Winterberry Finishing - Fused Fabric Frame

Finishing - it is always a challenge!

Sure, putting something in a frame is easy, but it can get expensive. So, I'm always looking for new ideas. Winterberry is small, about 3 x 3 inches and for something that size I usually make a box top. But, I don't have any suitable boxes right now. I've been playing with fusibles and interfacings so I thought I'd try to make a fabric frame.

I started out with a simple cardboard frame that fits around the design. I made another piece the same size for the back and one 1/4 of an inch smaller for the inside.

The next step was to find the perfect fabric and fuse it to the front of the cardboard. Then I had to carefully miter, cut and fuse it to the back.

The result is a fused frame that fits over the design perfectly.

The mentally hard part was to cut out the design and fuse it to the inside cardboard. Once it's cut I can't go back and frame it traditionally. I cut a square of fusible web and cut out the indside so that just the outside 1/2 inch of the stitching is fused down - the fused area is completely under the frame. I have a piece of quilt batting under the stitching itself and fused the whole thing to the middle cardboard.

Finally, all that was left was to make a sandwich of the frame back, stitched piece and frame top. I whip stitched the front and back together with matching thread.

The resulting frame is very stiff and the finished piece can lean on a shelf.

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