Fabric Mat

If you read my blog regularly, you know I've been kind of obsessed with faux embroidery (You can see my full faux embroidery tutorial here).  I can't help it!  The doodle people from Twin Stitchers are so cute...and it's fast and easy to personalize.  So I'm at it again.  I teach the 6 year-old (turning 7) class at church and wanted to have something for each of their birthdays.  Of course it needed to be cheap and easy and something I could commit to giving to each of the six kids through the year.

So faux embroidery was the answer.  I whipped up this cute little wall hanging using the girl from My Sister...My Friend, and the CTR sheild in the Tidbits All Occasions! pattern, both available from Twin Stitchers.  One of the things I LOVE about Twin Stitchers patterns is that they're so easy to mix and match.

I did the words on my own and did my best to immitate the Twin Stitchers cute doodle writing.

I had planned to use a small frame, but once I'd finished, it just looked too cramped.

So I decided to use a red frame I'd gotten at the thrift store, since her favorite color is red...only problem was that I'd cut the fabric too small for it, so I came up with this little fabric mat.

Some of you may remember the denim mat I made a while back for this print for Little Brother's room. 

This one was a little easier to put together since I could get the whole thing out of one piece of fabric, and it would work great for real embroidery as well as faux embroidery.

Here's what you'll need:
Your stitchery, frame, fabric for your mat, scissors, ruler, Heat'n Bond (or similar product), and muslin or waste fabric (not pictured).

Start by cutting out your Heat'n Bond to be the size of your frame...in my case, 8 inches by 10 inches.

Cut it out.  Iron it onto the BACK of your mat fabric.

Cut out the fabric to be even with the Heat'n Bond.

It should look like this.

Cut out another rectangular piece of paper the size you want your opening to be.  Trace onto the back of your mat fabric, and make sure to double check with your ruler that it's centered.

Cut out the opening, being especially careful at the corners.

Peel off the paper backing from the Heat'n Bond that is now part of your mat.

Place your stitchery on top of a piece of muslin or other waste fabric.  Then arrange the mat around your stitchery so that it looks even.

Iron.  If you're framing a faux embroidery like mine where you have used crayons, place about 2 layers of paper towels over the stitchery to protect your iron from the crayon, and try to iron as much on the sides as possible rather than in the middle.

Check the sides and corners to make sure the Heat'n Bond has sealed them.

Trim around the edges.

Sign the back...

And put it in your frame.

And take lots of pictures of it at weird angles...because it's hard to get a good picture of a framed piece straight on.  (If you've never tried it...you should, just to appreciate how hard it is.