Here’s a tutorial for finishing a cross stitch in a hoop. Of course there’s a few different ways, but this is a method I use regularly which can be customized to suit the stitching. I’m hooping ‘Florence the Owl’ and I’ve chosen hot pink felt and bright green ribbon to match her. I’ll stitch the felt backing on with turquoise thread. If your hoop is a bit ropey you could wrap it with ribbon or tape.
As well as your FO and a hoop, you need felt and ribbon, and cardboard of the same colour as your cross stitch fabric. Toy stuffing as well, but it’s not essential.
Firstly, make a circle of felt and a circle of card the same size as the outside edge of the inner hoop. Trace around the hoop in pencil to make a line to cut.
Give your stitching an iron on the reverse side to remove creases and plump up the stitches a little. It helps to be neat like this, especially with evenweave, so that loose thread and trailing ends don’t show though to the front. Trim all the little ends of thread left here and there and press flat with the iron.
Now put your stitching in the hoop. 1 The cardboard circle is going to sit on top of the inner ring and go under the fabric. This does a few things. It will help provide a bright background and so your stitching will look great! The grid holes in the fabric won’t be as noticeable. My stitching here is on evenweave – I’m going to use stuffing inside the hoop and the cardboard will stop it fluffing out the front. And the cardboard will also help protect from accidental impact damage.
2 When you’re happy with the position of the fabric do up the fastener as tight as you can, pulling the fabric flat all around the edges as you do the fastener up a little more each time The gridlines of the fabric should remain straight.
3 Now trim the fabric all around the hoop to make it a circle. It’s easier to round the corners off first, and then trim down from there.
4 Fold the fabric down neatly at the back. Start at the top and make folds the same direction all around. This way your backing fabric will lay nice and flat. Fix the fabric in place with some running stitches made where the creases lay.
5 I did two rows with this one as the evenweave wasn’t laying as flat as I liked. You could trim your fabric more than I did at stage 3 so there’s less to stitch.
6 Poke some toy stuffing under the fabric and push it right up inside all around. This optional extra protection makes the back feel solidly squishy.
7 Now fix the felt circle onto the back by stitching it onto the evenweave fabric. I’ve used a simple blanket stitch. Make straight stitches from the edge inwards, pick up the last stitch and pull it flat. Blanket stitch will give some protection to the edge of the felt and looks lovely. But you could be more creative if you like!
8 This thread is a colour in the pattern. For blanket stitch, use a piece of thread as long as three times the circumference of your hoop. Use all six strands, much easier than separating it! The stitches are about 1cm apart here.
9 Tie the two ends together in a tight knot and tuck that knot into the fabric with the thread in the needle. Trim the ends where they poke out, if you need to.
Finish with a bit of ribbon at the fastener to hang the hoop. Double over one length of ribbon with one twist. Knot it at the end and loop through the fastener with the knot at the back and a flat loop ready for hanging.
(The photos for this one came out a bit rubbish so here’s a similar FO ^^)
Since once in a blue moon I actually discover a decent rule for adulting, and since I know I have followers a few years younger than me who are just entering the workforce, I want to tell you about a very important phrase.
“I won’t be available.”
Imagine you’re at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day off–coming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really don’t want to give up your day off.
If you consider yourself a millennial you’ve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if you’re a gen-Z kid you’re likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:
Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since you’re not doing anything important.
Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.
Lie and say you’ve got a doctor’s appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.
The fact is, it doesn’t matter to your boss whether you’re having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you won’t be at work. So telling them why you won’t be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.
If you say “I won’t be available,” giving no further information, you’d be surprised how often that’s enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say “sorry, but I won’t be available.” But don’t make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, they’ll accept that as a ‘no’ and try to find someone else.
But bosses aren’t always professional. Sometimes they’re whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer is–politely and sympathetically give them no further information.
“Are you sure you’re not available?” “Sorry, but yes.”
“Why won’t you be available?” “I have a prior commitment.” (Which you do, even if it’s only to yourself.)
“What’s your prior commitment?” “Sorry, but that’s kind of personal.”
“Can you reschedule it?” “I’m afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?”
If you don’t give them anything to work with, they can’t pressure you into going beyond your obligations as an employee. And when they realize that, they’ll also realize they have to find someone else to come in and move on.
IMPORTANT!! PLEASE READ!!
Just like with many other parts of life, learn to say ‘no’ to people. You are important. Don’t kill yourself for another person, esp. if they are your boss.
べんきょうしなければならない 