull the fabric tight, making sure that it it is placed so that none of the white fabric is showing. Trim fabric to about an inch and a half from the hoop. Using a running stitch sew all the way round the fabric(see picture below) Use a white or pale coloured thread, I used right pink so that it could be seen on the photograph! Once you have stitched all the way round, pull the thread tightly so that the aida fabric gathers together. You can see these steps in the pictures below.

Cut a 3 inch circle of felt and then attach to the back of the ornament. I did a blanket stitch all round the felt then glued the felt to the back of the ornament.

I looped the silver ribbon through the screw of the hoop then cut some strips of both ribbons. I wrapped some grey thread round the middle of the ribbons and pulled it tight to form a bow type shape then glued them to the ribbon and hoop.

Our snowflake design is finished exactly the same way. We used a pink felt for backing so that it co-ordinated with the stitching.

Make a card

Simple to make and looks fantastic! I made an aperture card with my Cricut maker but you can easily buy aperture cards pre-made. With your card, the stitching and some card making supplies, you can make a one-of-a-kind card. I love using baker's twine as its easy to work with and looks really festive (with or without the greeting tag!) A multi-pack like this one is great for cards and ornaments for both Christmas, everyday and other holiday cards and ornaments!

A really simple make is a card without an aperture. Just trim your stitching to whatever size you'd like and add and glue it to a piece of card slightly larger than the stitching then glue it all to a plain self-colored card. For this card I made a double border just to add some more colour to the finished card. I left it like this but you can always add a stamped greeting, or a sticker greeting to the front.

A re-useable gift box

How cute is this little gift box? Cute and re-useable! I bought some cardboard boxes from Hobby Lobby as these fit the size of the stitching exactly! If you can't get the boxes the same size, just add another row or two of stitching so that the design will fit!

All you have to do is position the design on the top of the lid and then glue the unstitched aida to the sides of the lid. I snipped the aida so the the fabric would lay flat when glued. I used some hair ties to keep the fabric in place while the glue dried. Add some ribbon to hide the glued fabric, add a bow and cover the base of the box with some scrapbooking paper and you're done!

A simple ornament

With some sticky mount board(or cardboard), fabric, ric-rac and ribbon you can make this ornament. Cut the board to the desired size ( the example shown is 10cm x 14cm) and cover with fabric - if the back is going to be seen, cover that too! Cut another pice of mount board for the stitching (mine was 5.5cm x 8.5cm) Place the stitching onto the card and wrap the excess aida round the card, then either lace in place or glue. Add the ric-rac trim and glue in place. Glue the stitched piece to the fabric covered board. you can use any design to make this type of ornament, just adjust the sizes to fit the new stitching.

Make a gift tag!

One of the simplest things to make! Just add you stitching to a pre-made gift tag (or make your own!) I also added a stick-on greeting, but that part is purely optional!

Check back for more finishing ideas and, of course, more free 'A year of Christmas Stitching' charts! And don't forget to save an image to Pinterest.